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The Spike: or, Victoria College Review October 1907

[editorial]

page 5

The Editorial Committee invites contributions, either in prose or verse, on any subject of general interest, from students or officials connected with the College. All literary communication should be addressed to THE EDITOR, Victoria College, Wellington.

Subscriptions are now due and are payable to Mr. H. Oram, Financial Secretary, Victoria College.

(PUBLISHED TWICE IN THE SESSION)

(PUBLISHED TWICE IN THE SESSION)

"I built my soul a lordly pleasure house, Wherein at ease for aye to dwell."

—Tennyson.

SSince the publication of our last issue there has been brought within measurable distance the erection, not yet, it is true, of a College Hall, but of a building which will be even more useful, though less costly. Realizing the splendid influence which Victoria College has already exercised, seeing in the future possibilities which perhaps few students can see for it, and sympathizing with the difficulties under which the social and athletic sides of its life are still carried on, a citizen of Wellington has come forward with a handsome donation of £250, to form the nucleus of a fund to be spent in the erection of a building intended to benefit the students from the social and physical standpoint. Nor is page 6 the donation given without a definite object; with it there has come a specific and workable proposal as to the structure and purpose of the building. The suggestion is that a two-storey building should be erected on a site to be leveled towards the southern end of the College reserve, the ground floor to consist of a gymnasium, and the upper floor to comprise a social Hall for the holding of College functions, and a room in which the historic records of the College might be placed, along with other articles of public or scientific interest.

Immediately upon receipt of this donation the Committee commenced to set on foot an active canvass for the further sum necessary for the provision of the building, and that canvass is still in progress. In support of the claim which which the students make upon the generosity of the public of the Middle District of the New Zealand University we would urge the following considerations.

Firstly, the provision to be made out of the fund is not one which we can, at any rate at present, call upon the Government to make for the students. True, it comprises a building which will serve some of the purposes of a hall, but it will not serve all those purposes, and we have in a previous article given the reasons why the Government should treat the completion of a College Hall as one of its most urgent educational works.

Secondly, there is a special reason why the public of the whole district from Hawkes Bay to Westland should lend their hearty support to the present movement. The life of the student who comes to Wellington to pursue his studies is in many respects but a pleasant one. He is compelled to live in lodgings, he is deprived of the society of his relations, and it is natural for him to look to his College to provide for his social as well as his intellectual needs. The existence of such a building as is now proposed will do much to transform into enjoyment the more or less wearisome lot of the student who comes from the provinces towards which this part of our appeal is directed.

Thirdly, there is a general reason why the students of Victoria College deserved encouragement in all that they undertake. A little over eight years ago there was no possibility of obtaining an education beyond secondary school standard in Wellington. Now there is a corporation comprising nearly four hundred students, and the influence for good. That this rapid progress has been possible is due in a large measure to the wisdom of the page 7 Government in establishing the College, but the interest of the Government could not have been aroused without the force of the clamant demands of the students and the Council for the provision of increased facilities for University education. The numbers prove the existence of the desire for learning, the enthusiasm proves the genuineness of the desire, if proof on the latter head be needed. Surely anything which will help the students to make the best use of the advantages offered by the College, anything which will fit them physically to support the strain of hard study, does tend to encourage the setting of a high standard for the youth of the district, and therefore deserves all that generosity and public spirit can do for it.

We publish in another column a statement of the financial aspect of the scheme, from which it will be seen that a sum of £78 12s has been granted out of the moneys collected from students two years ago. That a further sum of £42 11s has since been provided by the students themselves, a sum of £10 by the Students' Association, and a sum of £10 by the Football Club.

* * * *

A suggestion was made in the speech delivered on behalf of the students on Capping Day that the Capping Ceremony mighty with advantage be held in the evening. This is a plan which has everything to commend it, and the only difficulty that we see is that of finding time in one evening to hold all the festivities attendant upon that brilliant function. The graduate who in one evening goes through the double ordeal of ascending to the rostrum to receive the hard-earned diploma and of listening to a Chancellor's speech, sings capping songs to the stage of hoarseness or takes part in the Carnival entertainment, partakes of a supper more attractive than nourishing, thereafter delivers an oration, and finally trips it gaily until daybreak, would not be quite as fresh as usual next mooring.

* * * *

We note with interest the remarks made by Sir Robert Stout at the Council meeting in August with regard to the subject of Astronomy, and we trust that the Committee set up to enquire into the matter of the Carter bequest may succeed in bringing to the College some of its benefits. There can be no doubt of the value of a telescope to the students of Astronomy, but we do not think Astronomy ought to be made a page 8 compulsory subject for a pass degree. Unless the subject was studies in the most superficial way, it would necessitate the study of dynamics and spherical trigonometry, neither of which subjects is at present compulsory in the degree examinations.

* * * *

When in our last issue, we congratulated Professor Maclaurin upon his appointment as Dean of the Faculty of Law in succession to Professor Salmond, we hoped that his services in that capacity would long be available to Victoria College. But it is not to be. The Columbia University, New York, has offered to him its Professorship of Mathematical Physics, and as a consequence the Victoria College Council has, twice within a year, had before it an untimely resignation. Professor Maclaurin well deserves the honour of the appointment offered to him, but from the College point of view, the effect of constant changes in the staff of the staff of the Law School is so serious that on any future occasion of this kind the Council will do well to consider whether it should not impose a poll tax on the exportation of home-grown University Professors,

* * * *

We are pleased to welcome into our midst Mr. A. C. Gifford, who has undertaken to lecture to the pass degree students in Mathematics this term, pending the appointment of a successor to Professor Maclaurin.

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