CAPPING DAY.

Observer, Volume XXX, Issue 39, 11 June 1910, Page 3

CAPPING DAY.

The "Star" in a New. Role. IN the name of the Prophet, what have the students of Auckland University been doing to offend the "Star" ? This is a pertinent • question, because nothing, that the students do seems to please the •evening sheet. The students' request for the Government House site has been severely jumped upon, and sev--eral square yards of the "Star's" -valuable columns must htve been used up in trouncing the presumptuous Mr Sisam and others who dared to assert that the "Twinkler" was slightly off the track in its -statistics.. But the unkindest cut -of all was administered In connection with the recent capping ceremony. In its report of the function, the "Star" said:—"The proceedings Tver© most orderly, not to say dull, _or a capping ceremony, the only levity in the function 1 being that lent by rather hearty applause from the students, and the rather weak singing of a few topical songs by 'the undergraduates," The report sadly Adds that " Gaudeamus Igrtur ,v was sunr in a joyless, oolemn fashion/

To the uninitiated,,the "Star's" report might present no peculiar i feature. But those who remember what that paper had to say with-re-gard to the last two capping ceremonies will at once recognise the startling inconsistency of the nocturnal paper. On those two crasions the behaviour of the students was more lively. There is always a certain amount of license granted to tho undergraduates at this annual func- • tion, and the proceedings, although lively, are never or' an unseemly nature, the interjections and topical scngs being generally enjoyed as ir-uch by the Chancellor end the other speakers' as by the outside public and the students. But on the two previous occasions the " Star," in leading articles, has seen fit to thunder denui ciatiohs against the students for having dare 1 to disturb the holy calm of the Choral Hall. In the course of those edifying diatribes, the " Star " made use ot such .expressions as " silly, pointless chatter," ••■■" vulgar buffoonery,"- '/songs that are writtai in bad, taste," etc. As a matter of fact, students' chaff i 3 never vulgar buffoonery, and, as regards the songs, these ■•are selected by the Professorial Board, so that if there was'any bad taste in them, the Professors shouldn't have allowed them to: be sung. However, the students, having read wifh bowed heads and blushing cheeks the solemn and virtuous admonitions of the highly moral "Star" (see Saturday's supplements—murder and divorce section), evidently repented them of their sinsi ? and deter aimed that, on the next capping day, they would be moral. were ; and what has been their reward ? Instead of receiving a paternal pat on the back from the stellar monitor, they have been informed that they rendered the proceedings dull, and that their singing was lifeless 1 ■ ■. » Under the circumstances it isn't a matter for surprise that the unfortunate and much-abused undergraduates should wonder how on earth they are going to please the " Star." If they are lively, it reproves them for their vivacity. If they are quiet, it hurls accusations, of dulness at their hapless heads. It therefore, only natural for them to inquire what the " Star " really wants, although it is doubtful if they will ever, receive any answer to that question. The odds are that the "Star" itself doesn't know what it wants. It frequently doesn't.