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Estoilles Argent

For some years the College has been sorely cramped for space, especially for administration and staff rooms, while the Biology Department has never been provided with adequately constructed laboratories. Shortly, however, there will arise, on the hill where now jer-seyed figures caper in the floodlights, a two-storeyed Biology Block, bridged across by a corridor to the main building. This new structure will include a large lecture hall, separate laboratories for Botany and Zoology, seven research rooms, and a museum and library. On the flat roof will be a glass-house and specimen tanks.

The administration block, of three storeys and basement, will face Kelburn Parade, and have rooms for the Registrar and his staff, a council room and accommodation for female assistants; while atop of it all, Mr. Brook will at last be provided with modern living quarters.

These new buildings, costing some £50,000. will be completed in the next year, leaving the top floor of the Science Wing free for lecture rooms, a sound-proof music room to house the Carnegie equipment, and staff rooms. Then no more will arts classes be herded into C3, or the lecturers in "Braemar Flats" watch their books disintegrate in the corrosive drips from the chemistry drains above them.

* * *

Much as these new buildings will improve facilities at Victoria, that Students' Union Building is still the great core lacking from the social life of the College. At least, however, the students are now becoming conscious of their need, and the last year has seen further efforts to really do something about it. Early in the session the Building Committee was received before the College Council, and was told that the Council had already placed the matter of a subsidy before the Government, and that the fund was included in the general subsidy scheme. In an effort to raise £550 each year, the Students' Association has this year increased its subscription, and on the promise of a reasonable government subsidy, intends to launch an appeal to old students and local bodies for contributions, while College Clubs generally are organising to raise funds for The Fund. While Spike is of the opinion that any curtailment of present Association activities in favour of the Building Fund would be a short-sighted policy, we emphasise again the worthiness of the objective, and hope that the committee will receive the co-operation not only of present students, but of all past ones, and of the public of Wellington. For the provision of such a building will give to Victoria a life that she has not possessed in recent years, and add to her a cultural value which cannot fail to be reflected upon the community.

* * *

Last year Spike bade farewell to the foundation professor in English. Professor Hugh McKenzie. This year we welcome his successor, Professor I. A. Gordon. Professor Gordon comes here from Edinburgh University, where he graduated Doctor of Philosophy and was for five years lecturer in English. Besides an interest in foreign languages, Professor Gordon has written a biography of John Skelton, poet laureate to Henry VIII., and a dissertation on medieval English poetry. We hope that Professor Gordon will find a congenial environment at V.U.C.. and that beyond his teaching and research will have time also to mingle in the social life of the College—a matter we feel sometimes neglected by our staff. As a tramper, the Professor should find much to interest him here.

* * *

Each year a select few depart from the halls of their first learning to seek knowledge and experience abroad. We who remain to pursue the old routine are then suddenly surprised to hear once-familiar names qualified by the appelation Doctor, and in no time it seems they are back with us again. The latest to return is Dr. D. W. McElwain. who, after two years of study at University College, London has taken a Ph.D. in child psychology. Aside from his studies, Dr. McElwain has interested himself in affairs on the Continent, among other things serving for a while in the Austrian Army Corps.

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Quite recently news was received that Mr. R. J. Mcllroy. M.Sc., had been awarded the Chidlam Scholarship for post-graduate research in chemistry at Birmingham University. "Roy" Mcllroy graduated at Victoria and after several years' research at Massey College and in the Department of Agriculture, set out a year ago for Birmingham, there to unravel further the threads of textile chemistry.

* * *

A science student of an earlier period was Dr. H. L. Richardson who went from Victoria to London University and joined the Rotham-stead Experimental Station in 1927. Dr. Richardson has now been appointed adviser in soils and fertilisers to the National Agricultural Research Bureau. Nanking.

* * *

Another to return with a newly-acquired doctorate is Dr. A. E. Fieldhouse, Dip. Ed., Ph.D., who has spent two years in Europe studying educational methods under the terms of a James Macintosh Travelling Scholarship. Those Who remember the estimate made by Dr. Fieldhouse of the musical appreciation of Weir residents some years ago (equal to that of a child of 12, wasn't it?) feel that it would be an interesting problem in evolution to make further experiments now that those bagpipes have become firmly established there.

* * *

Once a member of the editorial staffs of Smad and Spike, and known for his skill in debate as well as at the oars, Mr. C. M. P. Brown is now immersed in an economics course at Clare College, Cambridge. Max has by no means lost his old ease with the pen, as this facile commentary, an extract from a letter early in the year, can testify.

"A Cambridge undergraduate has usually developed beyond the stamp-collecting stage and is taught to direct his activities towards policemen's helmets and the like . . .

"We have a fairly big market square in which—there being no zoo—a large crowd of townspeople gathered on Guy Fawkes night, to watch the undergrads throw crackers at one another. Rightly tiring of throwing crackers at those who only threw more back, the undergrads began throwing them into the thickly-packed crowd of spectators. The crowd started to move off. By this time, the whole Cambridge Constabulary had been marshalled into the square, and the undergrads began to bombard the police who, however, continued to stroll about stolidly musing on Truth, Beauty, and The Fire at Home, and paying no attention to the concentration of crackers bursting about them. This was most unexciting, and therefore—to the undergrads—unfair. They accordingly gathered in groups about some of the gas lamps which surround the square. One undergrad would get up the lamp-post, put out the light, and be down and lost in the crowd before any policeman could break through to catch him. It was all the more exciting as once a policeman got into the middle of a crowd someone from behind would knock his helmet forward, someone in front would catch it and disappear, while the crowd would close in to prevent chase. This went on until about a quarter of the police force was hatless, and only six lights were left burning. Then the trouble started. The police gathered in large groups around the six remaining lights: the undergrads massed and charged in a body. In the dark and confusion they took as many helmets as possible and gathered round while one put the lights out. All but two of the lights were put out in this way. but twenty-five arrests were made, and that eventually quietened things down. College tutors who spent the rest of the night bailing people out were also among those who thoroughly enjoyed the evening."

* * *

With the appointment of Canon Percival James (who once took a keen interest in this College) to the Royal living of Halifax in Yorkshire, the Debating Club may be able to persuade the Professorial Board to allow debates once again on subjects relating to Sex and Religion. At least a request would not be harmful.

* * *

Towards the end of last year Dr. I. V. Newman was appointed Lecturer in Botany. Dr. Newman holds the degrees of M.Sc. (Sydney) and Ph.D. (London) and was Linnean Macleay Fellow of the University of Sydney.

* * *

Not until we have a properly-equipped music-room—a hope that should be realised when the new biology block relieves the present congestion—will Victoria's students be able to appreciate fully the munificence of the Carnegie Corporation gift of musical equipment. With page 40 an electric gramophone and amplifier, 945 records, 151 volumes of miniature scores, and 100 books relating to music, we can ask for little more in order that we may acquire a wider knowledge and a deeper appreciation of the art of music. Hitherto we have had no means of gratifying our desires in this direction within the College, and in having at our disposal such a wide choice of music as the endowment presents, we can indeed consider ourselves extremely fortunate. At the present time, owing to the lack of a sound-proof room, the hours at which recitals can be given are inconvenient for the majority of students, but with proper facilities, the difficulty could be overcome. From the student viewpoint, Sunday evening would seem to be the most convenient time.

Apart from our indebtedness to the Carnegie Corporation, we are also under a great obligation to those members of the Staff who are so graciously arranging and supervising the recordings.

* * *

With the appointment of Dr. Ernest Beagle-hole, M.A., Ph.D., to the lectureship in Philosophy, another graduate of the College returned to join the Staff. Dr. Beaglehole left here in 1928 with a post-graduate scholarship in arts and took his doctorate at London University. Recently he has been working in Honolulu under Professor P. H. Buck.

* * *

Victoria lost one of her most consistent performers in athletics and a stalwart hockey enthusiast when H. J. M. Abraham accepted the position of senior demonstrator in the department of Natural Philosophy at Melbourne University. After taking M.Sc., Mr. Abraham was demonstrator in Physics here during the last two years.

* * *

By the departure for England of Mr. A. T. S. McGhie at the end of last year, the College lost one of its most picturesque figures. Remembered as a kindly Exec. Secretary and a diverting speaker, "Mac" will have the good wishes of past and present students in his new and honourable position of Secretary to the Central Committee for Health Education in England.

* * *

That the Rhodes Scholar Selection Committee seems to have forgotten that Wellington possesses a university college is the conclusion that we have come to when we try to recall the date of our last successful nomination. In congratulating this year's nominees, Messrs. W. I. Combs and R. L. Meek, on their being our representatives, we sincerely hope that they will be successful in destroying the hoodoo that appears to have been placed upon us.

* * *

In these columns last year it was recorded that the Students' Association had at last gained the right of student representation on the College Council. The exercise of this right was not possible, however, until the constitution of the Council, as set forth in the Victoria University College Act 1933, had been suitably amended. The Students' Association has recently approved of a resolution to be submitted to the Government by the Council, asking that this amendment be effected. When this is done, the student body will have some share in the government of the College through a representative appojnted by the Executive. The representative must, at the time of appointment, be "either a student actually attending lectures, or one who has within the preceding two years attended lectures," and will hold office for two years. It is to be hoped that this belated reform will lead to a closer contact and greater sympathy between the students and a body which has "entire management of and superintendence over the affairs, concerns and property of the College."

* * *

This year Victoria was worthily and successfully represented in the inter-College Debating Contest for the Joynt Scroll by Messrs. A. R. Perry and S. G. Andrews. Our congratulations are extended to these two gentlemen for their Auckland achievement, and especially to Mr. Andrews in having been adjudged the best speaker of the contest.

* * *

Each year sees the passing of a College club or two, and generally the birth, or reincarnation of a like number. In the last twelve months or so the old Science Society, the Literary Society, and the Gymnasium Club seem to have sunk quietly into oblivion. A young outgrowth from the first of these this year was the Chemical Society, while it was almost inevitable that from the ashes of the Lierary Society should emerge a Phoenix. These two clubs are composed mainly of younger students and are page 41 enthused in common with one commendable principle — the encouragement of student speakers and of frequent discussions instead of a passive acceptance of the dogma of visiting speakers. The Chemical Society, because it is narrower in scope and more intensely specialised than the late Science Society will appeal to a smaller circle, but it can perform a most valu-function in the Science Faculty—making students express themselves intelligibly. Let it not, however, wrap itself up over-securely in pure science, else it may waste away into sterility. That is the danger in too close circles in discussions—cliques are formed, and when they are gone, there is nothing more.

These remarks apply equally to the Phoenix Club, but here greater opportunities are apparent. We recall that the old Literary Society also set out to develop student discussions rather than formal lectures, but the Phoenix Club has further pledged itself to extend its interests over all the arts. In addition to the Carnegie collections of art and music. Victoria has access to a number of facilities—Libraries. Museum, Art Gallery—which afford excellent scope for the activities of such a club. Unrestricted by an examination syllabus, the study and enjoyment of these pursuits should engage the interest of all students who are more than mere at-tenders of dictation hours at an affiliated college. It is to be hoped therefore that this new society will develop along these lines, and not dissipate its young vigour in the usual popular lectures, by well-known speakers, which have in the past carried college clubs over a year or two of spectacular meetings into an oblivion of disinterest.

* * *

With the appointment of Dr. I. L. G. Sutherland to the Chair of Philosophy at Canterbury College, Victoria regretfully lost a valued member of her Staff. In his dual capacity of lecturer in Philosophy and Warden of Weir House. Dr. Sutherland earned the respect of a large circle of students. To Dr. Sutherland, Weir owes a great debt, for during his four years' stewardship its welfare was his paramount concern and the success of his activities were borne out by Weir's consistent popularity.

In succession to Dr. Sutherland. Professor T. A. Hunter has undertaken the duties of Warden.

A large number of entries were received in both the Literary and the Photographic Competitions organised by Spike, for prizes of one guinea offered in each section by the Executive. First prize in the Photographic Competition was awarded to Mr. O. A. E. Hughan for his entry Design for Spike Cover, while a further contribution from the same competitor, The folded leaf is wooed from out the bud, was placed second. Mr. Hughan's cover design has been adopted for the present issue of Spike. In the Literary competition three poems by Mr. J. D. Freeman were bracketed for first prize. They are Statement, (lovE)ution, and Malice.

Comments by the judges on the contributions submitted to them appear elsewhere in this magazine.

* * *

For the execution of a series of excellent posters (the source of much favourable comment) as well as the lettering of the cover, Spike is greatly indebetd to Miss Joan Pater-son, and wishes to place on record its appreciation of her very willing co-operation.

* * *

In having the degree of Doctor of Laws conferred upon him, Dr. N. A. Foden becomes the recipient of an honour that students of Victoria have received on very rare occasions. As a past student and the present lecturer in accountancy law, Dr. Foden has had a close connection with the College for a number of years, and Spike wishes to take the opportunity of congratulating him on his success.

* * *

Victoria has one asset of which we are rightly proud—an excellent library, which continues to grow through the generosity of public and private benefactions. Mr. Miller has kindly supplied Spike with the following information:—

"During the year the Library has received several substantial gifts of books. First of all came some 180 volumes (a good many of them relating to New Zealand, some of them rather rare, and many very handsomely bound) from the estate of the late John MacKay, Esq., so well known as printer to the New Zealand Government. Another gift of special interest from an old friend of the College. Mrs. M. E. Wallis, consisted of about 150 volumes from the library of Bishop Wallis. a member of the first Victoria College Council. Professor page 42 Boyd-Wilson has added to his numerous gifts to the library some 50 volumes of Kürchner's valuable Deutsche National-Litteratur. From Mr. John Innes of Remuera we have received some very useful law-books. The Evangelical Union has presented 54 volumes of the Transactions of the Victoria Institute and the Student Christian Movement some 60 volumes of recent theological literature.

"In addition to the splendid musical equipment from the Carnegie Corporation, the library is. of course, still obtaining a grant from the Corporation. This year we are receiving our fourth grant of 5000 dollars, to be followed by one more instalment of the same amount next year."