AN HONOURABLE RETIREMENT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13946, 4 July 1907, Page 6

AN HONOURABLE RETIREMENT.

To the Otfigo University graduation ceremony which tulles place to-monw attaches a special interest from the fact that it will mark, we presume, the filial public appearance at such a function, iu active professorial capacity at least, of one of the most distinguished heads of the teaching staff of the institution named. >> The circumstances attending the retirement of Professor Sale are generally understood, and we need hardly explain why after thirtysix years' service he is laying down the onerous burden of professorial undertakings which he has sustained so long. Tile folieity of the earliest appointments to the professorial staff of Otago University lias been frequently alluded to, aiul it has been to the outstanding advantage of the institution in question as well as to th,it of the whole community that the selection of those on whom above all depended the influence and standing of the University should have been as fortunate as it 'was. It may lie that in commercial and technical colleges change and progression are above all the essentials to the standard of efficiency demanded, but just as there is about the title of university a fine suggestion of stability and dignity, so we hope the day will never come when such a community as this I will deem itself altogether superior to I the perhaps conservative cpnception of

a University as a sent of learning, and not of learning only but of culture, an abode of grey-walled solemnity, a little off the main thoroughfare of hustle and bustle, around which traditions and customs may cluster as the years go by. Tiie traditions of Oxford and Cambridge are English academic glories —no less. In new countries curious tendencies are to be observed. There is the tendency to pull down with the one hand and try to build up much the same thing in a disguised form with the other; to he utilitarian in an educational system to the uttermost, and to thrust some of the arts, as it were, down the throats of the people irnd to be surprised at their lack of appetite or complacent) at ail imaginary growing national cultivation of mind. True culture, which implies a true appreciation and knowledge of what is excellent and exquisite in workmanship, whether in literature or any other branch of art, rests on education in and study of these things, and thefact is worth remembering. However, to keep to our subject, Professor Sale will have as consolation for the fact that weight of years with its customary disadvantages has fallen to his lot, the reflection that his name is indelibly associated with the history of Otago University in ' its most critical years. He has seen that University grow to its present position, a position of high honour among the educational institutions of the colony and a position in keeping with the reputation of this city as an educational centre, to which it has, of course, largely contributed. For over a generation the studious young men of the community—many citizens they have included Vr'ho once were young' but whoso memory of Latin verbs is now decidedly cloudy—have sat at the feet of the Professor of Classics at Otago University, and have, in' a spirit of appropriate'humility under the guidance of a ripe scholar, a. successful teacher, and an enthusiast in his subject, made shorter or longer excursions into the fascinating field of Latin and Greek literature, and learned to know, mo:6 than -by name only, Horace, Cicero, Tacitus, irnd tW records of the Homeric age. The individuality of Professor Sale lias been so marked that his relinquishment of the chair that he has occupied so long will be peculiarly felt at the University. It would hardly be said correctly of him as; if memory serves, Addison said of Cowley, that " he more had pleased us had he pleased us less," for Professor Sale, with his strong personality, had as an educationist little sympathy with the student who approached the classics in a flippant or half-hearted spirit, obviously determined to learn just as little as would enable him to pass big examinations. Ho set and sustained a. high standard both as regarded himself and as regarded others. Professor Sale's influence on the intellectual life of the community,' we can assuredly say, has been large, though such an influence can never be. measured, and we trust that while ho enjoys a well-earned rest lifter his lahoilrs the benefit of his judgment and valuable experience in matters academic will yet be long retained to this city and its University.