UNIVERSITY CHAIRS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15975, 21 July 1915, Page 6

UNIVERSITY CHAIRS.

At a very partially attended meeting of the Auckland University College Council it has been decided to establish forthwith a Chair of History and Economics, and to definitely fill the position without inviting applications by advertisement. An amendment that the matter be referred back to the committee previously set up was lost upon the casting vote of the acting-chairman, ten members being present out of the fourteen who constitute the full Council. The public will generally agree that the eminent desirability of inviting applications for such an important appointment was strangely i\erlookol during the discussion, the supporters of the amendment being apparently more concerned with the financial problem involved than wit j the broad principle of competitive selection. It is tpute ttuc that vacant, professorships have' occasionally bean filled in the past, at the Auckland and other university colleges, without inviting applications, but a good rule has certainly been more honoured in the observance than in the breach. Although hitherto strangely ignored by our university authorities History must be classed with the most vital of subjects and as one which calls for the most comprehensive, and sympathetic treatment. Every reason which urges flic throwing open to fair and acceptable competition of any and every professorship applies with added weight to a Chair of History and Economics. The. best possible appointment may have been made, but how does the Council and the public know this when no other candidatures were permitted! There are many New Zealand-born graduates of the New Zealand University and not a few whose qualifications would entitle them to very careful consideration if their services were offered to the Council, which would be in any case the final and decisive arbiter, only restrained in its judgment by having to justify choice. However well intentioned a governing body may be, avoidance of the obviously correct method of filling important chairs cannot lead to any better appointment than would be -made after inviting applications, while such avoidance tends towards the cliqueism which can have no other end than to bring university government into disrepute. It would be well if the invitation by advertisement of applications for all professorial appointments were made compulsory upon the university authorities. This could not possibly do any harm, for any desirable conditions could be made and choice would always lie with the university authorities ; it would have the incalculable advantage not only of affording the widest possible range of selection and of affording equal opportunity to all candidates, but also of preventing the doubt and dissatisfaction that always attaches in the public mind to hole-and-corner appointments.