OUR PROVINCIAL UNIVERSITY.

Evening Star, Issue 4147, 12 June 1876, Page 4

OUR PROVINCIAL UNIVERSITY.

To the Editor.

SIK, —It is really discouraging to find with what readiness Colonial Communities often pick up the “ old cast clouts and rotten rags ” of older- countries, and endeavor therewithal to clpth§ and, as'-tfyey imagine, tp. adorn themselves.

If jbkere is one point oh- which the most advanced ■ nations of the worldare unanimous,;il{is the advantage of that universal co-operation which is known as free trade; and it is important to notice that, universal co-operation is the direct opposite of a comidea qf free-.trade is.that a community shall not waste its. power in ! either doing at all what-cah übe .better--doner elsewhere, or in doirig-'by-itself-'what call >be better done in combihation'-vriCh other communities.

tw, it, is evils of our Provincial _ thab jit appears absolutely to limit the horizon.; ofits adherentS fto the boundariea’of ;the Frovincei It is/thought that .we'umsK have? everything within our own borderer- and. be entirely self-contained. Thb has attained its of dining- absurdity "ih erect Otago into a Siy/ik.wbudd be wellfov tlie adherents of Proyipcialigm to consitler how entirely their efforts* are oppoaed to the.accepted principles of eowopferatiom They, talk largely of selfreliance, and of progress; the'simple fact .is that thsr notionstbe? notions that" cap be imaigihed.' Trtyincialism affirins and Free r trade denies (if it''4emeafcfiy thing) that it • ponftiaiu&y; '.ip ‘be. selfcontamea.

I'im led especially toake th&oremarks after reading’&tfreporfsand correspondence the siibjectbf the Otago 1$ great no sagacity, toJpeiihatfthe; institution, as it stands, is a the folly and selfishness of Provincialism. . The-matter may be presented in the forth of a dilemma. University was meant to be ta.Colonial . institution, drawing its students from beyond Otago; or it was meant to-be merely Provincial. If the former, then I affirm that it was unreasonable for us at this southern extremity of the island to take in-hand to settle for the whole Colony the And I would like to know bn what grounds we were entitled to assume that Canterbury (a Province swarming with ;XJniyersity men) would allow ns thus to anticipate and forestall her. If, on the other lhand, the institution were meant to be merely Provincial, then, surely, the unanimous voice of the community must condemn the vain ambition and ruinous waste of establishing a University for the benefit of a population of some eighty thousand persons. Nothing is more certain, in regard' to expensive, establishments such as- a University is, than that in proportion as they are needless they wilt he inefficient. A University, no more than a chandler’s shop, will be able | to keep up a large stock -on a slender con- i stituency. If there-sre few customers, they i must put up with an inferior article.. tftit'hdw, as if to show that there.'is a depth of folly 1 “heb'eatlrthe.lowest deep,” we hear of the establishment in Otago of a Medical School, hfelbburne has only rplite recently, with the entire population of Auatialia at her back, been able, to establish one, Sydney appears, .tp, ,be wisely reserving her strength-, for due occasion. She will not move till the time has come, and she can move to some purpose. No other Colony in Australia has seriously yet begun to consider such a proposal. And now, not New,-Zealand, but one of the Provinces of New Zealand, proposes to establish a medical school'! How can a population,.of 80,000 souls sustain a medical schools ;What past successes in higher edu : ,. catidtf,’ as! compared with sifter Provinces;, cauwb boast; to encourage this claim of preemffien<je,?; ’'Ub-weimaginethat Canterbury, a. cofflmnmty^aW'ricli:-in its traditions of . learning*as it Is proud' to parade them, wiil acknowledge ; . Pur blaiii ? will do no wifliiiafce it"a point of re*' putation -to intercept-every ethusnt to north of rfcer. aud ‘to setain.. her, owh.,: Wfcp )pagi&ee ftai sha -will' suffer de- "• '•'■ mV 3 . •;

feat in this contest with us ? And how gross the scandal, how infamous the waste, of two medical schools m the southern half of our little Colony ! ' But, is even that the limit ? Will not Auckland desire to have one ? And who can believe that the pride of the. Empire City will be satisfied to remain without one ?-1 am, &c., Graduate. Dunedin, June 10.