Other formats

    Adobe Portable Document Format file (facsimile images)   TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

The Spike or Victoria University College Review September 1927

Capping

Capping.

On Wednesday June 8th the Library was closed to all students. Its hallowed and historic calm was rudely interrupted by sounds of hammering, banging and profane speech; from Wednesday until Friday, Mr. Brooks, the Chairman of the Prof. Board, and their henchmen and henchwoman, worked hard at removing the Library heaters, erecting a huge platform, resplendently covered with scarlet baize, and arranging several hundred chairs in orderly lines. After such exhausting work both excitable principals looked worn, haggard and harassed.

Capping itself was held on Friday June 10th at 3.30 p.m. When the Registrar had lined up the graduates to his satisfaction in the cold corridor, he filed them into the Library like an executioner his victims to the block. After a space of a few minutes the principal guests of the afternoon arrived, to wit: His Excellency, the Governor-General, Sir Charles and Lady Alice Fergusson, the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates, a picture in pale pink and page 6 dark scarlet, with Mrs. Coates, Sir Robert Stout, Sir Francis Bell and some of the foremost citizens of Wellington. Soon the company was seated upon the platform. For a moment there was a rustling of gowns and paper, then a hushed silence, as Mr. McCallum worthy Chairman of the College Council arose, and in a speech of which any rhetorician might be proud, touched in a light and graceful fashion, upon such topics as: bequests to the College; hostels; the necessity of paying deference to the Governor-General; disorder in college life; beneficent desire of the College Council to make courteous men and women, etc., etc. (applause). Everyone consequently experienced a Decided moral uplift. So much so indeed, that some were surprised that Mr. McCallum did not lead the assembly in prayer.

In a speech of undoubted sincerity, the Governor-General pointed out that it was the duty of university people to bear in mind four things. First, Loyalty and all that it meant to Empire, Throne and Country; second, Service, which meant a close touch between man and man, and an effort to reconcile the interests of industry with those of humanity; third, Self-reliance; and fourth, the need for a vitalising religious influence without which all learning was as dust beneath the labourer's foot. His Excellency then presented the diplomas to the graduates, congratulating each in turn with a few well-chosen words. After this, the speakers seemed to have gained their second wind. The Prime Minister, in complimenting the College Council on its splendid work provoked a ripple of laughter by remarking that the academic robes he was wearing in no way represented a prolonged sojourn in halls of learning, but were purely honorary. Sir Robert Stout proposed a vote of thanks to the teaching staff of the College, on behalf of whom Prof. Florance replied in a characteristic style. Finally the Chairman sent a stir of life through the assembly by announcing that afternoon tea would be served immediately. Those who had been taking a clandestine forty winks awoke, while those who managed to keep awake relaxed their strained looks in pleasurable anticipation. Soon the library presented quite an animated scene ....

Although this is probably neither the time nor place, yet we cannot forbear to commiserate with those two heroes who spent the following Sabbath endeavouring to persuade the re-installed library heaters to become hot—only to find at the end of the day that they had forgotten to turn on the hot water circulating tap in the boiler room. Life must have seemed very humorous to them at that moment.