A DISTINGUISHED STUDENT.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1483, 4 July 1912, Page 4

A DISTINGUISHED STUDENT.

MR. ALAN MACDOUGALL: RHODES I SCHOLAR, Mr. Alan Macdougall, New Zealand Rlhodos Scholar.for 190 D, has been awarded first-class honours in English and lit. craruro (states a Press Association mes« sage from London). Mr. Macdougall, who is a nephew of Mrs. Alexander Macdougall, of Wellington, was selected New Zealand Rhodes Scholar, and went Homo tx> Oxford in 1903. In view Of his achievements iu English and literature, it is interesting lo know Hint Mr. Macdougall, when he came to Wellington as a small boy, could not speak English, Gaelio being his mother tongue. A private tutor was engaged tn teach tho boy his English. Later ho ivas sent to tho Terrace School—the Terrace produced another renowned Rhodes Scholar in Mr. P. W. Robertson-aud passed thence to Wellington College, completing his studies at Victoria College, where Ilia studies in English classics earned him high distinction. It was expected, when lie was selected, that Mr. Macdougall would specialise in English when he went Home. Professor Mackenzie (English language and literature) regarded him as the ablest student iu English since the foundation of tho College. "Ho is undoubtedly the best allround candidate that Victoria College haa yet produced," observed Professor Brown {classics); "Mr. Macdougall," slated Professor Von Zedlitz (modern languages), "won the Jacob Joseph Scholarship, involving a courso of original nost-graduato work, and I have advised him to undertake a subject—the history of the chanson in French pronunciation in the nineteenth ccnturv— beyond the range of the over-a-ro honours student, which, when compielod, should constitute a valuable help to teachers of French, on linos which have not so far been attempted. . . . ne is tho only student of French who, without any special advantages of training or fortuitous circumstances, has learnt to write French not rccognisablo as ui« handiwork of a foreignar."