OPENING OF THE CANTERBURY COLLEGE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 351, 8 June 1877, Page 2

OPENING OF THE CANTERBURY COLLEGE.

[By Electric Telegraph. ] Christchurch. June 7. The Canterbury College was opened by the Governor this afternoon, and addresses were read by the Chairman of the Board of Governors and Professor Cook. The Governor, in reply, spoke at some length on education generally. There were a large number of ladies and gentlemen present. After the opening ceremonial, the Governor had luncheon with the Board of Governors. The address to the Governor, read by the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Canterbury College, at the opening ceremonial to-day, gave a sketch of the establishment and progress of the college, and then went 011 to say that t!:e Board has taken steps to establish a School of Agriculture in connection with a model farm, which it is hoped will be in full operation in a few months. A building for a High School for girls, under the control of a Board, is now in course of erection. It will shortly be completed and in all probability be open in September next. The Board is now endeavoring .to make arrangements for the establishment of a School of Mines as a department of the College. At the present time there are on the teaching stafl of the college four Professors and three lecturers, giving instruction in classics and English literature, in mathematics and natural philosophy, in chemistry and in physics, in geology, in modern languages, in biology, in jurisprudence, and cognate subjects. The number of students attending classes this term is 78 ; of these, 16 have matriculated in the University of New Zealand, to which this college is affiliated. The address concluded by expressing gratification at the presence of the Governor, thus aiding the good cause of education. His Excellency replied in a very eloquent speech, thanking the Board of Governors for the opportunity thus 1 afforded him of associating his name with 1 the cause of higher education in the Colony, and expressing his conviction tliat the college, when completed, would be of infinite service, not only to the city and district in which it was situate, but also to the Colony as a whole. He combatted the notion that to establish such a college was premature. It was not alone for the present but for the future that they had to provide. Anyone looking to the marvellous progress made during the past twenty-five years could not but see that, ■ so far from being premature, institutions of. the character of Canterbury College were a positive niecessity. In conclusion, he begged most heartily to congratulate the city on possessing so excellent an institution in its midst.