THE UNIVERSITY.

Evening Star, Issue 3186, 7 May 1873, Page 2

THE UNIVERSITY.

The following are extracts from the report of the University Council, for the year ended March ,?I,last :—The Council have instituted a law das# during the coining session, and aie in hopes thst it isay be in their power to institute classes in connection with memcine, but the arrangements are not yet sufficiently advanced to enable us to speak wore definitely upon this point, . > » • the number of books in the library in March, 1872, amounted to 528 volumes. Since then, to the 31st March last, there have been 332 volumes added, making a total of 800 volumes. . . The attempt at amalgamation having failed, we thought it desirable to petition her Majesty to grant to the University a royal charter, the memorial, with its accompaniments, was duly forwarded to the General Government at an early period of the last session of the General Assembly; and, as our Chancellor informs us, urgent appeals were made to the successive Governments which held office during ohe time that the Parliament mot, for its mmediate transmission to her Majesty; but 'Vom a telegram in the columns of the Daily /'hnes of the 24th inst., it does #ot apP ear to »ave been forwarded till the Ist of November last, and then accompanied by a memorial frou» t-Ji© New Zealand University, mat-

ing a similar request. The telegram above referred to is the oply information which th University Council at present officially possesses ; but as it appears to be authentic, tvdeem it necessary to allude to itr. From Lord Kimberley’S despatch of it Appeared that he had received the de|patc|i of H.B. the Governor, forwarding a petition from , the , Chancellor an d membon of the. University of New Zealand, praying that letteVa patent . might he granted, making degrees conferred »y th New Zealand University to bo recognised in the same manner as if the University had been established' by Royal charter or Imperial enactment ; and had a'so received a similar petition from the University of Otago. By a curious mistake, the first presented petition becomes the last. His Lordship expresses his opinion that Circumstances would not justify the granting of charters to two Universities; but, considering the terms on Which the New Zealand University was constituted by Act of the General Assembly, and its name, Ilia Lordship states that he would have supposed that this was the Uni-' versity which both Parliament and people regarded as the central University of the Polony, and which should, at the proper time, be authorised to confer degrees, and be entitled to recognition throughout the Empire; but he desires to await the decision of the Legislature as to the University upon which a charter should be conferred. It is premature at present to say anything beyond what is now stated, until the whole correspondence is in the hands of the Council, except to express our surprise that his L ordship should apparently be so ill informed as to the origin, present condition, and the emphatic condemnation of the New Zealand University in its present form by the House of Representatives, as to arrive at the conclusion he expresses,”