E.—7a

60

Government but by the original settlers, who brought with them to the new Edinburgh for higher education. At Christchurch and Wellington we. heard_ little that would lead us to expect an outburst of local generosity following the establishment of a local university. It is in Auckland that we think most could be looked for. Auckland is now by far the largest city in the Dominion, and is still growing very rapidly ; there has been developed an intense local pride in the city and its institutions, and moreover, owing to many causes incidental to the history of the Dominion, Auckland has fewer of the privilegesjof university education than any of the other cities. Under these there may be reason to expect more from Auckland than from any other centre should four separate universities be decided upon. On the other hand, alarm has been strongly expressed at the probable effect of giving a free hand to local ambitions and allowing fresh schools to be started in the supposed interests of a particular district, without reference to what is being done in other centres or to the general interests of the Dominion as a whole. A great many of the witnesses who opposed the four-universities plan gave as their main objection the multiplication of special schools which would in their opinion inevitably follow. It was pointed out that an independent university was not necessarily a free agent, as it must for a certainty depend upon financial assistance from the State, and that the Government must be consulted and must approve of all proposed commitments. The position was met in England by the formation of the University Grants Committee, a body of distinguished experts in various branches of Arts and Science, of independent position and commanding authority. All new developments projected in universities which receive State aid had to come before this Committee, and the Treasury was guided by its decision. The witnesses, however, while admitting that this plan might meet the difficulty in Great Britain, were in general very doubtful whether it could be brought into effective operation in New Zealand. Several expressed the decided opinion that the personnel for such a committee of commanding authority, entirely free from political influence, was not to be found in the Dominion, where almost all the experts of authority in university matters were already connected with one or other of the University colleges : in England, on the other hand, the old universities and bodies like the Royal Society formed a reservoir which might be drawn upon for such service. As to the suggestion that the regulation of the establishment of special schools might be secured by a limitation in the charters of the new universities, several witnesses of wide experience of public life expressed emphatically the view that under the parliamentary system of the Dominion, whatever limitations might be imposed by charter or otherwise, it would not be possible, once a locality had secured a university of its own, to prevent it starting any new activities it might choose. As we have stated in another section of our report, we regard the duplication of great professional schools as fraught with disaster alike to the finance of the university and the status of the profession concerned. Professional schools are necessarily far more costly than the ordinary university faculties ; they require larger and more expensive equipment, and have to provide salaries that will retain the services of the best teachers against the competition of lucrative professional practice. Again, a man trained in a profession is virtually confined to that career in after life. There is strong ground, therefore, for limiting the output of a professional school. Quality rather than quantity should be the aim. We have elsewhere expressed our opinion that university education in New Zealand has suffered from the tendency to cover too wide a field with the resources at command. An argument frequently heard from those who opposed the establishment of four universities was that the reputation of New Zealand degrees would suffer outside of the Dominion. We think there is force in this contention. We believe that the reputation of a degree is best founded upon the reputation of the teachers within the university which confers it. Those who are well informed will have no difficulty in estimating the value of such a degree. But when we are considering the proposal to split up a national university into four provincial ones, we must take into account the surprisingly small amount of knowledge of such a country as New Zealand

Feeling in Auckland favourable to a local autonomous university.

Danger of multiplication of special schools.

Checks on university expansion.

A University Grants Committee not favoured.

Limitation of charter not permanently effective.

Fear that separation would lower the value of degrees.