THE UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO.

Otago Witness, Issue 1005, 4 March 1871, Page 1

THE UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO.

It is with great satisfaction that we find ourselves in a position to announce that the University of Otago will he opened in the month of June next At a meeting of the Council of the University, a report of which appears elsewhere in our present issue, the acceptance of the posts to whioh they had been elected by the Professors of Classics and Mathematics was officially made known. In conveying this information Mr Auld informed the Council that these gentlemen — Messrs Sale and Shand, and Mr M'Gregor, the Professor of Moral and Mental Philosophy — purposed to sail for Otago in time to arrive here in May. We feel sure that but one sentiment will prevail in this community on the subject of this news. At length a date is definitely fixed when the top stone is to be added to that structure which the originators of this settlement planned. It is not at all probable that when the promoters of the Otago Association decided that their scheme should include a provision for the establishment at some future day of a University at Dunedin, they looked forward to the inauguration of such an institution at so early a date as 1871. The Otago of to-day is something far in advance of what they dreamed of realising in a quarter of a century. The actual result ought to be an encouragement to all of us not to be atraid of aiming too high in a good cause. Simultaneously with the pleasing announcement which has incited these remarks, two other items of information on University matters reach us. The first of these is of a highly satisfactory character. The appointment of Dr Gow Black to the ohair of Natural Science, though it comes later than the others, is probably the moat important of any to a new country like ours. The aid which was somewhat grudgingly accorded by the late Provincial Council has fortunately enabled the Council of the University to make this appoint^ ment in time to secure the arrival of Dr Black within a moderately short time after the formal opening of the University. This is a subject for congratulation. That the number of students at the University will be limited during the earlier yeare of its career is a matter of course* There can, however, be no doubt that the presence of a competent Professor of Natural Soience will be very important as a means of inducing young men to attempt a University course. The Chair of Science will do more than anything else to render the University popular, and we therefore feel great satisfaction in being able to report the fact that it is about to be filled at once by a gentleman who from all accounts will be in every way an acquisition to the colony. The other announcement to which we have alluded is ot a very different character. A Gazette published last Saturday contains the names of the gentlemen who have been appointed members of the Council of the * University of New Zealand.' A list of them will be found in another 1 column. Our readers will note, though not, perhaps, with any surprise, that with a single exception it includes none- of the members of the Council of the Otago University. The professed object of the Act under 1 which these appointments have been made was to give a better status to that institution. Our readers artf , familiar with, the circumstance! iphiofi iaterfwti) to r«pdey thji fegfefetj**

absolutely abortive, so far as its main purpose is concerned. Very tardily — : as if purposely too late — the Government has reversed its decision as to the propriety of including ministers of religion in the governing body of a University. The common sense of his colleagues, or the earnest remonstrance of the Council of the Otago University, have over - ruled Mr Sewell's prejudices on this subject. Although the Government, even when the opportunity of smoothing over the difficulty which had arisen remained with them, persistently refused to recognise the claims of the late Chancellor of our local institution to a place in the Council of the Colonial University, no sooner had that venerable minister passed from all the discords of this world, than invitations were issued to clergymen of all the more numerous denominations of Christians to take part in the administration of the affairs of the future Colonial University. It is impossible to arrive at any other conclusion on the subject than that the Minister on whom the duty of putting the New Zealand University Act into force devolved, designedly placed himself in a position of antagonism to the governing body of the "Otago University, with the object of frustrating the intentions of the supporters of the measure. Probably had not thej law been imperative as to the| appointment of a Council within six months from the passing of the Act — the object of the first nominations being gamed — no further steps would have been taken.

"We do not knew that there is anything to be regretted in the fact that the future University of New Zealand will be called by the name of the district in which it is located rather than by that of the colony itself. No prospect presents itself at present of any rival institution being inaugurated. Hereafter it will no doubt be found necessary to establish such a seat of learning either in Auckland or elsewhere in the Northern Island. The honourable rivalry which would in such case ensue between the two Universities would promote the welfare of both. We confess that we should be sorry to see the attempt to give the doubttul boon of a * colonial status' to our own University revived. The experiment alreadymadehas opened the eyes of the public to the difficulties which surround the project. The governing" body of such an Institution must be composed of persons resident j within a reasonable distance of the spot in which it is located. How a body of gentlemen drawn from all the chief centres of population in the colony can regulate the affairs of any academical institution we are at a loss to divine. At best they could not be expected to meet but once a year, and whatever their functions, they must inevitably find it necessary to delegate the more important of them to those members of their body who, by proximity to the institution itself, were in a position to fulfil them.