CAPPING CEREMONIES.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1659, 28 January 1913, Page 3

CAPPING CEREMONIES.

Sir,—l havo been reading with interest tho_ remarks of the Chancellor- of 'the University,' Sir Robert Stout, on the subject of capping ceremonies. He has added to the list of quite unthouglitful remarks, an illustration which, but to his academic mind, is really a very, good, joke on himself. I refer to the occasion on which tho Victoria College students left the hall in a. body when lie. himself was spe.iking. Previous to tlio ceremony,' Sir Robert had informed the students that if they did not caro for his speeches he would prefer, instead of the unseemly noise they were in the habit of making, tho more. orderly course of leaving the room and allowing him to finish , his speech to those who could appreciate it. We—l may say .that at that period I was,' to my regret, a studelit at that great'night school called Victoria College —heard r,n .excellent authority that Sir Robert"s speech would occupy some thirtyfive or forty minutes. At a general meeting it was unanimously decided that 15 • minutes iif his address was all we could be expected to put up with, and - tho upshot of it was that at the end of tho 15 minutes wo walked out, quietly and orderly, and not in the grossly disorderly way he alleges. Now, the fact that .wo" adopted his own suggestion might lead Sir Robert to moderate, his statements, and, to put it mildly, bring them a little more in a lino with what actually happened. He is apt to forget that the ceremony is one conferring honour oh tho graduates, and not on the Senate of'which he is such an ornate member. I agreo with him that anything outrageous to tho feelings of his dear Senate, or even to t'hat inconsequent body of people known as "tho public" is to bo deprecated, but that the Senato should make jt an occasion for showing off how wellbehavcd tlieir'little classes can be. is, in my opinion, quito absurd. The only occasion on which a enpping ceremony at Victoria Collego was unseemly in all my years thero was on one occasion, when Sir Robert'was absent. The students wero proved to have n small fund of common sense, a virtue Sir Robert denies them, by acknowledging that they were rowdy, and deciding to take steps to prevent anything of the sort happening again, and they have kept their promise in mind. Now, I am trespassing on your space, and I will conclude by venturing to remind Sir Robert that ho is not tho university nor the Senate, nor does he hold a proxy •for.the minds of the better-class students. Jic-causo we have not all that lack of spirit only attained by a surfeit of years, wo cannot expect to bo pulled along by eno ear liko a lot. of unruly children, and I predict that if Sir Robert is successful in his limitations of tho capping ceremony he will deliver his next capping Bpeoch lo the empty air,—l aur. etc., GRADUATE.