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The Spike Golden Jubilee Number May 1949

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The invitation to write a message for the Jubilee number of The Spike gives me the opportunity to express a thing that has for years been present in my mind. It is the realisation of the great help that I have always received from students whether they were taking my subject or not. The friendliness and confidence they have always shown, the freedom with which many of them have discussed their problems have constituted much of the pleasure of life and to the students of those many years I express my gratitude.

Mutual understanding between teachers and students marked the College from its earliest days. The four foundation professors on their arrival from overseas were awaited by a body of men and women eager to enter upon a university career. A considerable proportion of them were somewhat older than first year students usually are and not a few had high ideals and the purpose to carry them into effect. Professors and students founded a College in which academic aim and lofty purposes were to go hand-in-hand. So successful were they that it can be truly said that there has not been a year from the foundation of the College until now in which many men and women of cultured intellect and noble purpose have not gone forth from the doors of the College to take their fitting place in the world.

In its first half-century the College has made healthy and vigorous growth and it can offer many advantages to the student of today. Its buildings, although already outgrown, are such as men can work in: its library is well-ordered, and is growing rapidly: there is a keen and devoted staff": there are many scholarships and other benefactions founded by men of wealth and goodwill: and, above and beyond, there is a tradition of earnest purpose. In the world's fight for freedom its men and women have played a very gallant part. Let the students of today and of the days that follow be but true to this tradition and the College will become as great and noble as any seat of learning ever has been.

H. B. Kirk,

Professor of Biology 1903-1944.

Tauranga, 2 April, 1948