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The Spike or Victoria University College Review 1934

The Passing Show

page 93

The Passing Show

"F.P.I." . . .

Before the next issue ofSpike appears, another link with early Victoria will have been broken. Professor F. P. Wilson, one of the first students of the College, lecturer in Economics from 1909 to 1919, Professor of History since the establishment of the Chair in 1921, is to retire at the end of 1934. F. P. gained his B.A. at Victoria College in 1904, following up in the next year with Honours in Political Science. Old Spikes record that he took an active part in student life, particularly in tennis and athletics. They also state that he was prominent in "the many lives of the Glee Club," and without this mention of a College activity which to a jazz-ridden generation smacks almost of the medieval it would be difficult to believe that the Professor is getting on in years. He seems to have the secret of perpetual youth. To look as the Professor does after 47 years of service in school and University is a tribute to a fine physique; but F. P. is fine in another way—he is a thorough gentleman—one of the old school—unfailingly honourable, courteous, kindly, and encouraging. If his successor is half as good a man, we shall be proud of him. But we shall be sorry to have the Prof, leave us.

. . . .

The Teaching of History. . .

As with almost every other Professor or Lecturer in the College, Prof. Wilson has been criticised for his teaching of his subject. The self-important little wiseacre with a reform-complex is not absent even in Victoria. Perhaps he misses in the University system the coddling which a bright boy can obtain at a secondary school; perhaps he is flushed with his success in spotting History as the softest option in the Arts course; perhaps he is merely practising the vocal exercises of the Youth Movement. It is true that History for B.A. is only one remove from light reading and History for Honours (up to, at any rate, Second Class) the safest and easiest method of securing M.A.; but this is not the fault of the Professor of History. The University sets the standard; the Professor's business is to get his student through. Prof. Wilson is entitled to a large share of the credit for the fact that it is virtually impossible to fail a degree exam, in History.

But he is entitled to credit for more than this. From odd holes and corners comes a demand for History with trimmings. History with a doctrinaire bias, History tagged on to some form of modern radicalism, History adapted to practical use. Such History is not History at all—it is propaganda, or journalism, or politics. Prof. Wilson made no concession to the demand for History Coloured, but stuck to the ordinary conception of the subject as a chronicle of things that have happened and conscientiously fulfilled the requirements of the University prescription. He did not make the subject priggishly "dateish;" neither did he make it pretentious with verbal borrowings from "authorities," as thesis-compilers do. His recognition of the value of the subject as cultural rather than commercial value has probably done much to preserve it from the odour of quackery which appears to be gathering about one University institution and another in the uses to which they are put outside the University.

. . . .

A Responsibility of Weir House. . .

The election as Secretary to the Stud. Ass. Executive of the popular and capable McGhie is a sign that Weir House is coming to a consciousness of the influence which it can and should exercise in student affairs. Weir House is the essential Victoria, the only part of the College which embodies to any extent the true ideal of a corporate student life, the part to which the College will increasingly have to look for its student standards. This is not to depreciate the nonresidential students, upon whom for more than a quarter of a century has fallen the task of creating and sustaining the College traditions; the student of Weir House, however, has a stake in the College which the others could never obtain, for his private life is part and parcel of the College life. Since this private life is passed in community, he has unusual facilities for measuring the character and worth of his fellows in the House; it would be difficult in such an institution page 94 for the crank, the fanatic, the axe-grinder, or the self-seeker to pass for long undetected. The continuous discussion possible in the House is favourable, moreover, to the formation of just estimates of non-residential students. All this makes the judgment of the House a very important factor in College elections, particularly at the present time, when ideas of dictatorship are floating about. Highly individualized people such as University students elect committees to serve them, not to lead them, still less to dictate either to them or in their voice. The Executive of the Students' Association, to mention only one representative body, has a splendid record of disinterested service; and the present Executive is worthily maintaining the tradition. Upon Weir House devolves a good deal of the responsibility in the future of ensuring that the Executive never becomes a stamping ground for the personally ambitious.

. . . .

Max Riske. . .

Max Riske, whom the College will hold in loving memory as a founder of "Smad," has sudenly acquired newspaper fame. He wants to go to Russia—at his own expense. The Education Board which employs him will not give him leave. The Minister of Education will not interfere with the decision of the Board; he will not even commission Max to inquire into educational matters in Russia. It is a question whether if Max had simply asked for leave without stating what he was going to do with it his request would have been granted; for Max has, during recent years, been a keen student of Asiatic politics and has shown such ability in passing his knowledge on, that some people have trembled for the safety of the New Zealand constitution. These people would be difficult to convince that Max wished to go to Russia merely to find out things about education. The situation is a tribute to Max's potentialities as a reformer of institutions or, at least, as an irritant to the politically satisfied, but the problem involved is a difficult one. Is an employee entitled to what he asks for, if it costs his employers nothing, or are his employers entitled to refuse him what he wants if they think it concerns something other than the work for which he is employed. The question is one of competing liberties—the teacher's liberty to leave his job, the Board's liberty to keep it open for him. It would be quite easy to take a stand for liberty on either side, but what's the use? As Victoria College and Russia know, there is no complete liberty in a condition of dependence on others. From fellow-sufferers here—sympathies, Max.

—C.U.V.