DR ROSEBY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5701, 19 August 1886, Page 3

DR ROSEBY.

TheEev Dr Eoseby, the well-known Con- ' gregational minister, formerly of Dunedin,, ! who recently accepted a charge at Ballarat,, J 13 again to the fore in public life : — At the 1 initiatory meeting of the Local Governr j ment Reform League (says a recent Bal- ; larat Star), the following letter from the ; Eev Dr Eoseby was read : — " I regret I j shall be unable to be present at to-night's meeting, but I write to express my strong interest in the Decentralisation movement. This is a question lyiag outside the region of party politics, in which case I should, of course, have nothing to say about it. It is j a question which concerns most deeply the i social life and national progtess of the I country. Familiar, as I am, -with the | working of Provincial institutions in New Zealand, where the various centres j of population maintain, partly by geographical situation, but ch,ie2y by the 'public spirit of the people, a position of perfect equality, I am amazed to , find, in this Colony, how absolute is the , despotism of Melbourne. The latest inJ stance of this— resistance to the affiliation i of our School of Mines to the Melbourne I University— practically means that the high scientific training of our mining students shall count for nothing without « Hallmark,' of Melbourne. There is in- ; deed good prospect of this resistance '■ being overcome, but even then, I notice that affiliation is only to be conceded on the condition that the Ballarat student shall pay his fees twice over— once for the lectures he does attend at our School of Mines, and again for the lectures he cannot attend at Melbourne University. I cannot help expressing my regret that ; an imposition so monstrously unjust has been accepted by Ballarat, in these regulations, even under compulsion.— l remain, youra very truly, Thomas Eqsbbt "