COLLEGE SITES.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4319, 30 March 1901, Page 7

COLLEGE SITES.

DECISIONS BY THE CITY COUNCIL. Variou.i mailers connected with \Vof. lingjo.i College and A'ietori-i College came before the City Council last night, i The following letter was received from Mr A. do B. Brandonl see from the papers that a Councillor proposes to ask the City .Council to petition Parliament to ‘ provide a site for Victoria College our of the six ;y-thrcc acres of the Wellington College site.’ As a citizen and as chairman of the Board Governors, I venture to express my regret that after tho title of the Wellington. College to tho reserve in question has been completely upheld by the highest Court in the colony, it .should come from one who has been elected by the citizens to conserve their rights, to suggest a deliberate confiscation of part of tho endowment of the most successful and the most useful scholastic institution in the city of AVelHngton, if not in tho colony. Not only was tho actual title -of tho-Wellington College to the land upheld, but a very strong expression of opinion was given by some of the Judges to the- effect that the Legislature ■ intended th e reserve for the Wellington College and the Wellington College only, unaffected by any condition or trust in relation. ' to affiliation to the Now Zealand , Univer. sity. The continued assailing of the Wellington College ‘reserve renders it very difficult, if not impossible, for the Board of Governors to arrange their plans' for the necessary ■ extension of liuildings, it being obvious that spoliativc propositions affect tho financial credit of an institution. I trust that tho Wellington City Council will not be party to any proceeding by which one of the ornaments of tho town will bo el. bowed ’■out- of existence.”. ■ Tho City -Reserves Committee made tho following rep-orh:—“ The comiiiitteo heg to report that, as instructed by the Connell, they have’considered the letter from Mr O, -Pharazyn with respect to a site for Victoria College, and, iu company with Mr Pha-razyn, have paid a visit to the localities mentioned iu tho letter. With a view‘of giving'further consideration to The matter, they recommend that the’following information ho obtained— (j) The cost of. procuring the ten acres south of the' Botanical Gardens ; (2) the oosfc; of of a road right through from Sydney street to connect with the: road at'the Keiburno estate(3) the cost, -of constructing a dam for an artificial lake; (4) an estimate of tho Value of Eelburno Park ; and (5) the cost of constructing tho pro. posed recreation ground at Sydney street. With respect to tho letter from the registrar of ’ the , Victoria College, the committeeirecommend that (ho matter bo considered! by the Council, as it involves a question of policy.”

After discussion, it was decided,- on the casting vote of the 'Mayor, that th (! City Council could not see its way to accede to Mr Pharazyn’s x>roposal;. and the report was amended' accordingly. Councillor Tolhurst- moved, “ That tho Council petition the General Assembly to provid'd a site for Victoria College out- of’the sixty-three acres of the Wellington College site.” He said that the judgment of the '£purt of Appeal did not deal with the whole of the Wellington College site. His object- ’was to prevent any more of the reserves—and especially the Town Belt—from being taken from the city. Councillor Evans seconded the motion Tiro forma. He said he would like to know what the. City Council had to do with Victoria College. Did Councillor Tolhurst wish the City Council to com. bine its forces with those of. the. Government to coin-pel the Victoria College buildings' to be established on the Wellington College reserve? Councillor Luko saicFyh© was sorry that Councillor Tolhurst, who . was brought up at Wellington College, should want to pub his hands on its reserve. Councillors declined to agree to a. postponement- of the motion, which was rejected. Its only supporter was- the mover.