DEGREE EXAMINATIONS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 44, 16 November 1918, Page 6

DEGREE EXAMINATIONS

HELL) UP BY MINISTER OF HEALTH The University..'.degree.,- examinations, which began at Victoria; College on.November 5, were ycsleijday morning'slopped by the Minister of ,I'ubliq. .Health (the lion. U. YV. Russell)...Thc.?xai:iiiiations were • to have been continued .at 9.30 a.m. and IJO p.m. yesterday,.-:l;lic Chancellor of the' University (Sir Robert Stout), when interviewed yesterday, said that the stoppage of the exumi'milions was done .without his sanction;, 'find' without his being consulted bv the .'Minister, and.. he did. not ..know;! by what authority the "Minister had'done so. He could not see why twenty or, thirty'students could not meet and sit for an examination, when people, wero ..permitted to congregate in public;bars, and • even members of Parliament were, allowed to sit. '"" : '

'In connection with the postponement' the Minister of Public Health staled yesterday that his Department's nctiou was taken in .accordance' with information that a student who'-sal for' an nxnmihn- : tion one day in Wellington died the. following day from the .-complications: of influenza, and, that some., other students who had begun sitting,fo.r .examinations liad been unable to continue.' Papers/on this matter were referred at the weekend to the university authorities, but they had not-taken-action.-Air, Russell declares that in the interests of health it is vitally .important that the whole of the strength of students should he available to resist disease; -ami thai none of it should be lost.in the strain of exami: nations, during the. epideniie..,.'Phe instructions issued in ■Wellington has been sent.to llio four centres.

Sir Robert Stout, stated lasi; night that prior to • (ho -action of the Minister jinstopping the examinations there had been no commiinioaiioii with Air. Russell on the"matter. Mr. Norris came, to.'his office yesterday morning and informed liim that'the MinisteV.of Public Health; 'Ml peremptorily ordered that the students should be dismissed,-and the supervisor had obeyed tlio order.. , Sir "Robert Stout said lhot.be did not know that the Minislcr had any autliorfly in (he m'ajtc'r, and he considered, that thq supervisor had acted foolishly.' So far as lie knew no student who had sat at the examinations had died. It was true lhat a student had died from influenza, but'ho' had.not sat' at these -examinations ■ .' -.''..

The senate met last night and decided that everything possible should be .dpnn to' prevent the students being prejudiced by the stopping of the examinations. If was decided that the Minister of Education should be approached and requested to get a Bill passed this session conferring upon the senate authority to (jrant partial passes in the subjects, lhat the students have been examined in, and giving permission' for the students to sit for the other subjects 1ater....,-'