8.—7

18

with the result that, after some modification of the original plans, the tender of P. Graham and Son was accepted. The building is now nearing completion, and. the appearance of the quadrangles will be greatly improved, as the building, though not ornate, is well in keeping with the style of architecture of the original block of the College. This addition necessitates the removal of the old Chemical Laboratory, which, unsightly though it is, has been of great use in providing lecture-room accommodation and a temporary home for the Physics Laboratory. This change naturally has brought to the front the necessity of providing new lecture-rooms and a new Physics Laboratory. A long time would have to elapse before, in the ordinary way, sufficient funds would be available for this purpose, so the Registrar carefully thought out and prepared a scheme by which the difficulty would be overcome. Thus he proposed that we should borrow sufficient money to erect the whole of the buildings necessary to complete the two quadrangles, giving as security for the necessary loan a portion of the College endowment. The Registrar's scheme has been adopted by the Board, and it has been decided to borrow £18,000, which sum it is estimated will be sufficient to complete the College block. It would have been exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to have entertained such a costly scheme had not the University Amendment Act that was passed during the year placed a certain portion of the National Endowment Fund at the disposal of the four University colleges. The share that is allotted to Canterbury College will enable provision to be made for the payment of the interest on the loan and for a small amount to be put aside fqf a sinking fund. Careful administration of the finances will be necessary, however, for several years to come, so as to enable the Board to liquidate its indebtedness in a reasonable time. Though the present may not seem a very appropriate time to appeal to the people of the province, I should like to remind them of the liberal help that the neighbouring Province of Otago has given to the University College in Dunedin. In Canterbury the people have given somewhere about £2,000 towards University buildings, while over £60,000 has been spent of late years in Otago in providing splendid University buildings, and the majority of this amount has been subscribed by the people of the province. While I feel that I cannot at present make a direct appeal to those immediately interested in higher education, I would like them to bear in mind the needs of our University College, so that when an appeal is made for help they may prove not less open-handed and liberal than the sister province. In the preceding remarks I have referred to the University Amendment Act, and the allocation of funds from the national endowments to the various University colleges. There is also another very important clause in that Act —viz., the one referring to the establishment of a Board of Studies composed of members elected from the respective Professorial Boards. This will undoubtedly prove of great assistance in enabling the work of the several colleges to be more closely correlated, and will also give more weight to the proposals the Board may from time to time submit to the Senate, coming as they will from a Board of the whole, instead of from the separate bodies as heretofore. Two changes in the staff have been made during the year : one was the appointment of Mr. R, Speight, M.A., M.Sc, F.G.S., to the curatorship of the Museum-—he, however, still retains his position as lecturer in geology and palaeontology ; the other was the establishment of a Chair of Mental Science. For some time the Board had recognized that sufficient importance had not been attached to the teaching of mental science, and had determined that, when the opportunity offered, a Chair would be established. This was done in the early part of the year, and Mr. C. F Salmond, M.A., who had •'previously occupied the position of lecturer in the subject, was appointed Professor of Mental Science and Philosophy. It is pleasing to record that, after many disappointments in the past, the Rhodes Scholarship was at last given to a candidate from Canterbury College. The choice of the selectors fell on Mr. H. S. Richards, who has not only been successful in his college career, but also had by his activities in the social and athletic side of his University life proved himself the class of man that was evidently in Cecil Rhodes's mind when he founded the scholarship. I hope that in his career at Oxford and afterwards Mr. Richards may do honour to himself and Canterbury College. At the outbreak of the war in' August, and from time to time since then, many of those engaged either in teaching, office-work, or study as undergraduates have offered themselves for enlistment among the Expeditionary Forces for the front, so that we are able to count up over a hundred undergraduates who have been accepted for service, and five'of one or other of the staffs. While there are still some of the undergraduates who are still eligible for enlistment, and who undoubtedly will go when opportunity offers, the age-limit prevents others who would offer their services from so doing. Many of those who have gone have made a great sacrifice by giving up the certainty of high honours, but at such a time when the Empire calls every one is bound by the ties of blood and the dictates of duty to make a sacrifice, whether it be by active service or, in the case of those compelled to remain behind, by working in the interests and for the welfare of the Mother-country. The vacancy to the Chair of Classics, consequent on Professor Stewart being accepted for service with the Expeditionary Forces, was filled by the appointment of Mr. H. D. Broadhead, one of our own former students, M.A. of Trinity College, Cambridge, and erstwhile scholar of the same College. Mr. Broadhead was appointed to hold office until the return of Professor Stewart. The results of the University examinations are this year exceedingly gratifying to both the professors and the students, for there are among the candidates for M.A. degree no less than seven first-class honours, one of these being a double first, while six students are credited with second-class honours. In addition to the above, four Senior Scholarships have been won by those who wore sitting for the B.A. degree. Twelve students obtained the M.A. degree, twenty the degree of 8.A., two 8.8. (Civil), one B.E. (Mech.), and one M.Sc.