VICTORIA COLLEGE.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4311, 21 March 1901, Page 4

VICTORIA COLLEGE.

Not the most bigoted of the enemies of the Victoria College has ever been able to say lhat the institution was embarrassed by the wealth of offering sites. On the contrary, the leading feature of the College’s history is that poverty, in the matter of possible sites, has from the first besot it. Victoria College is not prosperous, because it has mj place whereon to lay a foundation stone. The fact that the College exists in a field, of attenuated opportunities is bad enough. But bad has been made worse by yesterday’s judgment of the Court of Appeal. The legal effect, of that judgment i is (1) that the plaintiff never had any title conveyed by any one who had any right of .conveyance, and (2) that the Governors of Wellington College got the property by Act of Parliament in 1887, without doubt, without reserve, aud without conditions. The effect on the fortunes of Victoria University College is evident at a glance. It is to further thin the attenuated field of opportunities in which the College already finds a scarcity of the breath of life. Were j the Governors of Wellington College so | minded, they could still decide not to j oppose a Bill for helping the University College to a portion, of their site. The facts are that they do not need the whole, and that they hold enough land eminently suitable for both; hut it is clear that no Act of Parliament depriv-

ing the Wellington College for the benefit of the University institution is likely to pass without- the consent of the College Governors. The Governors, who resisted the University tooth and nail, when the question of title appeared doubtful enough to fight, are hardly likely to give way now that they have won the action.

Thus, a, possible site for the Victoria College bas raised into the realm of the unattainable. Not long ago, another possible site vanished with equal completeness. The College had once set its heart on the Mount Cock site, and many friends of university education -.rerc at one with its authorities. But the toga has ceded to arms. To-day the MountCook -site’is in the tenacious possession of the military. Mention has been made, during the protracted battle of the sites, of places like the Museum house, the Ministerial residence in Tinakori road, and seme others not too numerous to mention, They can all be dismissed, with a. contemptuous wave, as absolute-' ly unsuitable. The field of sites is now , ewept clear of all those once thought possible. During the last few days, however, a new one has come to the front, vfa., the Kelburne site. No no could bo better—roomy, health;*, commanding end near. Nothing ought to bo easier than to arrange with the civic authorities, who cannot complete their Kelburne project, to allow the object to bo , changed without lessening the usefulness. and attractiveness of Kelburne Park to the city. The judgment of the Court of Appeal has, in short, put the whole question of the University site into a position from which there is no outlet except by i way of Kelburne Park. On all hands is to be heard commendation, of the suggestion that by arrangement between the civic and University authorities the gully reclamation work should bo completed and a site created for the Victoria College buildings which would ho absolutely the best that could be found for the purpose. An Act of Parliament would doubtless bo necessary to place the arrangement on a sound basis ; but there need bo no difficulty about passing the required measure, if City Councillors, acting in the best interests of the community, will agree not to offer factious opposition, from a. niisitakeu sense of duty or a distorted idea of the purposes for which public reserves were set- aside by the founders of Wellington. The Victoria College Governors are to bo congratulated sup on having done an eminently right and sane thing, in setting up a committee to consult" with the City Council and the Government, with a view to agreeing upon such a site as will secure" to,the College the benefit of Mr Charles Phara’zyn’s generous offer of monetary aid. It would bo a childish thing to “cry for the moon/' or for Mount Cook; it" is the act of men to accept accomplished facts and to aim, at the attainable and practicable. It is to- be hoped that Ministers and Councillors will meet the com. mittee in such a spirit as will assist in the speedy realisation of a long-deferred achievement. '