"The Old Clay Patch"

Now that the University was a reality the need for a home for it was urgent. After some consideration of the Mt. Cook gaol site, the specific mention of the Kelburn hillside (with a donation of £1000), decided the Council. Estimates for a building were called for, then whittled down. A design competition was held and an extra storey was added to the winning plan as a means of getting the most from the smallest site. The building was "in late perpendicular style" euphemised the "Evening Post." "Inside the style changed to a sort of bastard Early English, breaking down in the science building into plain utility."

The foundation stone was laid in 1904, the opening was held in 1906. Then four tennis courts—the original "Old Clay Patch"—were dug out of the bank. The short view of practicality and immediate convenience always won through. "From short view to short view the Council proceeded, from excavation to excavation, and then to retaining wall, biting deeper and deeper into the clay and crumbling rock, while the unlovely line of buildings advanced higher and higher up the hill.

After great financial campaigns a gym was opened and even "won the envy of an eminent visitor from the University of Melbourne." (This was in 1909, not 1952!)

As the University tightened its grip on its perilous hill, the staff was increased. Such names as Van Zedlitz, Laby, Picken, J. S. Salmond, Colton, Hunter, and Kirk—"a professor of Bohemian appearance"—appeared. A coincidence surely, that at this time, too, the Heretics Club appeared. The worthy burghers of the city found for the first time the unconventional students an irritant to their respectability. Capping ceremonies Were hilariously rowdy, but not only, were the students troublesome, but the very professors attacked the New Zealand University system, and formed a Reform Association!