THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, MARCH 12, 1926. THE NEW ARTS BUILDING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19274, 12 March 1926, Page 10

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, MARCH 12, 1926. THE NEW ARTS BUILDING.

The official opening of the. Arts Building of the University College is a milestone in Auckland's educational progress. It marks the beginning of an era in which the higher education of this university district has a local habitation befitting its importance. For the first time in the history of the college, a building wholly designed and erected for its work was available when this academic year began. Hitherto that work has been done under disabilities occasioned by premises more or less unsuitable. That good work was done must be acknowledged with gratitude to the men who taught in their various spheres; the record of scholastic successes achieved in past years bears convincing witness to their enthusiasm. Doubtless they chafed under the handicap of inadequate housing and longed for facilities denied them, but they knew that, from time immemorial, the teacher counted for more than the classroom, and plodded on. The way to this dignifying of labour such as theirs has been incredibly long. The college was founded in 1882, and in the intervening forty-four years it has been housed in a medley of buildings, some of them passing strange for their scholastic use. In early days classes were scattered in rooms here and there. When the old Parliament buildings ' were made available through their vacation by Government departments, there were changes and additions to render them somewhat tolerable for this new use. A city improvement scheme afterwards turned th§ college out to seek a new home, and a public hall was altered and built about to accommodate science lecture-rooms and laboratories, while the more general work of the institution was given a roof in an abandoned Grammar School. A settlement of the vexed question of a permanent site was eventually reached, with the result now signalised by the Arts-Building's formal opening. It is doubtful whether university education anywhere has had so remarkable an experience in quest of lodgings. That ft has at length found a settled home is cause for congratulation. There have been differences of opinion in the city as to the wisdom of the particular policy now brought to fruition; but disputation about that may reasonably give place to-day to a wish that, in its new quarters, the college may flourish. It has an opportunity not heretofore enjoyed. There is a gain in the fact that a building of imposing character, on an eminence in the eyes of all the city and its visitors, now houses the general activities of university education. The building itself will attract interest in the purpose it is erected to serve. Too much may be made of the hope that its appeal in this way will elicit large monetary support from citizens. In its less ornate settings the college received some notable gifts: they were not withheld because of the absence of opportunity then to make full use of them. They were made to the cause of education, and similar gift's in the days to come will be similarly prompted. It is in an enlarged scope for university work that the advantage of the new edifice will be most surely and directly felt. No pains have been spared to design and equip it for that purpose. Although much excellent work -was done in less adequate accommodation, it was done in spite of the handicap imposed. It may be expected that, this, handicap removed, still better work will be done. Again a caveat, may be entered. Fine lecture-rooms do not make good lecturers and enthusiastic students. Nevertheless, a stimulus to scholastic effort is provided by a befitting and convenient environment, and the effect of this may be anticipated. In the spacious quarters provided for the students' social life there is a notable advance. To bewail the absence of a college spirit has become a habit in the speech of the college teaching staff and its students. Often this lack has been made the subject of unfavourable comparison with the Southern colleges. It will not be wholly removed until residential facilities are provided and the activities of the college centre in a large and vigorous nucleus of whole-time students. Yet, failing that very desirable development, much may be expected from the provision now made for intercourse beyond the limited fellowship of the lecture rooms arid student societies. Without that freer intercourse, esprit de corps is bound to languish; with it, there should develop a social sympathy contributory both to the present efficiency of the college and the interest it will attract from succeeding generations prolonging the friendships formed in this adolescent experience. This opportunity of establishing the college in the regard of the community counts for much in appraising the task now brought to completion. That task does not mark the end of all. As the population of this university district increases there will be others set. Other milestones in higher education's progress lie still in front. In the meantime, this achievement is very notable and full of promise.