MATHEMATICAL PROFESSORSHIP AT AUCKLAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 9400, 5 January 1894, Page 6

MATHEMATICAL PROFESSORSHIP AT AUCKLAND.

— ——♦ ■ 3 The Academy publishes an article warning intending candidates for the above professorship, and acquainting them with the r circumstances under which the post has } been declared vacant. On the face of the ' facts as they are disclosed by the Academy, " the warning (says the Home News) seems 3 necessary. Mr. W. S. Aldis,who accepted } the Auckland chair in 1883, on the usual 1 understanding that the appointment was to last as long as he fulfilled his duties satis- ' factorily, was firsb informed in May last, , through a newspaper paragraph, of the : decision of the College Council to dismiss him. The decision was arrived at at a I meeting to which he was nob summoned. ■ . And it was nob until a month later that he ' received an official notification that his 1 services were no longer required. In 1 August the chairman of the Council, by whose casting vote the decision to dismiss ' Air. Aldis was arrived at, publicly asserted I that the professor was dismissed "for gross neglect of duty." In October the Council ' made a ref/ort to the Minister of Education, ' and of thin a summary has alone been published. Without entering into the details of the dispute, it would certainly seem that Mr. Aldis has been subjected to unnecessary ' indignity, and the fact that he has had no fair opportunity of defending himself discloses a | system which is decidedly un-English. Dr. E. A. Abbott, in whom Professor Aldis has . found a powerful champion, has set forth in print a plain statement of the facts, and ' b the Academy seems justified in maintaining that " University men of position should I decline all requests made to them by the Auckland Council to aid in the selection of professors for Mew Zealand, until the publication of a full explanation of the treatI ment to which Professor Aldis has been I subjected is given." It is noteworthy that 5 when the Council applied to the New Zealand Minister of Education for bhesarvices of > the Agent-General in London in selecting a f new professor, the request was refused. Our London correspondent writes :—The - committee appointed by the Council of the ■ University College, Auckland, for the ' selection of a professor of Mathematics in ■ the room of Prof. Aldis, namely Bishop i Selwyn, Sir Walter Buller, and Mr R. ' Mackenzie of Edinburgh, consider that I they have been placed in a somewab ins viduous position by the action of the ) authorities concerned. It appears that the * Registrar of the University in the first > place, promised to each of these gentlemen ) by direction of the Council a printed statei menb of their casea justification in fact of J their action in dismissing Professor Aldis ; 1 and immediately afterwards Dr. E. A. - Abbott, on behalf of Professor Aldis, sub- - mitred bo them a counter-statement in print ' accompanied by a letter challenging the ' accuracy of the Council's sbabemenb, and fc protesting against "men of honour and I ability" co-operating with a Council of ■ Education that had acted in the manner i complained of. Thus the committee, in- ) stead of being allowed to act merely in an * administrative capacity in the selection of - the best possible man available for the post - which, rightly or wrongly, has become I vacant, were by the actions of both ' sides being pressed into the unenvi- • able position of judges, whereas in i point of fact they had nothing whatever to do with the merits of the case as between the » Council and Professor Aldis. Oh the one I hand; should they refuse tojacb, as contended ' for by Dr. Abbott, they are virtually con- » demning the Council on an ex parte state- * ment, and should they act as requested by i the Council, and as their duty to the colony ' seems to require, they are charged with - complicity in what is " dishonourable," so ' that, as the case stands, they are placed •> " between the deep sea and — well, never s mind what! I believe that the three Commissioners named above had, after due de- * liberation, agreed on the course they » deemed it right to adopb, when the matter « was practically taken oub of their hands » by a telegram from the Government to the J Agent-General, requesting bhab officer bo t delay all action for the present. The first » telegram from the Government on the sub- » jecb contained the instruction " Inform » Bishop Selwyn," so the Commissioners feel 3 themselves bound by the subsequent one. J Bub in any case the business could aob pro- * ceed withoub bhe co-operation of the Agent--5 General, who had, in the firsb instance, ■ been instructed to pay for advertising, * etc. There is also another point of some J importance. The terms of appointment, as telegraphed to the Agent-General, are at J variance with those authorised by the * Council, the effeot being bo make the Prof feasor's stipend £200 a year less, and the b passage money £100 instead of £150. The 1 case of Professor Aldis is attracting some r attention in this country, and the Pall Mall • Gazette of 21st November, contained a very • bitter attack oh the Council, based, as is f I Gazette admitted, on Dr. Abbott's very bitter attack on the Council, based, as is frankly admitted, on Dr. Abbott's bror chore.