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The Spike or Victoria University College Review Silver Jubilee 1924

Twenty-five Years

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Twenty-five Years

Here in the common clay,
Here in our strait demesne,
Lay we the stone in trust,
Waiting the fuller day,

Ode on the Laying of the Foundation Stone

of Victoria College, 27th August. 1904.

Devil hammering nail through mortarboard

Twenty-five years, so momentous a span in the lives of individuals, fill a very short space in the lives of great institutions. One generation fades into another. The hopes and fears of youth, with its struggle and its achievement are gathered into the kindly arms of time as the institution passes from generation to generation and from age to age. Yet each period of years gives some contribution to the general heritage and even a brief space may, under special circumstances, leave an enduring mark upon the character of an institution. There is no exception in the case of a University, which is perhaps the most permanent of our institutions. It survives heresy and revolution, for it has no dogma and no party. It is the one institution of man which has no interest to serve save truth alone. Is it possible to record after so short a space as twenty-five years anything of merit and worth in the life of one of the youngest of the Universities?

Before attempting to estimate the contribution of Victoria University College to our time, it is of interest to point out that a "Silver Jubilee" has some character of its own. "When the Golden Jubilee arrives, with its added laurels, few indeed of those who shared the high hopes of the foundation will join in the songs of praise. War and pestilence have already thinned the ranks, but there are still left many whose faces we may expect to see at Raster-time who waited impatiently through the negotiations and delays preceding the arrival of the first professors, and gathered expectantly at the inaugural lectures. This Silver Jubilee is the last of those great anniversaries at which the generations of Victoria College may expect to mingle with the very founders; at which the founders may join hands with those who have been fellow-worshippers at the common shrine. Fate has ordained, besides, that these first years should be peculiarly important ones. They would have been important in normal page 2 times, as all foundations are important. The times, however, have been abnormal. The College has been called upon to take its part in some of the great movements of our time. It is not inappropriate that we should consider how we have fared.

It would be out of place here to give an historical sketch of the events in which Victoria University College has played her part. The foundations of her corporate life were laid during seven years in which her students attended evening classes in buildings scattered about the City of Wellington. When, on the 30th March, 1906, the new building was opened some traditions had already been established. From the very difficulties and hardships of the situation, and under the influence of common interests and ideals, there developed a very vigorous and united spirit. The Professors were young men prepared to face adverse conditions and always ready to co-operate in the common cause. The numbers were not unwieldy. When they were too small every new helper was a new friend. The women of the College contributed their full share and a basis of camaraderie was established which helps to explain the outstanding enthusiasm and loyalty which may still be found among the pioneers. It is certainly not an unmixed blessing to enter a world in which all things are provided. At the time Victoria College went to "The Old Clay Patch" at Kelburn the Students' Association was an important and responsible body, most of the University Clubs had been founded, and "The Spike" had long been accepted as a candid friend and critic of the body politic.

The years between 1906 and 1914 were marked by a gradual extension of University activity and by a striking increase in the number of students. The unity and concentration of interest which was possible with a roll of two hundred names became impossible as the numbers mounted beyond five hundred. In the inner circle, however, the old spirit survived and the best traditions of service and loyalty were maintained. Then came the war.

With the great cataclysm of 1914 and its profound effects it is not our purpose to deal. In a memorial number of "The Spike" Victoria College told the proud story of the love and sacrifice of her sons. As in the arts of peace, in learning and in manly sport, she had already taken an honoured place, so in war she took rank with the Universities of the Empire and stood shoulder to shoulder with them in devotion and duty. These things we know and the story is written in its place.

Let us now ask what special contribution Victoria University College has made to the life and spirit of our times, what impression she has made upon her children and upon her kindred. Those who have been associated with the turmoil of the academic world in New Zealand during the past two decades will perhaps turn first to the place the youngest of the Colleges has taken in the great fight for University Reform. It is hardly possible to-day to realise the contentment with which the Chancellor of the University twenty years ago was able to contemplate our system and to count upon an almost unanimous approval from three University Colleges. Then came the University Reform Association with the driving force of the young and vigorous intellects which gave distinction to the staff of Victoria University College. At first the Reformers were said to be wrong and were called Revolutionaries. In due course the onslaught could not be resisted page 3 and voices were heard saying that the Victoria University College professors were attempting to do the right thing in the wrong way. In due course the balance swung to the side of progress. It seems at last that the battle of Reform has been won, that when a mature scheme is propounded its victory is sure. That scheme will include the abolition of the University of New Zealand and the constitution of four separate Universities. The external examination as it exists to-day will suffer the fate it so richly deserves. The new Universities will, within their own limits, follow their own genius and seek salvation along their separate paths. Reputation will no longer be divorced from character for it will be founded on real values. It would be unjust to undervalue the great services to the cause of Reform rendered through the years by individual members of other Colleges but none will deny that Victoria College was foremost in the fight; that, during long years, she stood almost alone. We have great reason to be proud of the little band of men who led us through those years. Some are scattered, some still lead the cause. To all we bend the knee. They have brought honour to our name.

The struggle for University Reform which has touched the spirit of our corporate life gained its inspiration from the Professoriate. It cannot be without interest that a substantial claim to merit may be lodged on behalf of the student body. At the University we may expect that contemporary movements in art and literature will be known and appreciated. It is not every decade which can make an original contribution to art or literature. Yet it is true that, after eleven years, Victoria College became the first of the New Zealand Colleges to publish a volume of verse. It is not claimed that "The Old Clay Patch" is a great contribution to the world's literature. It gives a strong impression of vigorous life and generous enthusiasm and no anthology of New Zealand verse will in future be complete which ignores the verses written in and around Victoria College. That the talent available during those years was turned to the uses of Carnival Literature was extremely fortunate for the College. The programmes, beginning with 1906, have a distinction rare in productions so ephemeral in nature, so hastily conceived and so quickly executed. When the world has recovered from its craze for "revue" and "cabaret" there is hope that Victoria University College will remember that it had a tradition. That tradition demanded that the academic year should be celebrated with something at least different from third-rate musical comedy; something with echoes, more or less distant, of a University. If, in the time that is before us, the commercial spirit be exorcised and the true spirit of comedy invoked, the models of pre-war days will be found a profitable study. It is not too much to say that, on the small world of letters struggling for existence in New Zealand, Victoria College has left its mark, and in the department of topical verse it has provided a monument. The achievement, for what it is worth, is worthy of record. The spirit of a generation or an age is most surely judged by its written word.

We are too close to the events of which we write to be sure that we can place them in the true perspective of history. The tenacity and purpose of our University Reformers, the talent of our most cherished writers, may, in the progress of events, find their places in oblivion. There is one episode in our life, however, which does not deserve to fall into the "blue waters of forgetful page 4 ness," an episode which will link us with the years. In those days of anxiety and sorrow which followed the outbreak of war the cause of our country was the cause of all. Our men, with their kind, deserted the lecture-hall for the camp—but if loyalty to our country was undoubted, that loyalty was of no base sort. It did not forget that, if the cause of the Allies were worth fighting for, the fight was in the cause of justice. When the mob raised its hue and cry against the very name of German and the note of passion and unreason was lifted against our doors, the Council of Victoria College, expressing as it did the ancient University spirit of our race, threw back the challenge. Many who would have spoken in that cause had already given their lives when the controversy reached its tragic climax. Passion for the time prevailed, but the fight, though lost, was not unworthy. It required an Act of the General Assembly of New Zealand to break the resistance of Victoria University College. The Council spoke in the cause of high patriotism, of loyalty and of justice. It certainly spoke in the name of Victoria University College and to that name it brought dignity and honour.

Those who have been most closely associated with Victoria College have tried to believe, and do believe, that those who represented her have, in general, been animated by a generous spirit of fair-play. In matters such as the selection of Rhodes Scholars, where an unfaithful recommendation and support would prejudice the New Zealand choice, there was, at the beginning, a scrupulous regard for truth altogether admirable. There is reason to believe that the tradition has prevailed. In University Councils, we think, no scholarship has been won, no honour conferred, no measure passed, because our representatives have banded together to serve a local purpose or serve a parochial interest. Our representatives have individually, no doubt, made mistakes but they have never banded together in the cause of plunder.

We have lived through twenty-five memorable years, years fraught with great purposes and momentous issues. We have mingled with men proved in peace and tested in war. We know at least that our College has not betrayed the heritage of the great. Of her sons she has no cause to be ashamed. They have taken their part, and no unworthy part, in the life of a stirring epoch. Here and there it is possible to trace the paths their feet have trod in the march forward, though in the main they must needs join the throngs along the main highroads of life. It is easier to judge them as they march alone, but we know that what there is of beauty, of gallant bearing and unstained honour, is not lost in the dark places which no man seeth. The beauty, the courage, the honour are our heritage. Never in the course of history has a long-suffering world held them more in need. Half the world is starving and the rest bordering on chaos. What the next twenty-five years may bring no man may say. The traditions of all institutions are in the melting pot. The Anglo-Saxon races are called to face grave issues and serve great ends. May the historian of the Golden Jubilee be able to record that our traditions came from the fire, hard and true; that Victoria University College played her part in the achievement of those high purposes to which our race is called.

F. A. de la Mare.

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The Old Clay Patch

The Old Clay Patch

Site of Present Building

Spell-O!

Spell-O!

Excavating Party on Tennis Courts

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Alma Mater 1924

Alma Mater 1924