VICTORIA COLLEGE.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 8187, 31 July 1912, Page 4

VICTORIA COLLEGE.

ME CHARLES 'WILSON IN EEPLY TO PKOFE33OE PICKEN. (To tho Editor “N.Z. Times.") Sir.—l should like to make a few remarks in reiereuce to a letter signed D. K. Pickon, which appeared in the ’‘Times on ilon* day lust, and to which “my attention ha* bcen directed by a graduate oi tho university." Alas, even I do not read my ‘‘Times’’ with that regularity which so estimablo a publication deserves, but lime tho professor, I have fortunately a “graduate" friend who kindly' repairs my omissions. Professor Picken is no doubt an admirable teacher of mathematics, but ho appeal's to be possessed of some Quito extraordinary fend Certainly most erroneous notions concerning myself, 'yhatr ever the person signing himself “Liber may think and write as to the influence which English and Scottish university luo (X am not aware that Andrew Lang was ever at a New Zealand university college) may exercise upon literary talent, developed or undeveloped, “Liber" himself, in tho column ho edits, and under the signature he adopts, would, I have no doubt, uo Quite able to defends always provided ho considered the attack worthy of serious attention, in this instance he is, apparently, a sort of Dr Jekyll. But, I, the chairman of the Victoria College Council, am, so Professor Picken thinks, to bo ranked as Mr. Hyde, quite a shocking, Indeed a monstrously malignant person, a sort pi oiflcial Raw Hoad and Bloody Bones, only too eager and anxious to make the most ferocious attacks upon the professors of Victoria College, more especially those who are members of tho University Reform Association. Thus the professor. “This is only tho latest, although perhaps tho most envenomed of a scries of attacks ho, ‘the present chairman of the Victoria College Council/ has made, in various places, upon those who have keen contending for reform of the university system of Now Zealand." I rub my eyes to make sure I am not dreaming. I look lu, the glass, and ask myself “Am I really such a dreadful objectionable verson such a wantonly cruel persecutor of tho dear professorial Innocents as the professor in his positively puerile petulance would fain Paint n]e ? w ~ ~ , Am I really a' “Mr Hyde f Well, aU I can say is that I was a teacher in a Wellington primary school somewhere about thirty years ago; that alter that I wa s an assistant master at tho Wanganui Collegiate School; that I can still meet my old pupils, some of them occupying the highest and most honourabe positions in commercial and professional life, with the surety of a warm greeting. I have lived in this city now for over twenty years, and am quite willing to leave my character to the estimation of those who have known mo during that period. The professor accuses me of making “environed attacks" upon the University Reform Association, and later on, in his letter—surely the most childish, most foolish production over emanating from a gentleman of presumable sanity—insinuates that I am an enemy to university education. 4 Why, sir, X woe a member of tho Parliament which passed tho Act under which the Victoria College was founded; I am an original member of the I have sat on that council for about thirteen years, month alter month, year after year; I have, with my colleagues, given unsparingly, anstintingly of my spare time, and of eucn small ability aa I may possess, to help to build up Victoria College to what It is to-day. And to-day, forsooth, I am to be painted aa an enemy to tho college. Well, well, even a ‘ Mr Hyde" may not be quite so black as he is painted especially when an unreasonably wrathful professor applies the blacking brush. .. , . ' I have never said one word in public,, or written a single line in any public print, belittling the programme, or platform, or policy, or whatever it may be called, of this precious University Reform tion, whose members—pace the usually amiable, but temporarily enraged Professor Picken —have been the object of envenomed attacks by me. On the contrary, I have always held the opinion, and expressed the same before a Parliamentary Committee, that roiorm of the whole system of education—primary right up to tho university—was highly desirable. As to how I would have the University—and especially Victoria College—reformed I have not time to say to-day. Later on, should Professor Picken force me . to deal withtills subject, I may have something to say which may interest him in no small degree. Meanwhile; however, I will .admit that I am, and shall always continue to be, a most determined opponent of hny attempt, from whatever quarter tt may emanate, to detract in any way from what I may call the purely democratic character of this particular university college. Bat because 1 may hold those views—and not oven a professorial mandarin shall deny me liberty of thought and speech—it is surely unfair to hurl against mo th© unmeritunfair to hurl against me the unmerited ed charge—not tjhe mildness of the adjective unmerited as compared with tho professorial and hysterical “envenomed"—that X am not anxious to further the real interests of the college. Wo may not all agree as to methods, and as to the importance of tho part' any individual may play in connection with the institution, but for goodness sake, for the sake of common sense and decency, and all that is sweetly reasonable, do not let us mix up questions of literary appreciation and criticism with th© problem of university control. Professor Picken 6 sneer, or jibe, or jeer at the possible or probable attitude of myself when applying to the public or to the Government for support for tho college Is quite ungenerously unfair. If his “graduate friend who “directed" his attention to “Liber’s" remarks on the late Andrew Lang, has. any more time to spare, ha might very well. In fairness to myself, dig up from the “Times" a statement I made to the ex-Minlster of Education. Mr Han an. as to the financial position of tho college. If the graduate friend, or th© professor himself, can place the position more fairly, explicitly and honestly before the Government, let either of them come with us when, very shortly, the council will wait upon tho present Minister for EduNow, to come back to that dreadful person, “Libor," whose references to Andrew Lang’s university career have been so curiously—l hope not deliberately—misconstrued by Professor Picken into . a elangwhanging of tho profeseorlalfraternity all over the world, from China to Peru, from Glasgow to tho Olay Patch. “Liber" can answer for hia own sins, but unless I am much mistaken, that gentleman has been vastly amused—for, unlike Profeseor Pioken, h© has, I believe, some sense of humor—at the very idea that the professor should ever have imagined that the humble, retiring scribe ever had a New Zealand professor In his mind’fl eye. Really, Professor Picken takes himself quit© too seriously. ... Finally, I greet with high satisfaction, not unalloyed by amusement, the naive declaration of Professor Picken that “none of my colleagues is Implicated in this statement." “Implicated" is. as Polonius would have said, “good. Why, my good professor, how could you imagine that Victoria College could contain two persons capable of inditing such a childish and silly epistle as that to which—thanks to tho “direction" of your graduate friend—you were pleased to put your name the other day? Tut, tut, man, “quit, quit for shame," these childish railings at a man who only means well and tries his honest best to help on the college and its work. Forget the Dr Jekyll “Liber." and, after this letter, bring yourself, in all charity, to believe that the -Wilsonian “Mr Hyde” is not such a desperate ruffian after all.— I am. etc., CHARLES WILSON, (Chairman Victoria College Council). Mount street, Wellington, July 30th. (“Liber’s” reference to which Professor Picken took exception was as follows: One of the most prolific, and certainly One of the most versatile of British authors, has passed away in the person of Andrew Lang. “Dr" Andrew Lang. 1 see the newp papers entitle him. bm his ’Varsity, honor ary degrees to me spells and means noth ing. To the great public of ordinary folk, outside the universities, Andrew Lane is plain Andrew Lanp. whose re. putation needs no pinchbeck '"Varsity” label, far more frequently attached to an author out of the desire of a lot of pedantic professors to pain reflect ed credit from an outsider’s talents—tal ents which Tio university could practically foster—than out of any real regard for th* man's natural ability. Andrew Lang loved and revered St. Andrews, but it was not at St Andrews, or even at Oxford, that he gained that many-sided, variously colour-

ed knowledge of life and literature which he put to such good purpose in his writings. Of all tho cant in this cant-rldden world, the “Varsity” cant is surely tho worst. You will find, a lot of conceited pedants and prigs, sublimated secondary schoolmasters, mere glorified ushers, waxing eloquent upon what the “ ’Varsities” do for literature, whilst they themselves can with difficulty write ten lines of decent English. But Lang was never tainted with this cant. His love for St. Andrews and Oxford was not based upon what he learnt at those two ancient seats of learning. It was a matter of social sentiment, a memory of men, not of professors and lectures, just as it was with Thackery, and Fitzgerald, and Tennyson. Indeed, all through his literary life Lang was constantly poking fun at the professor type, the man whose colossal ignorance of the world outside tho lecture room doors is only paralleled. In many cases, by an unbounded personal conceit.]