WORK CRIPPLED FOR WANT OF ROOM.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18642, 20 December 1928, Page 10

WORK CRIPPLED FOR WANT OF ROOM.

CANON WILFORD TELLS OF COLLEGE HOUSE.

“ The founders of the Canterbury Association were pioneers in the world of modern education.” said Canon Wilford, principal of College House, broadcasting from 3ZC on Tuesday night. “ Indeed, the educationists of the present day owe much more to them than many realise. An outstanding part of their colonisation scheme was the concern they showed for the youth of their .settlement. It is only with a part of their work in this direction that I can speak to-night—of the work which gave us what we know as College House, the Collegiate Department of Christ’s College. Canterbury. They planned from the start a university which was to do for the new world what Oxford and Cambridge had done for the old. For their inspiration they went to Christ Church, Oxford, and found much help and symoathy from the dons there. As at Oxford, so at Christchurch. The Cathedral was to be the chapel of the college, and round the cathedral was to come the college quadrangle. If their scheme had been carried out as originally planned, the students of College House would today have their lecture rooms, their library, their studies, their common room and their hall where now stand the Post Office, the Bank of New Zealand, Dalgety's office, the picture theatres, Warner’s Hotel, the newspapers, and the Beresford.

COLLEGE HOUSE AND ITS BEGINNINGS.

“Seventy-eight years have gone since the pilgrims landed at Lyttelton, letting it be known in unforgettable words that they were going to be held together * not just by a worldly inducement, but by creating a higher and finer motive, by substituting the Bible for the Purse, and by raising the Cross as the self-imposed yoke.’ In its early days in London the association let Bishop Selwyn know of their ideals for university education. The Bishop told them to go slowly; the important thing was to acquire a sufficient amount of land. He told them in a letter to mark out a fair amount of land and put up a wooden building. People were very tolerant, he told them, and would call it the ‘ College.’ A great deal of time was spent in drawing up the constitution of the college. Some of the wisest heads in England were employed upon it. The objects were to be the education and training of young men, whether for the Christian ministry or the learned professions, or for the general duties of life. It was no doubt the educational proposals that drew so many of the best English people to the movement. An extraordinarily enthusiastic meeting was held at Ipswich on May 30, 1850. Meetings were held all over England to explain the objects of the association and to enroll suitable colonists. During the months that followed the college was to many the big subject of conversation. The building of a hospital and the Cathedral were two other planks in the association’s plat--form. In the month of October, nearly a month after the First Four Ships had sailed, the association wrote to J. R- Godley and gave him instructions in setting out a permanent plan for the college. But the colonists did not need a further incentive from home, and almost before the arrival of the letter the college had started its existence. College House began its work in January, 1851. A start was made at Lyttelton. The first lecture room was a small room in the barracks, about twelve feet square, very roughly whitewashed, and with a few wooden stools for its furniture. The principal of the college had been appointed in England, and had come out on the Sir George Seymour. His was the first appointment to a permanent position made by the Canterbury Association. COLLEGE HOUSE TO-DAY. “ Things never go just exactly as they are planned. The establishment of Canterbury College in 1873 took a great deal of the teaching work from the Board of Governors of the old foundation. A Canterbury College professor, speaking of the college, has said, 4 The vision of those great seers, the founders of Canterbury, is gradually being realised. A common life, a definite church teaching, above all a college chapel—these our students must have if they are to be fit to do the noble work they should.' “ Many great men have been moulded by the common life of the college. A testimony rests in a letter which came by a recent Home mail, enclosing an application for an English boy to be enrolled at the college. An old boy has stated that he does not doubt for a moment that the years he spent at the house were the best and most useful of his life. But our work to-day is being crippled for want of room. Never have the students made such a demand upon accommodation as they do at the present time. The New Zealand University authorities themselves have come to see the absolute necessity of such residential colleges as College House. A Royal Commission asks in no uncertain way for the fellowship of residential life. Our newspapers consistently tell us how urgently the Dominion needs residential colleges, and our leaders now are beginning to realise what the founders of College House knew when they embarked on their work eighty years ago. 44 What, then, of the future? Is College House to refuse to take up the challenge? With men from Invercargill to Auckland seeking from her the education and the training and the discipline that the founders set out to give them, is she to tell them that nothing can be done, and they must go on a vain search somewhere else? It was of no boarding-house that the founders thought when they called us into existence. It is the environment that is asked for, and that the college is here to supply—environment along the lines of Oxford and Cambridge. The New Zealand student is made of splendid material, but he has arrived at one of the critical times of his life. School and home discipline are relaxed, and he stands in need of the hand of guidance that was planned for him.” Canon Wilford concluded with an appeal for funds.