FOUNDATION-STONE LOST.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20840, 6 April 1931, Page 11

FOUNDATION-STONE LOST.

LAID 77 YEARS AGO, UNIVERSITY MYSTERY. MELBOURNE, March Somewhere under the ground in tli9 main quadrangle of the Melbourne University—the oldest portions of these halls of learning—is a foundation-stone. Inscribed on it is the fact that it was "Well and truly laid by the Lieutenant-Governor of the Colony of Victoria, Sir Charles Hotham, on July 3, 1854." But just where it is not known. They had quaint customs in those days. They believed in calling a foundation-stone a foundation-stone, and treating it as such.In other words, the foundation-stone was set in the foundations. In these enlightened days a foundation-stone, pretty with gold lettering, is not allowed to bury itself beneath a mass of masonry." It is made to stand forth in all its glory where it can be best seen—as far from the foun, dations as possible. Not so the _ pioneers. They gathered around a hole in the ground on that July day in 1354. All about them was thick bush and scrub. They had came out from the town of Melbourne in their carriages and their spring drays to witness the be, ginning of the University. Whether Sir Charles Hotham dropped the stone into the hole, or whether he just tapped it with a gold trowel, at the same time uttering the appropriate words, history does not tell. Whatever it was, the good citizens tossed their beaver hats info the air and their good wives waved their tiny parasols. Then they jogged back to Melbourne town in their carriages and spring drays,and workmen filled in the hole. . Now, nobody knows where the founda-tion-stone is. The fact that there is a foundation-stone is set down in the archives, but that is all. Search, diligent and long, has been made for it ever since.. Old men who "mind the time" that they; saw it laid have gone to the University; and assisted learned dons in the search.But. wise though old men are, they have not been able to point out the spot. Some have made guesses and picks have been sunk into the ground; bits of the masonry have been torn up; all sorts of calculations' have been made. But still the foundationstone lies snug in its foundation. One explanation given for the failure of the search is that the memories of old men have not been able to keep pace with the alterations thafc have been made to the university since that July day 77 years ago. And if the plea of the Chancellor, Sir John MacFarland, that the old quadrangle—the nucleus of the University—be never touched, is heeded, the whereabouts of this foundation-stone is likely alv/ays to remain a mystery.