"GRADUATE OPINION"

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 71, 24 March 1934, Page 12

"GRADUATE OPINION"

(To the Editor.) Sir, —At the risk of flogging a dead horse, may I be permitted a few remarks on the statement in your issue of Thursday on the Victoria University College graduates! meeting. It is beside my purpose to comment on the reasons given for the holding of the meeting, except to say that the point of view expressed in the statement and the language used are the well-known conventions of a mere faction in college affairs.: ■> .

What I wish to draw attention to is that portion of the statement which reads "it was felt that the.council's attitude was so far out of touch with graduate opinion as expressed at the; meeting; that'an effort should .be made■»at once to secure representativess. more /closely voicing that opinion." The clear implication of this is that the; meeting,-, which was a purely local affair, was/entitled to representatives on the College Council'in place of the representatives' .elected by the; Court of Convocation;, in.:.other words, that the tail -was entitled ;to wag the'whole dog; - ' As/there is a feeling abroad- that the meeting has been thwarted in:a legitimate political 'device; it seems necessary to emphasise•„ the; fact thatvho me'etmg of graduates ' can :be / made representative simply by calling'it representative. Graduates are, in consequence of their training, highly: individualistic people, not disposed towards homogeneity in opinion. ; While a- meeting in: Wellington is quite competent to speak for,.graduates residing in- and about the city, iitvwould- have to. be supplemented by\^meetings in many 'other places ■in the- district' .before any statement; as to- "graduate opinion"' could be justified: The most that a meeting of city • graduates could do is-to give what demagogues,call "a lead." ;! , I suggest. Sir, that the obvious way put for the enthusiasts, in this city who wish to acquire an influence in college affairs is to form a local Graduates' Association: The recent meeting -'would have made a fine ■ commencement. The standing committee appointed at that.meeting has no standing so; far, as the Court of Convocation is iponeerned,. but,they could quite properly, f. and ■ (judging from their personnel) "usefully, represent, a local-associa-tion.' 1,,f0r one. hope that. this' committee's first work will be to regularise their statu^ by promoting the formation of a body: "to succeed the now defunct University Club.—l'ami etc.,

GRADUATE.