VICTORIA UNIVERSITY COLLEGE COURT OF CONVOCATION.

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2655, 29 December 1915, Page 8

VICTORIA UNIVERSITY COLLEGE COURT OF CONVOCATION.

Sir,—Mr. C. J. Cooke has obviously misinterpreted the Victoria Collcigo Asts. According to the Victoria College Act, 1905, "A group of three .shall be elected (to tlio College Council) by such of the graduates ot the New Zealand University, whether admitted by examination o rad evndem gradum, as are, for the time being,'on the books of the college" (i.e., Victoria College). Now, it is clear that this power belonged not to bona fido graduates of Victoria College, as Mr. Cooke would' have it, but to what was "really" Convocation, it was not specifically called "Convocation" in the Victoria College Act; but in tile Calendar of the University of New Zealand this electing body was, and is, specifically designated the Court of Convocation (in cash college). See the University Act (page 7, University Calendar, 1914-15), Section 6, Sub-sectious 4 and 5 . The fact is the bona fide graduates of Victoria. College never 1-ad merely as such the exclusive right to elect mem'bera to the College Council. Only graduates.of the University of New Zealand (ad eundem or other) "for the time being on the books of the collegc" enjoyed that privilege. As for the Graduates' Association it never had, nor has it, any legal status whatever. If it lias had any part in conducting tin election of •members to the College Council it has been because the electorate proper, known as the Court of Convocation, delegated such power to it or (as is moro likely) because the Graduates 1 Association usurped such power! However, all that is of special concern to the public is that the Court of Convocation, the Graduates' Association, and the University Reform Association are really ■worked by the same machinery, and Mr. Cooke wouldi do the community good service if he would publish the names of all who attended and took an active part , in' the meetings of those august bodies during, 'tho past few years. As for what Mr. Cooke says about the value of science, I may say .I agree with him. Science lias liad every encouragement at Victoria College. The council believe in science, the Professorial Board believes in it. The students, unfortunately, do not, not because it is "too hard," or of little value, but simply because there is no prospcct whatever of their securing appointments worth having, if they give thoir precious time and energies to science. The prospects of the ■ students of law and medicine are of the brightest. Until there is some prospect of earning l'rom £500 to £1000_ a year as teachers of, or specialists in, science in the Dominion, the "demand" for science at our university colleges will bo inevitably meagre. .Specialism is a handicap to a teaclier in this Dominion. The specialist in scienco rarely secures a heaamastership. All that the average student of scienco (whoso work is quite as important as that of the lawyer or doctor) can confidently liope for is an assistant mastership, with a salary not much above that of an unskilled l labourer in steady employment 1 This explains bow it is that Victoria College, with its. generous, if not lavish, expenditure on the science department, has not turned out an average of ouo graduate in science annually since it was established! It is absolute waßto of energy on the part of this Dominion to provide so liberally for the teaching of science at our university colleges, while the prospects for teachers of, or specialists in, science are so rery unpromising.—l am, etc., FACTS.