5. The Capping Ceremony.

The ceremony of graduation is still called in New Zealand, in imitation of Scottish usage, and in remembrance of medieval practice, the capping ceremony; although there is no longer any capping and often very little ceremony. It consisted originally page 12 in the public initiation of a new doctor, master, or professor—his formal entrance upon the duties of his new office. It may be said to have consisted of four parts, the first of which was the formal granting of a license to teach in some particular faculty, i.e. formal admission as a master of the University. The form of admission of graduates in Oxford is worded to this day as a license to teach. Secondly, the new graduate is publicly presented or invested with the insignia of his office, namely a ring, a book, a chair, and a cap. The ring and the book have disappeared. The chair is still remembered in the customary mode of speech by which we term the professorship of law or of Latin the chair of law or Latin; but in standing up to lecture the modern professor has grievously departed from the more luxurious and dignified habit of his predecessors. The cap was the square biretta, which in a more or less modified form is still a familiar feature of academic costume. It was the recognised badge of an academic teacher. The third part of the capping ceremony was an inaugural lecture delivered by the new candidate—this being the public commencement of his duties. To this day in Scotland when a new judge is appointed, the ceremony of his elevation to the bench includes the trial of a case and a judgment delivered by him in the presence of his colleagues. The fourth and last part of the capping ceremony was a banquet, at which the new member of the University entertained his colleagues. In New Zealand the banquet still exists, but by some strange transformation the new graduates are the guests instead of the hosts.