PROFESSOR ALDIS'S APPOINTMENT.

Otago Witness, Issue 2085, 8 February 1894, Page 3

PROFESSOR ALDIS'S APPOINTMENT.

We presume the discovery that the contract under which Professor Aldis holds bis appointment is not with the college authorities but with the Government puts a new aspect on the whole question. Is Mr Aldis the servant of the council, and can they dismiss him 7 In the somewhat similar case of our first professors there is probably no doubt. They were engaged by the agent for the province, but we believe the engagement was made in the name of the university. It will be remembered, however, that some years ago the Government had to deal with the case of Mr D. Brent. That gentleman had been appointed by the Provincial Government, whose obligations are now undertaken by the General Government in consequence of the abolition of the provinces. The High Schools Board was created at a later £ate, and though it continued to avail itself of Mr Brent's services, it could not deal with his life appointment. And we believe that the Government to this day has to make up a reduction which the board, when retrenching all round, made in Mr Brent's salary. In the same way some of our university professors, though subject to the council as teachers, are not dependent on that body but on the Presbyterian Church of Otago for their salaries. The colony may yet have to make the unpleasant discovery that it has to pay Mr Aldis's salary or compensate him for dismissal.