G.-No. 8b

4

FURTHER PAPERS RELATIVE TO THE

It will be remembered that the Governor was advised to sanction the regulation providing for the convening of meetings of the Council for the express purpose of enabling the present meeting to take place. I think I may fairly assume that the object which the Government had in view in taking this course was to place the Council in a position immediately, or at least after a very short delay, to proceed to business. The Council has now been upwards of a month in session, and has not yet been able to transact any business of importance. It appears to me clear that this forced inaction must act very prejudicially, by preventing the University from promoting those objects for the attainment of which it was established. As regards the second reason for delay—the hope that some arrangement would be come to with the University of Otago —it appears to me, expressing my own opinion on the subject, that there is very little prospect that a satisfactory arrangement will be arrived at for the present; and that it will be better to allow each University to pursue its own objects independently, under the law as it at present stands, until their views can be brought into greater harmony than at present exists. I have, &c, Henry John Tancred, The Hon. the Colonial Secretary. Chancellor.

No. 4. The Hon. W. Gisborne to Mr. H. J. Tancred. Sir, — Colonial Secretary's Office, AVellington, 12th October, 1871. I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 4th instant, and to inform you that, under the circumstances stated in your letter, the Governor will be advised to assent to the Regulations as to conditions of affiliation, scholarship, and appropriation of funds of the New Zealand University. The Government are advised, however, that the Regulations ought to have required that the scholarships, so far as supplied out of the £3,000 appropriated by the General Assembly, shall be scholarships in the University, and not scholarships in affiliated institutions. The Government infer from your letter that, though tho Regulations are express as to the holder being a regular attendant at some affiliated College and are silent as to memberships of tho University, it is not intended to evade the law, but that the holders are to be members of the University. I have, &c, H. J. Tancred, Esq., W. Gisborne. Chancellor of the New Zealand University, Wellington.

No. 5. Mr. H. J. Tancred to the Hon. W. Gisborne. Sic, — University of New Zealand, 30th October, .1871. I have the honor herewith to enclose a copy of a resolution passed by the Council of this University at its last meeting, and I am directed to accompany it by the following explanation:— Having learned that a Bill is now before the Legislature, to repeal " The University A ct, 1870," I thought it my duty to bring to the notice of the Council the present position of the University, with a view of eliciting an expression of opinion on the part of that body as to the course that it would be desirable to adopt, and as to any representations that it might be desirable to make to the Government on the subject. It will be manifest to the Government that the Council is altogether incapacitated from carrying into effect the provisions of the existing Act, or of performing any of those functions for the performance of which it was constituted, so long as regulations by which that Act is to be supplemented remain in abeyance. The Government sanctioned the regulation for convening the meeting of the Council for the express purpose, as it was understood, of enabling it to hold its present meeting, and, as it is fair to presume, in order that it might be able to proceed to do some practical work. From circumstances which it is now unnecessary to specify, the regulations enclosed in my letter of the llth July last, under which it was proposed that the Act should be brought into operation, have been now for upwards of three months under the consideration of the Government, and no definite information has been received as to the intentions of the Government with regard to them until the receipt of your letter of the 12th instant, stating that the Governor would be advised to assent to them. On the 17th of the same month, however, I received another communication from you, by which I learned for the first time that some further regulations were necessary before the Government could advise His Excellency to give his assent. The Council expressed its willingness to adopt the views of the Government on this point; but the delay which has taken place before the wishes of the Government were made known, has made it almost impossible for the Council to carry them out during the present meeting. It is understood that the Assembly will in a short time be prorogued, and the Members of Council, who are also Members of the Assembly, will then in all probability be returning to their homes : in the meantime the work of the Assembly takes up so much of their time that they are often unable to attend the meetings of the Council, and so there is no certainty of obtaining a quorum. Under these circumstances, it appears to me that there is no object to be attained by the prolongation of the present Session, and that the only result of such prolongation would be an unnecessary expenditure of public funds. It is therefore proposed to adjourn the present meeting to a future date, in the hope that the Government will then have fully considered the proposed action of the