61

E.—7a.

winch is to be found even within the Empire of which it forms a part. It is questionable whether in the neighbouring Commonwealth of Australia there is any widespread knowledge of the provincial centres of New Zealand : there certainly is not in Great Britain or Canada. If, therefore, instead of a " degree of the University of New Zealand " someone abroad is asked to consider a degree of the Otago University or of the Canterbury or Auckland University, he may well have little knowledge of these centres to assist him. The tendency would undoubtedly be to lump all these degrees together as New Zealand degrees, and as a result their reputation would soon become that of the weakest among them. Even a great country like the United States of America suffers from ill-informed popular opinion as to the quality of its university degrees. It is unfortunate that many unworthy institutions granting degrees and diplomas have flourished, and do perhaps still exist in America. Despite the fact that some of the greatest universities in the world are American universities, popular opinion in Great Britain and Australasia stiil tends to speak in dispraise of " American degrees." This argument against separation at present appears to us, therefore, to have considerable force. We found, as might have been expected, that the opinion in favour of four universities was held most strongly by representatives of the Arts and Science faculties, that no strong feeling in favour of such a course was as a rule shown by representatives of the special professional schools, but that the opinions of these representatives were more often than not strongly against the proposal. The explanation is to be found in the fact that the curriculum and examinations of the special schools are really in the hands of the teachers, whereas the teachers in the other schools chafe under what they consider unnecessary and humiliating restrictions. With the greater academic freedom which we recommend the strong opinion in favour of separation is likely to be lessened. There is nothing in itself objectionable in the federal principle. The old historic universities, Oxford and Cambridge, have both developed on these lines. The Toronto University has worked under a federal constitution from the outset. Where a university is very large, the existence within it of smaller communities providing more definite opportunities for social and intellectual intercourse is undoubtedly an additional advantage. College life at Oxford and Cambridge is a most valuable element in the old university training, and it does not prevent that wider intercourse which is furnished by university lectures, the Union, and inter-collegiate competitions of various kinds. When, however, the constituent communities are geographically separated so that personal contact between them is lost, or at least reduced to a minimum, the federal university takes on a new character : its function is no longer to organize an overgrown community by building up smaller well-organized bodies inside it, but to give to a number of smaller communities, which are hardly strong enough to function freely by themselves, the support and encouragement that comes from co-operation in counsel and. action. In this case its role is purely temporary : when the communities it serves are able to stand on their own feet and move freely the helping hand becomes an encumbrance and should be withdrawn. We have elsewhere stressed what we regard as a strong argument against the early separation into four universities—viz., the effect of forty years of university work under conditions most unfavourable for developing a high type of university teaching, and a fine conception of the place and function of the university in the life of the community. The scheme we propose for the immediate future will, we consider, form an excellent preparation for the separation which will no doubt take place hereafter when the progress of the Dominion justifies it. THE TEACHING STAFF AND ITS PLACE IN THE UNIVERSITY. The teaching staff must in the nature of things be the very source and fount of the life of a university. Councils and Convocations have their importance and their use, but, after all, they are but adjuncts. So, too, are examinations and curricula. The essential fact in a university is the co-operation of keen and enthusiastic students with able and stimulating teachers in study and investigation. Unless the teacher be a man who knows and loves his subject; is zealous in endeavouring to extend its bounds, and in making converts to his own faith in it ;

The Arts and Science faculties in favour of separation.

Federal principle not in itself objectionable.

University ideals to-day not such as to justify separation.

Importance of choosing the right man as teacher.