THE Otago Daily Times. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1872.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 3367, 20 November 1872, Page 4

THE Otago Daily Times. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1872.

It 1b quite certain that University matters in New Zealand cannot be allowed to ramaim as tkey are. Although the attempt to settle matters made by Mr O'Rokkk during tbe past session was frustrated by the action of the Legislative Council, we cannot doubt that every year fresh efforts will be made to force on some reorganisation of the institution which passes under the title of the University of New Zealand. It is not a question of Provincial rivalries and jealousies, but a much more serious matter, which the supporters of existing arrangements have upon their hands. It is true, indeed, that the jealousy which Canterbury has always exhibited towards Otago lies at the bottom of the present abnormal condition of the Colonial institution. If we in Otago had not got a University established in our midst, we should never have found one after another of the Canterbury members pleading in defence of so indefensible a notion as an examining body preceding a teaching body ; but then if Otago had not taken the initiative, it is more than probable that New Zealand would not have had a University at all. The real reason of the existence of this wandering star of a University lies in the unconcealed disgust with which our sister Province saw Otago stepping forward to undertake a duty for which Canterbury, or we should rather say Christchurch, conceived herself supereminently qualified. Jfinc UUu lacrymae. In despair at getting a New Zealand University located in the very next Province to that of Otago, and unwilling to see another University placed anywhere else, the Canterbury members have been driven to make themselves ridiculous by advocating the suspension of the New Zealand University like Mahomet's coffin, betwixt heaven and earth—flirting with each Province, but wedding with none.

Hovr long this state of things ia to last, it is hard to say. Evidently a most telling argument against Mr O'Rorkk's very fair proposition was this, that posterity would say we were very fickle, if we did not wait a fewyears after passing the Act of 1870 to see how that Act would work before repealing it. This was indeed the only argument brought forward, and to those who do not know the real state of things it seems at first sight very fair. Remembering, however, how the Act of 1870 was passed, and how it was a compromise only agreed to upon the understanding that the new institution would almost certainly unite itself within six months to the University of Otago, it is hardly honest in those who, like Mr Rolleston, have been actively instrumental in fruatrating the union of the two bodies, to fall back upon such a line of defence. We have no hesitation in saying that had the Act of 1870 been worked in a less high-handed spirit, and had the offers made to Otago been less preposterously unfair, there would be now no need of further legislation, and we should have had our Colonial University at Dunedin. Such a solution, however, was far too easy for these gentlemen. It is better, in their opinion, to have an ignis fatuus glittering about New Zealand, and giving scholarships here and ad eundem degrees there, than to settle down in any one Province —especially if that Province were Otago—and do some of the real work of teaching. As a consequence, they always created some fresh difficulty whenever the claims of the two bodies were almost adjusted, until it became clear that the more the Otago Council yielded, the more would be asked from it, and that there was no desire upon the part of her younger sister for a permanent alliance. We have long ago stated our conviction that the entire blame in those transactions must rest with Mr Tancked and his followers, and that our own Council

would have made a fatal mistake bad they yielded to the pressure put upon them. This being the case, since it is hardly probable that so favourable a conjuncture of affaire will take place again {is in 1870, the next best thing that can happen is to fix the New Zealand University in some one other Province, nay Auckland or Wellington, and divide the Colonial endowment between it and ourselves. For this we must contend in the cause of education, and less than this will never satisfy Otago. If the General Government bring in an Education Bill next year, as they are pledged to do, they may very possibly see their way to getting rid of the present abortion, and creating a new institution as the crown of the system of education which they propose; and no time could be better fitted forsuch a change than that at which the educational institutions of the country were being remodelled. So far as we in Otago are concerned, the question of the best location for the Colonial University is a matter of indifference. We are only interested in it as it at present stands for the same raison that we are interested in all the misappropriations of public money, viz., as citizens seeing their funds wasted. Some fixed rest for the sole of its foot Mr Tancrkd and his peripatetic coadjutors must find; and as soon as they have, found it, they open up a new difficulty. With what justice can anyone support the endowment of a University from purely Colonial funds when there is another University already instituted, with a prior claim, "which is wholly supported by Provincial funds ? It does not require the profundity of a statesman's views to see the manifest absurdity of such a proposal. We drew attention some time ago to the desirability of obtaining a Royal Charter for the University of Otago, and something has, we believe, been done towards obtaining such a Charter. Judging, however, by the similar application from Melbourne some years ago, it appears that it is requisite to show I not merely that the teaching power and standard of attainments required for a degree are up to a certain mark, a very high one, but also that they are so fixed by enactment as to render it almost impossible to lower them. This may prove a difficulty in the way of our obtaining a Royal Charter in Otago, but it is something more than a difficulty in the path of the other institution, since Mr Takoukd's bantling is not troubled with teaching at all, and with very little of a standard. We propose on another occasion to draw attention to the past work of the New Zealand University. It is quite clear that if we have to wait to abolish it until we have had an opportunity of judging of the fruits it has produced, we shall have to wait for ever, because there are no fruits.