PROFESSOR MACLAURIN'S APPOINTMENT.

Otago Witness, Issue 2791, 2 October 1907, Page 12

PROFESSOR M ACLAURIN'S APPOINTMENT.

(From Otto Ovm CobbesposdeiW.) WELLINGTON, September 19. Columbia University, to which Professor MacLaurin has juet been appointed, -is noted for its size and status. It has 5000 students, nearly 400 professors and lecturers, and in , the mathematical department, ±o which Profes6or MacLaurin. is going, is staffed with 13 professors, eight assistant, professors, and 23 lecturers and instructors. The appointment of Professor MacLaurin to Columbia was not of his own seeking. He "oras -approached directly by the university authorities, and the offer made was of such a favourable character thai, much as he had wished, and, indeed, as he had intended, he could not refuse it. The secretary of the Royal Society (London) was asked by the American authorities to recommend a man of eminence in the ecientino world for the appointment; and Plrofcssor MaoLaurin's jnaibe wa*. At odoe selected. Professor MacLaurin will Iftk© a, objur which has been specially oreated to enoo»»rage postgraduate research in mathematical physics god that work Professor Ma«Laurm trill

, do exclusively, having nothing to do withthe ordinary teaching of undergraduates. Professor MacLaurin explained to a , representative of the Poet that by the terms, of bis agreement with the Victoria .College Council his appointment was terr minable by six months' notice on either side,, and that six months* notice had been given. - The offer from Columbia came as a great surprise to himself. He waaeorry to leave New. Zealand-, but there were such facilities j 'for research, work at Columbia, which after j ,alj :was within, & few days of the European -, centres of learning;, to say nothing of its own, And other great libraries in America, that/ he could not very well refuse the - appointment. He had, he said, made it perfectly clear to the chairman of the Collage Council that he did not seek the appointment, nor did his friends interest T themselves at all on his behalf in reference to it, rt Professor MacLaurin is a son of the Late Rftv. R. C. MaoLaurin, and was educated at, the Auckland Grammar School and at ' Auckland University College. He has had . a most distinguished scholastic career, and I is' 'still a. young man. In 1890 i»e gained I' a senior scholarship in mathematics, and 1 "wS* shortly afterwards elected a foundation t scholar^ at St. John's College, Cambridge. He spent a. year in America, and returned |to Cambridge to study law, and was : awarded the M'Mahon law studentship, ' with £150 per annum. He joined the Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn, and was elected a Fellow of St. John's (Camabridge). He studied for six months at r Strasburg- University, and he was appointed Professor of Mathematics at Victoria College in 1898, but resigned this .position in June last when he became dean ofT the faculty of law. The professor will find ft great difference between* Victoria College and Columbia, for the latter institution occupies grounds 23 acres in extent, on which are 22 buildings, and the property is worth. £6,000.000, the annual income being 1 about £125,000. The Victoria Col- ■ legs professorial staff has been greatly weakened by the loss within the past few weeks of two of its ablest professors — viz., Professor Salmond and Professor MacLaurin. r>>l