UNIVERSITY APPOINTMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23339, 6 May 1939, Page 17

UNIVERSITY APPOINTMENTS

Sir, —As a member of the College Council, by virtue of my position as chairman of the Professorial Board, and, consequently, as an official of the college with the interests of the staff constantly in mind, I very much regret the letters which have recently appeared in the Herald, notably two from the Rev. P. Gladstone Hughes, relating to appointments in the departments of zoology and botany. Mr. Hughes has mentioned important qualifications for professorships, but there are other considerations, whether of qualifications or of other circumstances, relating to the appointments in question, of which Mr. Hughes, and those nameless numbers who are said to be in support of his view, must necessarily be entirely ignorant. As chairman of the Professorial Board, I am glad to be able to add my assurances to those of the president, tha't the College Council is giving full and just consideration to what is recognised by all as a difficult problem. Comments based'on inadequate information, and determined by partisan judgment, can only do harm to the college —whose interests Mr. Hughes assures us he has at heart —and to all concerned. W. A. Sewell.