The Otago Daily Times. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 5, 1925. DEGREES IN DIVINITY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19550, 5 August 1925, Page 6

The Otago Daily Times. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 5, 1925. DEGREES IN DIVINITY.

The "University Commission will, among other things, be required to digest the evidence that has been presented to it in favour of tho bestowal upon the University of New 'Zealand of power to confer degrees in theology. Tho representations that were made at Dunedin on the subject a fortnight ago have been supported in views expressed before the commission this week at Wellington. It is an old story, that of the endeavour to have theology included among the subjects in which the university confers degrees. The question was more actively discussed fifteen or twenty years ago than it has been in later years. Possibly tho Senate grew somewhat weary of fruitlessly recommending tho proposal to the favourable consideration (tf Parliament. Certainly it did its best to secure the legislative sanction necessary to admit of tho recognition of divinity as a subject in which degrees might be bestowed. Looking back to the days of Sir Maurice O’Rorke’s championship of tho proposal, wc find that the Government declined to submit to Parliament a Bill dealing with the matter on tho ground that it paw no reason to depart from its definite conclusion, formed some years earlier, that tho legislation asked for was undesirable. Moreover, it pointed to the division of opinion on tho subject in tho Senate itself. But the. grounds for this attitude never appeared really logical or convincing, and with the passage of time a more liberal and open-minded view of the position should bo possible. Tho arguments submitted to the University Commission at Dunedin in support of tho addition of theology to the subjects in which the New Zealand University confers degrees were of » comprehensive kind. They made clear once again tho strength of the case that is presented in advocacy of the proposal. Tho Otago deputation could claim to represent all tho churches in the dominion, with one exception, that have colleges for instruction in educational subjects. The exception is apparently not interested in the question. Tho deputation made it plain that it would bo content to have the university merely conducting examinations in theology and bestowing degrees leaying the course of instruction for the various denominational bodies to provide. It was hard, observed one of tho speakers, that those students who were interested in theology and had pursued their studies in that subject should bo able to obtain no recognition of their scholarship from their own university. It is an important argument in the case that is thus presented, and one of which the force is not diminished when other considerations are taken into account. There is surely no need in these days seriously to consider the notion that a modern university cannot with propriety undertake examinations and bestow hallmarks in theology. That view is inconsistent with experience, and precedent tells in favour of the establishment of the degree. Possibly some antagonism to the proposal may be found .to have its origin in a predilection, very laudable in itself, for undenominational education. But it is necessary to emphasise the point that support of tho proposal to add divinity to the subjects in which the university confers degrees is perfectly consistent with opposition to anything that is likely to interfere with the undenominational character of our educational system. The conception of theology as a science or branch of knowledge capable of being studied and made the subject of examination unwarped by emotional prepossession is perfectly reasonable. And if theology offers a desirable field for study, as of course it does, it is reasonable to urge that an injustice is done to New Zealand students in denying them an opportunity of securing in their own country a distinction, represented by a degree in this subject, which at present they must dispense with unless they are prepared ro seek it in some other part of tho Empire or of the world. Not unreasonably is it urged that there must bo something defective in a system which sends the most talented students for the ministry in New Zealand to the universities of other countries in order t.( prosecute their studies and obtain academic honours in divinity. Misconception or apprehension as to what ■would be involved in a sanction of the proposal to give the New Zealand University power to confer degrees in theology should bo dissipated by the reminder that it is the function of the university as an organising body to test knowledge, not to test belief, and to ascertain the student’s capacity and attainments, not to make inquiry concerning lis personal convictions. A pronouncement on this question on the part of the members of the University Commission will be anticipated with interest.

live of such a progressive growth of opinion in favour of amalgamation as to furnish an exceedingly healthy prospect of success when the proposal is again put to the test. On the occasion of the first poll there was a very pronounced decision in favour of the maintenance by the borough of its independent identity. The majority against amalgamation on that occasion was 553. But when a second poll was taken on the subject a few years later this majority was reduced to 179, and on the occasion of the third poll, five years ago, it had shrunk to the insignificant figure of 11 votes. The sentiment in favour of amalgamation has, it will be seen, grown “by leaps and bounds.” Nor is this surprising. For the weight of argument must be regarded by dispassionate minds as distinctly on the side of a movement to complete the incorporation of a Greater Dunedin by the merging with the city of the one suburb that has so far obstinately excluded itself from the family circle. The grounds upon which opposition to amalgamation has been expressed in the past are not of a class that is consistent with the observance of a broad civic outlook. They are suggestive rather of the view that the whole question is one that should be settled upon the narrow consideration whether a resident might or might not be subjected to the imposition of a slightly higher rate as a citizen of Dunedin than os a burgess of St. Kilda. But, if the consideration of direct advantage to the resident is to bo that upon which the issue of amalgamation is to be decided, the people of St. Kilda might usefully be guided by the experience of the residents in the other suburban districts that have sunk their municipal identity through inclusion in the city, and they may be interested to learn of the testimony of Sir John Roberts, at the diamond jubilee Celebrations this week, at which, speaking as a resident in Roslyn, he said that amalgamation with the city had been of undoubted benefit to that suburb. There is just cause for pride in the citizenship of Dunedin, with its honourable traditions, its fine record of achievement, its high reputation, and its prospects of a future of which the glory shall exceed that of the past; and there has been a strange perverseness on the part of the people of St. Kilda in their refusal to become participants in the credit and renown which the city pcLsesscs. It is difficult to believe that, when the opportunity is once more offered to them, thejf will not reverse the judgments they have previously expressed on the sunalgamation issue.