UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO

Otago Witness, Issue 1005, 4 March 1871, Page 5

UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO

p+.-*o oi"the~ Council of the Unl- . Otago was held in the Education Office on the 22nd ult. There were present His Houour Mr Chapman, Eev. Mr Stuart, Messrs Cargill, Burns, Harris, Keynolds, and Strode. Mr Justice Chapman occupied the chair. The meeting having' been opened with prayer by the Rev. Mr Stuart, the applications for the Professorship of Natural Science were taken into consideration. There were 23 candidates for the chair, 21 being resident in Britain, one in India, and one in Victoria. The list contained the names of several gentlemen of very high scholarship and great ability. The Chairman and other members of the Council having expressed their opinion respecting the relative fitness of the candidates, it was resolved unanimously and heartily that John Gow Black, M.A., D. So. of the University of Edinburgh, and Lecturer on Natural and Physical Soience, be elected to the Professorship of Natural Science in the Otago University. It was resolved that an adjourned meeting of the Counoil should be held on Friday, the 4th prox., to elect a Chancellor in the room of the late Rev. Dr Burns ; and a Committee was appointed to prepare for consideration at the Baid meeting a suitable minute in reference to the death of the late Chancellor.

The Secretary laid on the table a letter from Mr Auld, the Home Agent, intimating the acceptance by Messrs bale and Shand of their appointments to the chairs of Classics and Mathematics respectively. Mr Auld also states in his letter that Profeßsors Sale, Shand, and M'Gregor will leave Britain in time to begin their duties in Dunedin about the end of May. The Correspondence Committee were instructed to advertise widely the proposed opening of the University in June next. It was remitted to the Finance Committee to take all necessary steps for the proper fitting up of the University Building for the use of the Professors and their classes, and for the other purposes of the institution. The Secretary laid on the table a number of valuable volumes presented to the University by their author, ,Dr Lauder Lindsay, of Perth, Scotland. Among these are Dr Lindsay's " Contributions to Natural Science," and a beautifully illustrated and handsomely- bound copy of bis "Contributions toNew Zealand Botany." After disposing of several matters of routine, the meeting was adjourned to Friday, the 4th of March.

From a long list of testimonials from scholars of distinction in the home country, submitted by Dr Gow Black, the successful candidate for the Natural Science Chair, wo select the following :—: — From Sir Alex. Grant, Bart., LL.D., Pruv oipal of the University of Edinburgh. Edinburgh University, 18th September, 1870. To the Counoil of the University of Otago, New Zealand. Gentlemen — In reference to your Resolutions of the 24th November last, I have the honour to recommend to you as a candidate for the Chair of Natural Science in your University, Mr James Gow Black. Master of Arts and Dootor of Science in the University of Edinburgh. The Professors of subjects oognate to the Chair of Natural dcience will have testified to Dr Black's special attainments in these matters. To me he '<t known in a more general way, as discharging very successfully the functions of what the Germans would call the tr'wat docent in connection with the scientific classes of this University, Ab a private teacher, especially I believe in Chemistry and Natural Philosophy, he has been most useful in the city of Edinburgh, and his loss would be felt among us if he were to be removed. But he is fit for higher things. I believe him to be a man of real ability, as well as of remarkable enevgy and teaching power. So far as I can judge, I think that he has a modest manliness of character and a simple reality in his love of science, which well qualify him for a colonial appointment, such •s that now open in your University, in which earnest straightforward work would be expected. . It seems to me that the words which conclude the description of " General Qualifications " In your Resolutions apply exactly to the case of Dr Black, who is a "comparatively young man," and who has oeen eminently "successful in similar, though perhaps humbler, spheres of exertion," than that now opened by you, and who has " given proofs of the possession of such qualities as to lead" competent authorities to the belief "that he would successfully oarry out the objects contemplated " in the University of Otago. I have the honour to be, Gentlemen, your most obedient servant. Alex. Grant, Principal.

From the Rev. Phillip Kellerad, M. A. Cantab., F.R.S,, &a, Profeiaor of Mathematics ia the University of Edinburgh. Huntei'f Qa»y, September 15, 1870. Dr J, G. Blwk rajuwto me to «pre# my

opinion of his qualifications for the Chair of Natural Science in Otago. I have no hesitation ia expressing a very strong opinion in his favour. I have had opportunities of a varied kind of estimating his powers and studying bis oharaoter. He Was a Btudent of mine. Hib position at every stage of his progress in Arts and Science was before me as a Professor connected with both departments, and subsequently a son of mine studied with him.

- If I were asked to select a man from our younger graduates to fill the position he seeks to occupy, Mr Black is the man I should unhesitatingly fix on. His acquirements will speak for themselves. But there is something which they cannot tell. It is this : Mr Black has that robust appearance and vigour of body and mind which Bhould be found in a man who proposes to be tho planter of a science in a new soil. I have no doubt of his success as a Professor.

Phillip Kelland.

From Lyon Playfair, Esq., LL.D., C.B , F.R.S., formerly Professor of Chemistry in the University of Edinburgh, now M P. for the Universities of Edinburgh and St Andrews.

Edinburgh University Club, 6th September, 1870. I have much pleasure in testifying to the thorough training and fitness of Dr Black for the Chair of Natural Soience in the University of Otago. Few men have had such ad. vantages, or rather have made them for themselves. So struck was I with this that I described Dr Black's career in one of my speeches in the House of Commons as an example of what could be effected by Scotch Education. Dr Black has had a thorough University education, is a Graduate in Arts, and Dootor of Science. He has made himself familiar with Laboratory practice, as well as with Soience in the Lecture room. I have every confidence that he would do his duty thoroughly in a colonial university. He is also a trained teacher.

Lyon Playfair.

Extract from speech by Dr Lyon Playfair, M.P., in the House of Commons, July 12th, 1869, and referred to in his testimonial to Dr Gow Black.

" Thus, though John Knox's scheme never became law, its spirit has animated every Scotchman for three centuries, and has led to an unformulated bnt praotioal connection between the whole system of lower and higher education. Those who want to know the secret which makes Scotchmen thrive In this country and the colonies, should read the seventh chapter of the Fourth Book of Discipline. It was felt by the meanest shepherd or the poorest Highland crofter that education would enable his son to rise in the world. Sir Walter Scott alludes to thin national ambition, when he makes the father and mother of Dominie Sampson wish to live to see their son 'wag his heid in the pulpit.' Amid all the ohanges, both social and political, which have passed over Scotland during three centuries, this intimate bond between the lower and the higher education of the nation has never been loosened. It is the glory of our system that the deserving poor, if they be endowed with talents, dare to cry, Excelsior. — (Hear, hear.) No less than nineteen per cent, of the students attending the faculties of Arte Arts in our four Universities are the sons of labourers. They work with their hands in summer to make money for their University studies in winter. In my own limited circle I have numerous friends who have risen in this way. Let me cite two oases by way of illustratioß. A few weeks Binoe it was my duty, as University Examiner, to recommend a student for the high degree of Doctor in Science. Thie graduate is the son of a poor Highland crofter, and when a boy went out to herd cattle durrag the summer from March to October. His wages for seven months were only 255, but they were enough to pay his fees at the parish school during winter. It is true that the school was six miles from his father's hut ; but a walk of twelve miles, to and fro, over a bleak moorland, does not deter a promising Scotch boy from going to sohool. It did deter, however, some of the farmers' sons in his neighbourhood ; so at fourteen my young friend took up a little adventure sohool to teach these less hardy lads, and in course* of time he made enough to carry him to the burgh sohool at Perth, where he extended the knowledge of classics and mathematics which he had begun at the parish school Still working, still teaching, still saving, he fought his way step by step through bursaries and scholarships won by him, till he became a certificated teacher of the first claea under the Privy Counoil, a Master of Arts, a Bachelor of Science in the University of Edinburgh, and, as I have said, a few weeks since it was my privilege to examine him as Dootor in Science."