FOUNDATION STONE LOST

Taranaki Daily News, 7 April 1931, Page 9

FOUNDATION STONE LOST

LAID 77 YEARS AGO.

UNIVERSITY MYSTERY.

Melbourne, March 26.

Somewhere under the ground in the main quadrangle of:the Melbourne University—the oldest portion of these halls of learning —is a foundation-stone. Inscribed on ilt is the fact that it was “Well and truly laid by the LieutenantGovernor of the Colony of Victoria, Sir Charles Hotham, on July 3, 1'854.” But just where it is not known. They had quaint customs in those days. 1 They believed in calling a foundation-stone; a foundation-stone, and treating it as, such.

In other words, the foundation stone was set in the ‘ foundations. ' In these enlightened days a foundation-stone, pretty with gold lettering, is not allowed to bury itself beneath a mass of masonry. It is made to stand forth in all its glory where it can best be seen—as far from the foundations as possible. I Not so the pioneers. They gathered around a hole in the ground on that July day in 1854. All about them was thick bush and scrub. They had come out from the town of Melbourne in their carriages and their spring drays to witness the beginning of the University. Whether Sir Charles Hotham dropped the stone into the hole, or whether he just tapped it with! a gold trowel, at the same time uttering the appropriate words, history does not tell. Whatever it was, the good citizens tossed their beaver hats into the air and their good wives waved their tiny parasols. Then they jogged back to Melbourne town in their carriages and spring drays, and workmen filled in the hole. Now, nobody knows where the foun-dation-stone is. The fact that there is a foundation-stone is set down in the archives, but that is all. Search, diligent and long, has been made for it ever since. . Old men who “mind the time tha.t they saw it laid have gone to the university and assisted learned dons in the search. But, wise though old men are, they have not- been able to point out the spot. Some have made guesses and picks have been sunk into the ground; bits of masonry have been torn up; all sorts of calculations have been made. But still the foundation-stone lies snug in its foundation. One explanation given for the failure of the search is that the memories of old men have not ’been able to keep pace with the alterations that have been made to the university since that July day 77 years ago. And if the plea of the Chancellor, Sir John MacFarland, that the old quadrangle—the nucleus of the University—be never touched, is heeded, the whereabouts of this foun-dation-stone is likely always to remain a mystery. . .. . .