OTAGO UNIVERSITY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3724, 28 July 1925, Page 15

OTAGO UNIVERSITY.

GRADUATION CEREMONY. SIR HARRY REICIIEL’S IDEAS. The Otago University Council made a somewhat daring departure in allowing the annual graduation ceremony to be held this year in His Majesty’s Theatre. There has always been a demand for much more accommodation than was available on these happy and interesting occasions, and in past years such ouiidings as the Choral Hall, Knox Church Sunday School Hall, Burns Hall, and the Allen Hall have been able to hold only a tithe of those anxious to witness the conferring of degrees. Whether it has been expressly stated or not the use of a larger hall has always been barred by the problem of discipline and the fear that crowds of undergraduates might turn the proceedings into pandemonium let loose. However, the students themselves undertook to maintain discipline on this oocasion, and the council decided to try the experiment. After Thursday’s experience it is safe to say the experiment is one that will be repeated. The proceedings were seemly, orderly, and prompt. The conduct of the students was exemplary. There were a few interjections that scarcely reached the stage, but nearly all of these were in the nature of friendly greetings to students receiving their honours. His Majesty’s Theatre was crowded in every part. The graduates of the year were accommodated in the front seats of the orchestral stalls. The Chancellor (Mr T. K. Sidey, M.P.) presided, and on the platform were seated the whole body of the teaching staff clad in their academic robes and also the members of the University Council. The irrepressible undergraduates early indicated their presence, in the theatre and greeted friends and foes in customary uncerimonious fashion before the formal proceedings began. The capping orchestra contributed welcome ponular music.

The singing of the University Anthem opened the programme. THE CHANCELLOR’S ADDRESS." The Chancellor began by apologising for the absence of the Chancellor of New Zealand University, Professor Macmillan Brown, and expressing their pleasure in having with them the members of the University Commission and also his Worship the Mayor (Mr H. L. Tapley). He would express the sentiments of all present when he said they missed their late chancellor, Dr Cameron, very greatly. Many . deserving tributes had already been paid to his memory. He would only add in the presence of so many students that the late Dr Cameron was the students friend. There was no request that ever came from the students to the council that did not receive from him the utmost consideration. They would always cherish his memory. Referring to the past year, he said that there were two changes in the professorial staff caused bw the retirement of Professor Barnett and Professor Woodthorpe. After 30 vears’ able and distinguished servioe Professor Barnett had retired from the chair of surgery, though they were glad to say that he was still associated with them as professor emeritus. On his retirement he showed great public spirit in endowing the chair of surgery with a munificent gift of £3OOO. Professor Woodthorpo rendered valuable and faithful ser- ! vice in the chair of economics, and endeared himself to all those with whom he v/as associated. The vacancies caused by these retirements were filled by the appointment to the chair of surgery of Professor F. G. Bell—(applause)—and to the chair of economics of Professor A. G. B. Fisher —(applause)—both of whom wore New Zea-land-b orn. There had been during the year a number of benefactions, among them a munificent gift of an ethnographical collection to the museum. Only the previous day the owner of another valuable collection had informod him that he had decided to make it over also to the same department of the museum. The one thing wanting, m far as the museum was concerned, waa a new wing which was now a matter of urgency During the last two or three months he had had many evidences of the Ugh estimation in this University

was held. Many of their medical graduates went to the Old Country to enlarge their experience, and when they applied—as quite a number had done—for positions in publio institutions in the Old Land they had far more than held their own with the graduates of other universities.—(Applause.) His remarks applied not only to the Medical Faculty but to all the other faculties. He knew that the faculty of mines had made a large contribution in the same way. This institution was well and favourably known far beyond the confines of this country. He would just mention two factors that had contributed to this result. The first was their distinguished teachers and he offered them his congratulation on the work they were doing. They owed much not only to their present but to their past professors for the high standing of this University. The other factor was the work of the graduates, and he referred specially to their work in later years. The fame and name of the University would in an ever-increasing degree be won by the achievements of itas graduates. To those who were about to receive their diplomas' in the of the Chancellor of the University of New Zealand and on behalf of the Otago University Council be tendered them most sincere congratulations, and cordial wishes for their future welfare.—(Applause.) He had confidence in them—(applause)—that in whatever department of life their future work would be they would perform it faithfully and bring honour and credit to the University. He could not do better than ask them to take their inspiration from the words of one of their capping songs:—

Our ’Varsity is great. But we will make it greater, For one and all are loyal to . Our dear old Alma Mater. —(Loud applause.) SIR HARRY REICHEL’S ADDRESS. Sir Harrv Reichel, principal of the University College of North Wales, then delivered the chief address of the afternoon. “Let me begin,” he said, “by saying that I feel highly honoured in being asked to address you at the great annual festival of your University.—(Applause.) I shall show my gratitude .by being brief. I hope also, by being audible.—(Laughter.) When the invitation of your late Prime Minister to conduct an inquiry into the university system of the dominion reached me just- before Christinas it gave me a thrill of pride and pleasure. I had already enjoyed the rare privilege of a life’s work spent in helping to construct from the foundation a national system of education, university and secondary. and I was now just on the eve of retirement offered the no less rare privilege of surveying and reporting on another national system, built up a whole world away by men of our own blood and traditions. “ toto divisos orbe Britannos (ironical cheers),—in the words of the Latin poet, but in a far wider sense than ever ho dreamed of; and that in a region of mystery and romance, the romance of early settlements in a land whose extraordinary natural beauty and charm were balanced by the perils of the stormy seas which environed it, and of perhaps the most formidable native foe whom our countrymen have ever l\ad to encounter. A TRIBUTE TO NEW ZEALAND.

Though we know too little about her, the name of New Zealand stands high in the Old Country. We all know the part you played in the Great War, to which you sent one man for every 12 of your population. Many of us know that Ernest Rutherford, the greatest experimental physicist in the British Isles, perhaps in the world, is a New Zealander; and it will be long before people at Home forget the prowess of the All Blacks. At the same time it must be admitted that our conceptions of your circumstances and conditions are somewhat vague. The Southern Hemisphere was not entirely strange to me; I had taken part in the visit of the British Association to Australia in 1914, was in Berth when the wax broke out, and a fortnight later saw the first batch of Victorian volunteers match out of Melbourne in “civvies” to the training camp outside the city. More fortunate, therefore, than many worthy persons at Home I knew that New Zealand was not an outlying province of Australia—-

(applause)—and that it consisted of two islands and not of one—(applause)—but L confess I had hardly realised that the distance from Sydney to Auckland was more than half the distance across the Atlantic from Liverpool to New York, that Auckland was as far from Dunedin as John o’ Groaia from the Land’s End, still less that the passage between the North and South Islands contained greater possibilities oi suffering than the Channel crossing from Holyhead to Dublin.—(Laughter.) UNIVERSITY IDEALS. University education has been my life work, and I entered on this mission with keen interest, but at the same time with a wholesome ignorance of the circumstances and conditions under which your work is carried on. I say “wholesome” advisedly, for ignorance that knows itself is a wholesome frame of mind for one who is to act judicially. A man could hardly spend a full life in university work or any other profession without some general principles crystallising in his mind. If he"* formed none, it would merely show that he had no brains or had used them to very little purpose. But it is in the application oi such general ideas to concrete cases that the quality of the judge is shown. 1 can say then with sincerity that I approached the inquiry to which the late Prime Minister invited me with an entirely open mind, and with the eager interest such a task niust excite in one who has at once an intense belief in the possibilities for world progress of the modern university, and a no less deep conviction that the future of the League of Nations, and with it of world peace, is bound up with the continued existence and prosperity of the British Empire.—(Applause.) For if a group of nations having the same religion, speaking the same language, fed on the some literature and national traditions, cannot hold together, what chance has a league composed of different races, languages, and religions, in many cases sundered from each other by national feuds and memories of conquest or oppression? CERTAIN INTERESTING IMPRES-

SIONS.

Ever since we landed the work of inquiry has gone on morning, noon, and night, and left us no time for enjoying the unique scenic beauties of this southern wonderland or even, I say it with bated breath, of paying proper respect to yesterday’s students’ pageant.—(Laughter.) We have visited in turn each university centra and heard every witness who had relevantfacts to tell us or counsel to offer, and if the old saying is true, “In the multitude of counsellors is wisdom,” the commission should now be qualified to add to the wisdom literature of the world. It is not inappropriate to this occasion and it is mere justice to say that some of the best evidence we have had at each centre has come from the representatives of the students. —(Applause.) What conclusions we have formed I am not in a position to state. We have hardly formed them yet, and when we do they belong to the Government of New Zealand; but certain impressions have been left on our minds which may be not without interest. We have been struck with the way in which examination seems to dominate the whole educational field, and with the zeal and capacity for hard work shown by young New Zealanders, which often, alas! leads them to work ,for examinations under conditions that render university study difficult if not impossible. Again at each centre we have heard the praises of Otago from the mouths of university experts. “Wait till you get to Dunedin, and you will find something more like the true university spirit they have the old Scotch tradition.” These hints excited our interest not a little. I was myself born and bred in Belfast, the capital of the Scottish colony in Ulster, and my under-graduate days were spent at Oxford in the Scottish College founded by John de Balliol and Devorguilla, his wife; several of the members of the original college staff at Bangor, Henry Jones, the poet-philosopher; Andrew Gray, who succeeded Lord Kelvin in the chair of physics at Glasgow; and James Dobbie, who subsequently became head of the Government laboratories in London; were the product of a Scotch University; and in our efforts to build up a Welsh University life it has always been the Scotch model to which our eyes were turned. In passing through Canada in 1903 as a member of the Moseley Commission, I had also an opportunity of visiting at Kingston a small Scotch University, like a transplanted St. Andrews, sn ; all yet complete in itself, which made the proud boast that it was the only university on the American Continent where Aristotle 8 Ethics was studied for the degree in the original Greek.—(Laughter.) I had seen then that it was possible for th* Scottish University plant to grow and flourish overseas, and I looked forward with keen anticipation to my Dunedin visit. Well, I think we have, as we were led to expect, heard here a deeper university note and have experienced in gieater measure that indefinable atmosphere which exists wherever there is true univefS’ty life, and which is derived from two sources—study under large-minded and inspiring teachers, and. hardly less important the common intellectual and social life of a community of able young students. THE GREAT GODDESS EXAMINA-

TION.” The examination virus seems to have bitten deeply into the national mind; everywhere we have found the tendency to think on educational questions in terms oi examination rather than in terms of study and training. Indeed, the experience we have been through during the last four weeks might almost provoke the ejaculation “Know ye not that New Zealand is the temple-keeper of the great Goddess of Examination ! —(Laughter.) Examination is a useful, perhaps an indispensable servant, but—like many other servants—it becomes a bad master. A great English public schoolmaster half a century ago remarked to his Sixth Form one day: “My dear boys, how can you be expected to grow if you are always being taken up by the roots to see if you are growing.”

Whatever the upshot of the inquiry may be, whether it lead to the establishment of four universities or to the raising and strengthening of a single National University, it is the earnest nope of the commissioners as it must be of every true friend of higher education that Otago may ever cherish the noble old Scotch tradition of the love of learning for its own sake, and the idea of a university as a corporate body of fellow workers in which, though some may be teachers, all are learners. If she does, she cannot fail to render inestimable service. not only to the people of her own district, but to the whole of the dominion. Floreat Otago!—(Loud applause.) All joined in the singing of “Gaudo-

amus. ' Graduates were then presented to the Chancellor by the deans of their faculties, and received their diplomas and were capped in due form. At the close of the ceremony, just before the singing of the National Anthem, tho Chancellor thanked Sir llarry Reichel on behalf of the company for his presence with them and for his most interesting address. The following i 9 the complete list of student honours for the year:— GRADUATES.

Doctors of Medicine.—Charles Ritchie Burns, John Cairney, Russell David King, Philip Patrick Lynch. Doctor of Dental Surgery.—Robert lievin Dodds.

Masters of Arts. —Daniel Ferguson Aitken first-class honours in French, second-clasi honours in English : Howard Andrew Ellioti Dotting, second-class honours in history; John Henry Conly, in Latin and French Roy Andrews Dickie, second-class honour! in history; Horace Fawcett, first-clas: honours in history; James Francis Henley, second-class honours in philosophy; Ivan Blackstone Hubbard, in philosophy; William Lang, second-class honours in Latin and French; Letitia Louise Lawson, in English and French; Reweti Oratosh Mason,

second-class honours in economics; Thomas Hay M'Donald, second-class honours in his tory ; Alexander Charles M'Lean, secondclass honours in economics; Eric Robert Edward Ross, second-class honours, in philo sophy (Auckland University College); Annie White Todd, in philosophy; Louisa Wallis lodd, first-class honours in botany. Masters of Science.—John Angus Dunning, second-class honours in mathematics: Robert Rutherford Nimmo, first-class honours in physics (electricity and magnetism) ; Rudolf George Penselcr, second class honours in chemistry. Master of Laws.—. James Crombie Parcel, in jurisprudence, real property, companies. Masters of Commerce.—Thomas Leonard James, in economics and economic history; Alfred Thomas, second-class honours in economics and economic history. Bachelors of Arts.—Margaret Annie Black Georgina Bruce Blaikie, Philippe Sidney de Quetteville Cabot, George Macgregor Cameron (John Tinline .Scholar in English), Archibald John Campbell, William Cas-

sells, Alexander Gordon Chisman. Gordon Vincent Daly, Lesley Hueston Dickinson, Vera Kate Harrison, Vera Annie Hayward, Clement Alfred Hill, Marie Rosenhein Himmel, Richard Peter Kurt Kania, Heetorina Jessie Macdonald. Heetorina Mary M Ken zie M‘Rae, Alexander Milne, W T illiam Graham M'Clvmont (senior scholar in history), Myra Walker M'Kinlay, Gordon Boughan yiarie O’Meeghan, Albert William Fanus worth O’Reilly, Laurence Moter Rogers, fris Beryl Romans, Jessie Hunter Ross! Walter James Scott, Alexander Gleji Simmers, Janet Erskine Stenhouse, Joan Dunstan Stephens, Malcolm MTherson Watt, George Ernest Wilkinson, James Clarkson Young, Thomas Fredrick James Young.. Bachelors of Science.—Peter Walker Aitken, Eileen Margiret Ballantvne, Geoffrey Alan Cox, Horace Edwin Fyfe* Colin Campbell Geddes, Keith William R. Glasgow. Alexander Frederick M‘George (senior scholar in mathematics), Hugh Marshall Nimmo (senior scholar in physics). Bachelors of Laws.—Charles Byers Barrowclough,, John Boyd Deaker,' George Henry Hodges, William Frew Murray Ott, John Nicholson Smith. Bachelors of Commerce.—John Denford, John Samuel Park.

Bachelors of Medicine and Surgery.— Robert Erwin Austin, Morris Axford, Francis Eastham Bolt, Reynold Harold Bovd, Gordon Bertram Campbell, Eric Candy, James Jackson Crawshaw, John Alexander Dale, Ronald Otway Davidson, Lyell Stanley Kenrick Holt Dean, Theodora Clemens Easterfield, William James Edginton, William Rognvald Fea, James Fitzsimons (medical travelling scholar), John Cennick Forsyth, Ernest Sydnev Fossey. Philip Vernon Graves, Robinson Early -Ball, Eric Robin Harty, Owen Stanmore Hotherington, Keith Hoani Holdgate Roy Humphrey Howells, Clifford Samuel James, Brian Maurice Johns, Frederick Alexander Lamb, Harold Braithwaite Lange. Allan Augustus Macdonald, John Mark, Richard Bowden Martin, Samuel Thomas Martin Margaret Joan Mayfield, Cecil David Meadowcroft, Kenneth William Miller Oscar Carl Moller, Frank Adrian Morton! Arthur Rainsford Mowlem, Lawrence Cradock M‘Nickle, Joseph Patrick M‘Quilkin, Charles Everard North, James Aitkenhead Paterson, Charles David Read Reginald Francombe Roberts, Alice Camp bell Rose (medical travelling scholar), Carl Xavier Ruhen, Edward George Sayers Frederick Charles Merritt Shortt, Frederick Rich Smale, James Garfield Stewart, William Raymond Courtney Stowe, Svdney Herbert Swift, Edward Harold Harvev Tavlor, Norman Waddle, Edward Baden Powell Vlatson, Frederick Edward Webster Key Samuel Whiteside, David Arthur Callender JJ ill, Basil Laun Wilson, Jeanie Gardner Wood.

Bachelors of Dental Surgery.—Allan Thomas Buxton, Hinton Cyril Colson Spencer Cotton, William Hunter Hamilton Alan Cameron M'lntyre, Charles Lempfert Maloney, William Robert. Stratton Rantin, Francis George Stockwell. Bachelors of Science in Home Science Muriel Constance Gifford, Jessie Evelyn Harris, Mary Brebner M'Adam, Rona Nellie Bain Marshall, Margaret Anna Michael. Bachelor of Agriculture.—Richard Hughes Bevin. Bachelors of Engineering (Civil). —Ivor Tulk Chcsson (Canterbury University College), Robert Janies Walton Howorth (Canterbury University College). ASSOCIATESHIPS AND DIPLOMAS. Diploma oi Associate of tho Otago School of Mines in Mining —Frank Leonard Sanderson. Certificate of Proficiency in Dental Surgery.—John Alexander Adams, James Bruce Bibby, Frederick Winston Craddock Margaret Ethel Collie, David Edward Hart, Howard Henry Hooper, Alfred Wileon Joughin, Thomas Bernard Francis Judge, Margaret Christina M'lntyro, Herbert Sidney Patterson, Howard Page, John Anthonv Price, Albert Heathcote Weir, Ormona Herbert Williams, Diploma of Associate of Otapo University in Home Science.—Muriel Mason Graham, Janet Campbell Henderson, Juno Murray Irvine, Edna Eileen Margaret Leaeh, Rua Belle Milne, Elsie Monro, Mary Stoddart Thomson, Nora Frances Wrigley. Diploma in Education.—Arthur Vincent Fleet, Mary llohncs, Alexander John Woods. Diploma in Social Science.—Arnold Henry Nordmeyer, Ralph William Souten

Whym° ma w Bankil! e—Herbert William SCHOLARSHIPS. I.—UIHVERSrrY OF NEW ZEALAND. FioT?™ 1 travelling Scholarship.--James ritzsimons, Alice Campbell Rose. Senior University Scholarship*.—-Alexan-i'r” i. Fr , e , tel hl'Ceorge (mathematics), Hugh Marshall Nimmo (physios), William Giaham M C lymont (history) r John Tinline Scholarship (English).— Geoige M Gregor Cameron. cli l Man bit,on Scholarshi P- R °l>in Sub 2-—UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO. Sir George Grey Scholarship in Experimental Science (granted by New Zealand Government).—Peter Walter Aitken. Beverly Scholarship in Pass Degree t fiysics. Allan George Harrington. Beverly Scholarship in Higher' Mathematics and Mechanics.-Robert Rutherford Nimmo. Beverly Scholarship in Advanced Physics, —Loan Campbell Geddes. Smeaton Research Scholarship (Experimental Science)—Rudolf George I’enseler. George Young Scholarship.— Hugh Marshall Nimmo. John Edmond Fellowship (Industrial Research).—Alfred Aaron Levi. Ross Fellowship.—Walter James Boraman. PRIZES. I.—UNIVERSITY OF NEW ZEALAND. Macmillan Brown Prize (English Com- - position).—Daniel Ferguson Aitken. Haydon Prize (Essay).—Robert William Connor. William Ledingham Christie Medal (Applied Anatomy).—Robert Louttit Flett. 2.—UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO. James Clark Prizes.—William Lang (Latin), Charles Andrew Sharp (English), Henry Alexander M‘Donald Mitchell and Thomas Frederick James Young (Mental Science), James Robertson (Greek), Ethel Emma Black (Advanced History), Horace Henry Hawkins and John Horace Starnes (Pass degree history). Leask Medal.—Albeit Heathcote Weir (dentistry). Chamber of Commerce Prizes (Accountancy).—John Ban on, Robert Henry Henderson, David Leyden Brown, George William Jack Bell, Albert Jame 3 Siinmonds. Batchelor Memorial Medal (Gynaecology and Obstetrics).—Morris Axford. Maijorie M Callum Medal (Medicine).— Lawrence Cradock M‘Nickle. New Zealand Medical Graduates’ Association Clinical Prizes.—Graeme Gibson Talbot (junior clinical surgery), Charles David Read (junior clinical medicine), Lawrence Cradock M‘Nickle (senior clinical medicine), Alice Campbell Rose (senior clinical surgery). Scott Memorial Medal (Anatomy).— Alfred Bramwell Cook.