LEST WE FORGET.

NZ Truth, Issue 245, 5 March 1910, Page 4

LEST WE FORGET.

• So seldom do we find a New Zealandet speaking disparagingly, of .'anybody or anything directly or inilirectly connected with Maoriland, tbat it is quite refreshing to find a returned Dominioniander who proves an exception to the rule. How much greater must be the weight attachable to any strictures emanating from such a high authority as the learned Chief Justice. "Loot ! you may put this m," said Sir' Kobert Stout to a representative of the "Otago Daily Times," "say that while I was m Britain 1 was present at capping ceremonies at Edinburgh, Manchester, and Cambridge, and I saw nothing like the disorderly scenes we have at capping ceremonies m New Zealand." Now, as a matter of fact, the "disorderly scenes" to which the lA'J. refers are but a mild imitation of the admittedly senseless customs followed by, the older Universities, and- are neithes better nor worse than the scenes witnessed at commemoration ceremonies of the Universities of Sydney and Melbourne. Has Sir Robert never 'read "Charles O'Mailey," or has he forgotten the incident of the last night ■at Trinity College, Dublin, when the students toasted the imprisoned Bursar ? : "Here's to the graces, . .;•; Law, Physics, Divinity,. , i j And here's to the jolly, old : ! : '"Bursar of Trinity !",*: For heaven's sake, don't let us become more Pharisaical than we. aife. Let our youthful section have some fun. Besides, is it m the best of taste for the Chancellor of the University to .: so decry the conduct of his own alumni ? Call to mind** W. S. Gilbert's lines:'— ••« . . . who praises "With enthusiastic, tone, "All centuries but this "And every country but his own,— " "I've got him on the list, "And he. never would be missed."