The Hadfield Memorial Hostel.

Side by side with the movement to provide a Hostel for women students in connection with Victoria College, considerable progress has been made in the direction of the provision of a Hostel for men students as a memorial to the late Bishop Hadfield.

The site selected is in South Terrace, Kelburne, and cost a little over £900. About a fortnight ago a contract with Messrs Wakelin and Son was sighed for the building of the first wing, the plans of which have been prepared by Mr F. de J. Clere, to accommodate 18 or 20 students, and will be of brick, costing £2,416. That sum is already in hand, but there is at present very little money available for the provision of furniture. The committee trusts that, now that the carrying out of the scheme has proceeded so far, the necessary balance for that purpose will be forthcoming .

It is hoped that His Excellency the Governor will consent to lay the foundation stone at the end of this month or the beginning of next, and that as many students as possible will endeavour to attend the ceremony.

With regard to the general scope of the institution, we quote the following passage from a letter received from the Lord Bishop of Wellington :—

"We hope in the first place that the hostel will serve as a college for the training of such members of the University as desire to offer themselves for the Ministry of the Church of England in the Dominion. We hope to provide special courses of lectures for these students, for whom at present there is no provision in the North Island except at St. John's College. We badly need a supply of clergy, New Zealand born, to work among their fellow countrymen.

"But we hope that these students, gladly as we shall welcome them, will form a small minority of the inmates of the Hostel, partly for their own sakes, and partly also because it is our wish to make a home for as many undergraduates as possible, whatever career they have in view. Those of us who have had experience of the working of collegiate institutions at Home have learned the value and the delight of residential colleges, of the opportunities they give for constant social intercourse, and how they constitute the strengthing of an esprit de corps among their members. We heartily hope, therefore, that many of the undergraduates who at present have no home in Wellington, and are at present scattered among boarding houses in the city, will become inmates of the Hostel.

"It is intended, of course, that the Hostel shall be self-supporting."