CANTERBURY COLLEGE JUBILEE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 18785, 19 May 1923, Page 12

CANTERBURY COLLEGE JUBILEE

THE FIRST CAPPING CEREMONY. DELIGHTFUL REMINISCENCE BY WANGANUI CITIZEN ! In connection with the recent jnbi|lce celebrations of Canterbury College, much matter of historical value and many interesting reminiscences found timely publicity in the columns of the local newspapers. One of the most delightful of the reminiscent sketches was that of “The First Capping Ceremony,*’ written by M/ Louis Cohen, of Wanganui (who has just returned from the celebrations), and published in the Lyttelton Tinies •in its special College Jubilee edition:— . | The Provincial Council Chamber is a thing of beauty never sufficiently recognised. It is the only building I know outside of England tiict has the savour of an Oxford College Hall. Cast into desuetude by the ■ abolition of the provinces, for a generation or longer the voices of the ‘ great men. the founders of Canterbury province, have ceased to echo in it. But there is a subtle hallowing /is if by haunting memories. There .sat and worked and planned there ?men of high purpose and noble endeavour; men of the stock and stu’f that have given, and still give, valour, enterprise and self-saciifice to our Empire. There on a day late in July. JSBO, : ihr Universiiy of New Zealand first showed itself, and Christchurch, in being. It was one of those grey melancholy days when the shadow.-, ’of morning and evening almost mingle together. But the western isun at moments poured down a yellow ray through the coloured windows. and beamed upon the assembly as if in benediction. It was a solemn occasion. The university was then vibrant with hopes, but still affianced to all adaptable traditions of Oxford. The < hancellor. the Hon. H. J. Tancred, almost royal in his robes, headed the procession to the platform. He was attended by the professors of the college—the three great professors • of the foundation—Professor Macmillan Brown. Professor Bickerton. and Professor Cook. Mr Justice Johnston was the principal speaker. In the company on the plat to .mi were .Bishop Harper, Messrs c. <’ Bowen. W. Rolleston, \V. Mon: eoniery. John ■Studholme, Sir John Hall. : -i I ;others. These are great names. They were great men. The dear .friend of every student, Mr F. G. Steadman, the college registrar, was I with them. We undergraduates—|there were not many of us—walked trom the college in our gowns to the 'chamber. We were curiously observed as we went. We were a novel sight. We felt as women would have felt, in those days if they had [been compelled at noon day to graca .the pavements in their ball dresses. The gallery of the chamber had been reserved for undergraduates. I iv-niembiT it being said that the 1 ja.iL ry had neither been occupied nor .dusted for many years So in our ..«u cai.crcways we raised some dust. Are we not. then, the 'ancestors of succeeding mild underi graduates? Me saw the ceremony [through a screen of dust. The peeling beams of sunE”ht had material I to play upon. Some of the mo’es i invaded Judge Johnston's throat, ' and tickled it. to his great irrita tion and our joy. What contemptible dust to be so contemptuous of :a Supreme Court .Judge! I All that I remember of the Judge’s speech was that he glorified i Oxford, and exhorted us to become ]as great as it was. The Ghancellor .told us that Canterbury (’otlec- had more graduates than all the other colleges put together. Bravo! and liiioro dust. Then came the ctippin r. ; F. Fitchett got his LL.B, and nm ’

M.A. James Hay, the idol of the college, got his M.A. with a double first. How we cheered him! Then came for their 13. A. Annie Bolton, Andrew Cameron, of Otago University. William 11. Herbert, James Thornton, Herbert Williams, and then Helen Connon, looking in her sedate beauty like some fine thing touched with the spirit of ancient Greece. How we cheered her! Next year she was to be the first woman Master of Arts in the world. And now for our great students’ celebration in the evening. On the Rolleston Avenue frontage, between the present site of the college hall and the School of Art stood the care taker’s cottage. In the front parlour of that modest home there assembled fewer than twenty students. Fitchett told us witty stories. Some one sang. Lilian Edgar played the fiddle; 1 stumbled through her ac-i companiments. The “revue” eollap- j sod with cakes and coffee. O Tern- l pora! O Mores’