NEW ZEALAND UNIVERSITY.

Globe, Volume IX, Issue 1350, 12 June 1878, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND UNIVERSITY.

pBKSEN'I'AXXQN Oj» B A. llll'LOMAa. The ceremony of presenting the diplomas of the University of New Zealand to those undergraduates of the University in Canterbury who were successful in obtaining the B.A. degree at the late examination took place yesterday at noon at the Provincial Council Chambers, Considerable interest was eyinced in the proceedings, a number of gentlemen interested in the cause of education being present, aB also several ladies. Amongst those present weyo the Chancellor of the University (Mr H. J. Tanored), Vory Rev. Dean Jacobs, M.A., Rev. C. Fraser, M.A., Rev. C. Turrcll, M.A., Dr. Foster, LL.D., Rev. C. Bowen, M.A., Profefsor Cook, Pev. Flavell, Dr. Coward, Messrs W. Montgomery (chairman Board Governors Canterbury ColJ. Inglis (chairman Torth Canterbury Board of iiiducation), Rolleston, 8.A., J. Colborne-Veel, M.A. (Secretary Board of Education), H. R. Webb, A. Duncan, F. G, Stedman (Registrar Canterbury College), W. M. Maskell (Registrar New Zealand University), A. C. Newton, 8.A., Professor Cook, and Rev. J. W. Stack, &c. A number of the undergraduates of the New Zealand University and students of the Canterbury College were also present. The possessors of tho various University degrees wore their gowna and hoods.

The recipients of the diplomas were Messrs A. C. Newton and 11. Hill, but the latter gentleman was unavoidably absent, having had to proceed to papier to commence hia duties as Inspector of*Schools there. It is worthy of note—a fact referred to in the addresses of some of tho gentlemen who spoke on the occasion-—that both gentlemen

have been, and are still, engaged in the work of education here under the Board. The Chancellor said —Gentlemen, we are met here to-day for the purpose of congratulating and doing honor to two gentlemen who have completed satisfactorily the curriculum of the University. I am sorry to find that ono of these gentlemen, who has completed satisfactorily the curriculum, is not able to be present, as ho is obliged in the discharge of other duties to be absent. One gentleman is however present. It has been ordered by the Senate of the University that wherever possible the degree of B.A. shou'd bo presented with some amount of form and ceremony. I have accordingly endeavoured to make it known as publicly as possible that this ceremony would take place here to-day, and have specially invited the authorities and members of the two affiliated institutions in this city, the members of the Board of Education, and the public generally. My duty is now to address the gentleman who is, I may say, the central point of our meeting hero to-day. I have to inform you, Mr Alfred Coombs Newton, that you have satisfied the teats required by the regulations under which you have been examined, and that you have become entitled to the honourable distinction of Bachelor of Arts of the University cf New Zealand, I would desire to remind you that this distinction is not merely one of local significance. "What we are doing to-day here is recognised throughout the British dominions. Under the charter granted to this University by the Queen, graduates of this University obtain the rank, the precedence, and consideration of graduates not only in this colony, but throughout the whole British Empire. You have now, Mr Newton, together with Mr Hill, become a member of that liberal fraternity of recognised literary men who, each in their several spheres, labor to spread knowledge throughout the civilised world. This is, let me here impress on you, a great privilege, and I speak strongly on the point of this privilege, because it enables me to point out the duties and corresponding responsibilities imposed on you thereby. As every privilege lias belonging to it honor and dignity, so it entails also corresponding duties and responsibilities. I would remind you in the first place that the ultimate object of the University, or indeed any educational institution, is not simply to award honors or degrees, but to promote sound learning. You will therefore not be carrying out the ultimate objects and aims of the University if you at this stage in your academical career, stop short and proceed no further. The success you have met with will, I hope, not be an end, but rather a beginning, not so much the end of your work as a preparation for future work. The very word graduate implies this, as it seems to say that you have reached a gradvs, a step that is towards the attainment of the higher branches of learning which your previous education will enable you to reach. The liberal education which you have as an undergraduate received will, I hope, so strengthen your faculties, will so give to you powers of application and have formed in you habits of accurate and correct thought as to make any profounder study in any higher branch of learning comparatively easy to vou. Such an education has not only a civilising and refining influence, calculated to form the taste, but is also a great—l was going to say the best—preparation for any special career or walk in life. It has been well said that the soundest lawyers have come forth from schools where law was never taught, and the most accomplished physicians from those where medicine was but a name. So it is that the training you have received as an undergraduate will fit you for every career in life, and will, I hope, make you all the moro able to follow any profession which you might choose. I will only say one word more. I would wish to remind you, and to make it known to this assembly, that every addition to the list of graduates in this University brings us nearer to the time when the University shall be capable of exercising its full powers. So soon as we have thirty Bachelors of Art s of two years' standing, or of higher degree, then Convocation will be constituted, and election to vacancies in the Senate, now exercised by the Government, will vest in the University itself. I hope it will not be long before this desirable consummation is accomplished, and the University thus rendered able to act on its own individual powers. I will say no more on this occasion, but present you with the degree which you have so well earned, and wish you succees in your future calling in life. [Cheers.] The Chancellor then handed Mr Newton the diploma. The Chancellor—l do not know whether any gentleman desires to say a few words on this occasion. If so, I am sure we shall be glad to hear him. The Bev. C. Fraser wished to congratulate the gentlemen who had that day received the honourable distinction they so well merited. He thought it a matter of congratulation for all the colonists of Canterbury that it was now apparent thuy possessed' all the means and appliances for the highest education, As one »4io had been in no way connected with the original Canterbury Association, he might be allowed to refer to the satisfaction which the members of that association must feel in these proceedings. They had contemplated from the first making this place a seat of learning, and providing the means of instruction from the elements to the highest departments of literature and science, and. iheysdw now the : .r a3phatiuns gratified at a much earlier data than'they could have anticipated. The gentlemen who now received their degree were to be congratulated not merely on the honour they obtained, but on the substantial and valuable qualities of the education by which they had secured it. Their course of study had noli iueen confined to subjects which couid be of little or no imaginable use in after years. They had acquired habits of thought and an amount of information which would be of great practical benefit to them, whatever occupation they might afterwards engage in. Their studies were such as to fit them for the aotive business of life, and not merely for the fruitless avocations of a semitorpid seclusion. But it must also be allowed that tney gained an equal benefit from the wide range of their pursuits, and from the exercise of their mental faculties upon many subjects outside of thoir usual sphere of labor. The late Sir Robert Peel had defended the studies of the old English Universities on the ground that thoy gave" thd- mind an impartial tone through exercise'upon matters : widely different from their future Occupations. He (the speaker) thopjjht that the same credit v.iigi>t be claimed for the studies of the New Zealand University from the wider field over which they led the students. Ho agreed with what had heen m& by ihe bhaneellor as to 11(0 imxuep&e advantage secured to men of professional engagements from the greater liberality of thought and freedom from local, personal, and departmental prejudices consequent upon their former acquaintance with other regions of literary and scientific activity. The business of that day was lull- of good augury fur the poiony. He hoped this would be the first of many such meetings, and that they would awaken a deep and general public interest in the proceedings of the University. (Cheers.) The Dean of Christohurch said as a member of one of the older Universities of Great Britain, he had great pleasure in congratulating Mr Newton on the degree which he had so worthily earned. He agreed with the Chancellor that this ceremony marked a great epoch in their history. Thev saw all around them si;;r\< of tho great material prosperity of the country, and an occasion like tho present, which marked the progresa also amongst them of the uxts and sciences, was one which deserved notice as a great era in tho history of tho country. He looked forward to the future of tho New Zealand University with tho deepest, possible interest, as all must do who wore interested in the growth of knowledge. He felt proud to have been admitted as an ad citudciu graduate of the New Zealand University, and looked forward hopefully to the time when it would exercise its functions and elect its owii Senate. 'Not until then could it exercise its full power, and attain, that power in the community in the sp/ead £f knowledge and learning to whicb it was entitled. He could not but congratulate Ms> Newton and Mr Hill in his absence on havirg obtained the degree of 8.A., and the Chancellor upon presiding on such an occasion. It was a great honor to Canterbury that the first Chancellor

of the New Zealand University should have been a Canterbury man, and one also who stood in the position of having been one of its first colonists, even before the historical first four ships. Tho Chancellor indeed was what might be called an ante-pilgrim. He might say, and he felt sure all round him would agree in this, that the honor could not possibly have fallen upon one more fitted than the present Chancellor. He trusted to be present on many occasions such as the present, and that the University would be the means of sowing the seeds of learning throughout the land. [Cheers.] Mr Rolleston said he desired also to add his congratulations to those of the gentlemen who had preceded him on the success achieved by Messrs Newton and Hill in having obtained the degree that day conferred. Botli gentlemen were engaged in the profession of teaching, and it offered very great promise for the future of education in this country when they saw that those engaged in +v >e profession of teaching evidenced their Determination -it to be left behind by any of tho other learned professions. He saw in this a link between the system of primary education and the higher branches of learning, and he hoped that this would not be lost sight of, but that part of the curriculum of the New Zealand University would bo part of the course to be followed by the teaching staff of the colony. Ho congratulated the teaching profession upon rising in the estimation of the public of tho colony, and that it was now before the world that thoßO engaged in that profession were as anxious to enter on the higher branches of learning to qualify them for their work as those intending to enter the Church, or study for the law or medicine. He heartily congratulated Mr Newton upon the honor he had won and the honor he had conferred upon the profession he had taken up. Rev. T. Flavell said there was one very great point to be noticed in connection with the ceremony of that day. He alluded to the age of the gentlemen who had taken the degree. This offered a striking example and incentive to the young men of the community to go and do likewise. Mr Newton—Mr Chancellor and gentlemen, —I have very much pleasure in thanking you for tho kind advice and congratulations you have this day tendered to me. On the present occasion I feel more inclined to lay stress on tho part which concerns me as a public teacher in the schools here. I have been for many years engaged in teaching under the Board of Education, and hope to remain for many more. There is nothing moro advantageous to New Zealand at large than raising the standard of public education, and, of course, this result will be due to a large extent to the raising and extension of tho knowledge of the teacher. I have been working hard for my degree, and am glad to see that I have been able to grasp subjects which are incalculably useful to mo in my work. I hope to see many teachers following my example, and show that even in the discharge of our arduous duties we can secure time for study. It is not alone useful to us in our profess on, but in a very great and important degree to those whom we teach. I have again to thank you very heartily for the kindly expressions made use oij towards me to-day. [Cheers.] Mr H. R. W e h D Ba id ha was glad to see so many youths present that day. He trusted that the ceremony that day would act as an incentive to them to push forward with their studies, and emulate those gentlemen who had so worthily earned their University degree. Three cheers were then given for Mr Newton and the Chancellor, and the proceedings terminated.