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The Spike or Victoria College Review June 1930

The Capping Ceremony

The Capping Ceremony

The Official Capping Ceremony was held in the Wellington Town Hall on May 9th. After the Graduates had been duly drafted into their respective flocks, by that supreme drover, Professor Boyd-Wilson, the procession, amid the craning necks and gasps of a thousand fond parents (why fond?), aunts, and similar free-ticketers, slowly wended (appropriate word, "wended") their way to the platform and settled themselves among the cushions thoughtfully provided by a beneficent Professorial Board. It was immediately apparent that the annual gown drive had been a brilliant success and that all the graduates were adequately, if not correctly, clad. The staff, resplendent for the nonce, scrambled to their appointed places, and the ceremony began. We are given to understand that the concatenations which followed were College songs. However, no time was lost in preliminaries, for the clamorous multiude were impatient for the intellectual treat which immediately followed. Mr. Justice Blair had some illuminating things to say about University education, spicing his remarks with some lively anecdotes of an original nature. To those of us who had been privileged to hear His Honour speak in a very similar vein on a previous occasion it was indeed a pleasure to be afforded another opportunity to acquire a surer grasp of the subtle intricacies of his argument. The speaker had our sympathy when it was apparent, from the fact that some of his sallies were anticipated, that he had made a slight miscalculation in assessing the precise level of the lower strata of undergraduate intelligence. After His Honour had concluded his inspiring address, Professor Rankine Brown proceeded to the minor business of conferring the degrees. The first batch of students, after devious wanderings, reached the front of the dais, and after presenting alternately back and front views to the audience, finally compromised by an intermediate stance. Professor Rankine Brown uttered the mystic imprecations over the heads of the awed graduates, and they filed back to their seats. The ceremony closed with the customary mutilation of College songs and a rendering of the National Anthem.