OTAGO MEDICAL SCHOOL

Otago Witness, Issue 3444, 16 March 1920, Page 6

OTAGO MEDICAL SCHOOL

INAUGURAL CEREMONY. PRESENTATION OF PORTRAITS. . The inaugural ceremony in connection y.ith the opening of the Otago Medical .School for the* year was held in the Allen Hall on- Wednesday morning, when the very •arge attendance of students supplied unmistakable evidence of the continual progress which in being made in this branch sf university activity. Dr H. L. Ferguson . (Dean of the Medical Faculty) presided, and was supported on the platform by the Chancellor of the University (the Rev. Dr. Cameron), members of the University Council, and the Professorial Board and a rlurriber of others occupying official positions. Dr ■ Ferguson, in welcoming the new and the old students alike, spoke of the high ideals of the profession and briefly laid down a number of elementary principles calculated to influence the lives of his bearers throughout the whole course of their career. He said that medicine was not a business or a trade; it was a religion. They were entering upon a career in which their lives would have to be devoted to the service of the sick, in which all personal considerations would have to be set aside, in which many discomforts would have to be endured, and in which thev would alwovs have to be at the service of the public whenever the call came. By approaching their profession in that spirit they would earn their own reward every day of the week. If any of them were taking up medioine as an easy way of making money they were not wanted, and it w6uld be better for everyone if they abandoned their course and started ' driving taxi-cabs. — (Laughter and applause.) • Dr Ferguson announced that the portraits of Dr Colqu'houn and Dr Roberts, which were displayed on the platform, were to be officially presented to the University Council by the Medical Students' Assoointion ns a reminder of th/> part which these two guntlemcn had nlayed in the life of the Otago Medical School during the past 36 years or mo. He added that, owing to the non-arrival of Dr W. D. 0. Jones (the re-cently-appointed lecturer in medicine). Dr Colqnhnun had aeain placed his services at Vhe disposal of the University, and would sonduct the class for a month. (Applause.) Dr A. B. Jameson (executive president of >he Medical Students' Association) formally presented the two portraits to the Univer>itv. The paintings, he stated, had been executed hv commission of the assoointion, and thev were representative of the afFeet/onnte' award in which both gentlemen were held by all old'bovs of the Medical School. They were, at the same time, an atterrmt to .preserve for the school somethimr <->f the personality of two teachers who tad filled a great and a useful place in the

life of the University. lie asked Dr Cameron to accept the portraits as a work of the personal esteem in which the two professors were held, and to hold them in trusteeship for the students of the Medical School for all time (Loud applause.) Dr Colquhoun, who was received with applause, said that in saying farewell, after so many years of association with the Medical School, it was a pleasant thing to realise that in the minds of their former pupils they were not regarded in the light of taskmasters. He trusted that these portraits, which had been admirably painted by Mr A. F. Nicoll, of Christchurch, would only be the beginning of a great gallery of teachers, speaking to future generations and enabling them to understand what the Otago Medical School had been in the past.—(Applause.) Dr Roberts, who was very cordially received, said he desired to thank the past and present students for the very high compliment which they had paid him. It was most gratifying to feel that so many of their former pupils held their ' old teachers in such high regard. In looking back over his long association with the University, it was interesting to review the progress made by the Medical School, which, from small beginnings, had frown to he the great institution which it was to-day.—(Applause.) Dr Cameron said that on behalf of the University Council he had much pleasure in accepting the portraits which would be hung in some part of the Medical School, where they would be a constant reminder of the men who had done so much to build up its reputation. He hoped the kindly reeling which had been shown that day between students and teachers would continue to be manifested in all the years to come. —(Applause.) A very pleasant function closed with three ringing cheers for Dr Colquhoun and Dr Roberts, followed by the singing of " For They Are Jolly Good Fellows," and rounded off by the University war-cry.

ARTS AND SCIENCE FACULTY. In the afternoon a similar function was held in connection with the arts and science faculty—the first of its kind at the Otago University. The Chancellor (the Rev. Dr Cameron) presided, and seats on the platform wero occupied by the professors and lecturers of the faculty, while some 200 students occupied the body of the hall. In his address the Chancellor, after welcoming the new students, referred to the severe loss which the University had suffered through the death of Professor Gilray. Fortunately, however, they had been able to make provision for the teaching of English during the ourrent year owing to the generosity of Professor Macmillan Brown. Professor Brown had distinguished himself aome years ago as a professor of Canterbury College, and for _ the past 25 years he had been engaged in the study of the languages of Polynesia. Few people understood the great sacrifice he was making in relinquishing his life work to take up

this appointment. Continuing, Dr Cameron | said they had to welcome to the Uunversity Professor 8.. J. T. Bell, the new professor of mathematics. In the past the University had not been as fortunate- as ~it might have been in its teachers of mathematics, but he was convinced from what he had seen and heard of Professor Bell that the teaching of this subject in the future would be carried on with every success. - He trusted the students would not neglect this subject because it was no longer, compulsory. His own experience was that mathematics had been as useful a study as any other in the curriculum. He also desired to welcome back to the University Professor T. D. Adams, who had been absent on active service for the past two years and a-half. He congratulated the students on having Professor Adams back amongst them as their teacher of Latin. The Chancellor added that the thanks of the council were due to Miss Turnbull, who, during Professor Adams's absence, had carried on the teaching of Latin with marked success. —(Applause.) Professor Benham, acting Dean of the Faculty, said that in the holding of that function they were taking a leaf out of the book of the faculty of medicine. Those of the students who were entering the University would find that in contradistinction to the methods of their school days they would rely more on their own efforts than on their teachers for progress in their work. He wanted them to regard their teachers as human beings, to look on them as friends, and to come to them for assistance in any difficulties, whether connected with their work or not. Continuing, the speaker said he took it for granted that the majority of the students had come there to work, but he urged them, not to neglect the social side of the University, including the various athletic organisations, the debating society, the musical union, and the Christian Union. Proceeding, Dr Benham said that when the classes opened in 1871 as many as 81 students enrolled, and though the numbers sank after a few years to 50. yet since 1874 they had risen steadily, till last session there were 943 students on the book—a greater number than in any of the other colleges. From the first there had been no distinction between the sexes. Otago was the first university in the British Empire to admit to all its classes women on an equal footing with men. The number of women had increased in recent years almost more rapidly than had the men, due perhaps to the war: till last year there were 352 women to 591 men attending classes. Their p-raduates arc to be found in_ all parts of the dominion. Everywhere might be found former students occupying positions as teachers and inspectors of schools, as heads of training colleges, and technical schools. There were to be found lawyers, some of whom are K.C.'s. ministers of religion, members of Parliament and Ministers of the Crown. Many have risen to the highest rank in their respective nrofessioas. It remained with the students

who were now entering to carry on the traditions which had been formed, and he did not doubt that some of them would_ equal the eminence attained by students in the past. Continuing, the speaker said that whether a large increase in the number of university graduates exercising an influence on the educational system of the country would be a benefit to the dominion depended on the way in which the colleges and University of New Zealand conceived and discharged their functions. If the main energies of the teachers and the taught were concentrated in examinations and those examinations were framed in a narrow and specialising spirit; if the teaching were dogmatic and the learning parrotlike ; if specialisation were carried so far that neither art nor philosophy entered into the ordinary work of the student, then very little would he gained. Although the Otago University had a number of special schools of a technical character under its control, the real and original conception of university training was that carried on in the faculty of arts and science. The proper business of a university was not to equip students for professional posts, but to train them in disinterested, intellectual habits, to give them a vision of what real learning was, to refine their taste, to form judgment, to enlarge curiosity, and to substitute for a low and material outlook on life a lofty view of its resources and demands. It was of the utmost importance that their higher education should not become materialistic through too narrow a regard for practical efficiency. Education should introduce the future citizens not to the physical structure of the world in which they lived, but also to the deeper interests and problems of politics, thought, and human life. It should acquaint them as far as might be with the capacities and ideals of mankind as expressed in literature and art, with the nature and. laws of the world, as interpreted by science and philosophy and relipr:'on. At the close of his address Professor Benham was warmly applauded.