THE UNIVERSITY COUNCIL.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18052, 28 September 1920, Page 2

THE UNIVERSITY COUNCIL.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —Once upon a, time a man was accused of speaking disrespectfully of the equatornow it appears thdt there is a new commandment: "Thou shalt not speak disparagingly of the Court of Convocation." Such I gather is the implication of the letter signed "Manners" in your issue of Monday for the writer accuses mo of having spoken without due courtesy of that prominent bodv ■Woll Mr "Maimers" be eo good as to indicate' the precise breach of manners of which lie holds mo guilty? I disliko newspaper controversy, and would not have taken any notice of this letter had it not been that a similar charge had been levelled at me by a correspondent of your evening contemporary. And so I re-read my few remarks printed in your issue of lost week, to which "Manners" alludes, in order to ascertain what my crime has been. May I ask you to allow me to quote from your report? Dr Benham asked by what authority tho body of which Dr Moore was secretary purported to represent the Court of Convocation, consisting of graduates scattered all over the dominion. Had it taken any steps to communicate with these?' That is all that is reported. I leave others to detect any discourtesy in it. I am not sure that I used tho precise words here reported, no doubt your reporter has condensed my remarks; but the gist of my remarks is correctly stated. I wished to ascertain whether the court, which consists of about 2000 members, had been summoned in tho usual manner, and whether the relatively email body of graduates, on whoso behalf Dr Moore wes writing, did represent tho views of tho whole body. I made no comment on tho subject of Dr Moore's letter. Although quite a number of letters have appeared from time to time in your columns making a variety of uncomplimentary statements about the University Council, no member of thai I body has resented them in public. Yet on the first occasion on which any member of the council has referred to the proceedings of the court, in what seems to me quite harmless terms, he is pilloried by a pseudonymous writer, who is presumably a member of the court. It almost seems as if one might define the court as a "body wiffr a very thin skin."—l am, etc., W. B. Benham. Tho Univ-ercity, September 27.