EDITH SEARLE GROSSMANN.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20180, 7 March 1931, Page 13

EDITH SEARLE GROSSMANN.

1 9 > A PIONEER IN WOMEN'S EDUCATION. (WICUIXT TOTTSK VOX m TBI8S.) [By Pbopessoe J. Maomxumn Brown.] The death -ofc Mr? Seaxle Grossmann the- mind' bac& to the early days of Canterbury College, when it led the' way in the University education of women. The University of New Zealand was the first in the British Empire to confer degrees on and now that almost • all Universities have followed suit the fact is apt to be .forgotten. " And amongst the University Colleges it. was Canterbury College that was foremost, in this movement; Though Otago inaugurated tJndversity education in, New Zealand, it was Canterbury that when- it started forged more rapidly ahead in it. It took the «ead„in the encouragement of women in this higher type of education, and for many years headed the lfst in the number of University scholarships ' and honours' that its women students took. Miss Edith Searle was amongst the first few to take a junior University scholarship, the two Misses Edgar and Miss Janette Grossmann being before her. She entered on her University course at Canterbury College in 1880, and took a University senior scholar.ship in' 1882. ' She gained her -B.A. in 1884, and her M.A. with < first-class honours in Latin and English, in 1885. The only essay prize that ior many years was open for competition to' University Btudents was the Bowen prise, given yearly for the best esßay on a set subject connected with the history of Britain or its colonies.- The subject for 1881 was "The influence whicji the sea has exercised on the development of English civilisation." Her future husband, Professor Gj-ossmann gained it, but she was mentioned as proxime accessit. Ip the following she gained' the prize for an essay on "The probable effect of geographical and 1 other physical conditions onthe future development of the Colony Qf iifew Zealand/? -Hpd there jsen prises for' essays on literary subjects or lor imaginative work, I have no hesitation from the splendid work she' dim in 'my classes in judging 1 that, she -wmld" gained them. Her whole bent Was towards the'imaginative and-philosophical, -In a period'when my lecture-room benches were erowdeji with of tjbe finest talent she kept easily in the front ; rank. II 'was not merely that -she was an indefatigable worker, 1 ' but that her talents ' - placed \her amongst--the foremost. never at a with apy question, however abstruse; and if it gave a' philosophical cue she could, expand- t<f-an unlimited; extent. She might havebeen a she had r learned •elocutionary methods of'expressing herself ojwlly, and been ' closely at'tkcheE t BOnjo. " crped. But„ she an .awkward Shyness that have'.interfered: - with the flow of/ Ifer * eloquence* at the 'wm the strongs] highly, ,Ss * Wf4hy ( with vn ? ' individuality tor phase of belief she was criticising* atfd would Of readily have tafcen t&e other-aide as-that' urging- ehe been .'in politics it would havip hamstrung htfr advocacy of ,nd hpr atfvßut.P6^ !§"§

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