The Timaru Herald. FRIDAY, JANUARY 19, 1923. SIR ROBERT STOUT AS GLOOM-MERCHANT.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCVIII, Issue 18030, 19 January 1923, Page 6

The Timaru Herald. FRIDAY, JANUARY 19, 1923. SIR ROBERT STOUT AS GLOOM-MERCHANT.

If the Chancellor of the Univeisity Senate (Sir Robert Stout, Chief Justice), has ever been young, he fails to show it. The country has listened seriously enough to him on the subject of prohibition, of which he has made a life-long study, if has listened to his the ones oh many things, and has accepted them in good part, having regard, first to the high position he holds on the Supreme Court Bench, and second to the years of his august existence, which number now considerably over three score —possibly with the extra 10 appended, just for the sake of balance. It has laughed good-naturedly over his complaints in the past, when students heckled him in Wellington, and when the Dunedin graduation ceremony upset his equilibrium because there was some fun and frolic —we admit, a trifle too much—to mark the breaking-up of the University year, and the departure of some forever from the scene of their former triumphs and “ploughings.” The student, from time immemorial, has been a joyous creature, a genial soul who studied, sang, and smiled alternately, philosophical when the examiner creased magisterial brow, and extraordinarily nonchalant when he saw his name on the list of passes. In the 15tli century, when temples of learning were springing up in England and in Germany, he was the same; there was no change in him during all the years of the Renaissance; Anne, the _ Four Georges, William and Victoria saw him entirely the same as before', and to-day—except that he wears jazz socks and silk shirts and horn-rimmed spectacles, and taking ’ into account the women students who abound in Hew Zealand Universities—he is unchanged, remaining the counterpart of the youths with doublet, shoon, pantaloons and cravats of the days that have passed. Sir Robert Stout will never understand him.

The Chancellor speaks in sorrow and in anger, and was evidently deeply moved when he addressed the Senate on Wednesday. He bases some of his grief on newspaper reports of proceedings which took place on the days that degrees were granted. Solemnly he 6ays that the judicious, and lovers of higher education must have been grieved at the way the degrees were granted, inside and outside the official buildings at the three University Colleges and at the University of Dunedin. He adds, melancholic, “Our people are not likely to be interested in University work n we'have the occurrences of these days repeated.’ 5 Sir Robert has said practically the same thing on other occasions. What harm does the average person find in young people enjoying themselves? Does a ludicrous procession of gaily decorated motor cars, _ Wild Indians, skeletons, female impersonators, and caricatures of ViceRoyalty, Prime-Ministerdom, University Chancellordom and of professorial dignity, which takes place on one day in each year, so offend the susceptibilities of the general public as to make them go to their homes and weep over the terrible state of higher education? Does a student’s extravaganza cause them so much heartburn, and make them think that in a few more years there will be no more’ scholastio stars in New Zealand’s educational firmament? Does the existence of a care-free spirit for one day, among men and women who have probably passed grilling examinations and taken their degrees with the more studious and narrow .Under-Grans and rejoice at being Under-Grads no longer, so offend_tho mind of tbe austere Chancellor that lie feels it a duty to ring the sad bell and proclaim"the death of University Culture? It is all too ridiculous.

Sir Robert does not finish there. As one reads Jus address, one finds fiim moralising - on the “higher things” of life. He complains : To see processions of undergraduates in vulgar attire and giving way to buffoonery does not, in my opinion, tend to advance tho higher things in life. Inside tho buildings there was little effort made to attract the minds of the audience to educational problems. Instead, in more than one meeting, there were noises and disturbances that would not bo permitted inside a comic theatre. In two of the meetings the chief speaker, though taking part in a Now Zealand University function, thought it fitting to advocate tho abolition of our university. No one present seems to havo raised any objection to this proposal. It is hard to imagine that Sir Robert, as a lawyer of distinction and a respected judge, would want to make University Colleges in Hew Zealand glorified night school, where an occasional game of ping-pong in the men s common room and some Ha tin translation, would he the student's only joy. Evidently ho forgets tho gems of humour that have come from some the A erses by Hall-Jones, A. I • 1. Cliorlton and Eichelbaum and others in Wellington; the revues in Dunedin and so on. Age, admittedly, is apt to bring with it a dour, soured attitude on life; hut the Chancellor really should remember that gloom is not wanted. In order to foster the “higher education” so beloved by Sir Robert Si out, more joy is needed in the University Colleges,.