NEW ZEALAND UNIVERSITY.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1704, 6 August 1879, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND UNIVERSITY.

The following remarks wore delivered by the Hot. 0. Fraser yesterday on the occasion of the presentation of the degrees of B.A. to Messrs Fitchett and Hay : The Rev. 0. Fraser—Mr Chancellor, my Lord Bishop, and Ladies and Gentlemen —It cannot be said that in the general course of colonial life the interests of the higher education or the details of University studies are too often or too strongly sot forth. And it may therefore be allowed on such an occasion as the present to offer some considerations bearing upon these topics. The Chancellor of the University has done me the honor of requesting me to act on his behalf this year in presenting diplomas to those who have gained

them in Christchurch, We may aurely congratulate ourselves on the fact that at ao early a period in the history of tho colony a University has boon established, tho means of instruction provided, and young men found willing to devote themselves to these studios, and able to win an honorable degree. You may be assured, on tho testimony of the examiners and of the members of the Senate, that the results of tho examination will compare worthily with those of the older Universities, whether in tho mother country or in tho other colonies. The young gentlemen who this day receive their diplomas have earned them only by tho exorcise of mental powers and tho possession of actual attainments, by which they would with equal readiness have gained them at any University at which they chose to study. Unquestionably tho object of this University, founded and endowed by tho voice of Parliament, is to provide an education of the best and highest kind. It proposes to open up no royal road to knowledge, to tempt to no popular smatterings of languages or of sciences, but to present to the ardent, studious ambitious youth of this colony the widest possible range of learning and of scientific research, and to offer its rewards only to the most exact and thorough work. And here I may be permitted to refer to a topic which is of tho last importance to the intellectual development of students. It is tho question, How far may a wide range of study be combined with thoroughness ? My answer is, combine them. The extent and degree to which you can do ao must depend upon the vigour and versatility of your mind, and (he energy of your application. But let mo entreat you not to make your dread of shallowness an excuse for indulging in tho mental torpor of a mill-horse round of study, nor to make your ambition to excel in every branch an excuse for trifling with all. It is the special aim of the University course to free the mind from that narrowness e.nd illiberally which usually belong to tho exclusive devotees of any one pursuit. Rightly pursued, the University course gives every student the means of finding what is the particular bent of his mind, and what kind of study, occupation, or profession ho may most hopefully choose for the business of his life. At the same time his wider range of study will have taught him respect for tho powers of mind called into play in those departments which are most alien to his own. He will not fancy that an acquaintance with tho ancient classical languages entitles him to despise tho labors of Hunter, Ouvior, or Owen; neither will he imagine that any intimacy with tho great modern discoveries in natural science can warrant him in thinking lightly of tho study of language, that grandest product of human thought, or the wonderful view in tho remote past of human history afforded by philological research. This catholicity of sentiment taken along with the opportunity of fully testing his own mental powers, should be enough to bespeak a high value for tho 'great variety of academic studies. But the mere exercise given to the different faculties of the mind is of itself most important. Perhaps we should be warranted in maintaining that the exercise thus provided for the faculties which are weakest in the student is of at least equal value. It is well for a young man to know his deficiencies, and to have the opportunity of remedying them. If he be weak in the faculty of observation, he exercises and devolopes what ho has, in the several departments of natural history. If the power of expressing his thoughts bo feeble, it is strengthened by an acquaintance with several languages. He learns to express the same thought in a variety of forms ; and so, also to recognise tho thought itself independently of mere words. If he be weak in tho faculty of sustained attention and consecutive reasoning, he is disciplined and improved with Mathematics and Logic. If he need a greater power of applying the knowledge he has acquired, and of doing the work by the means within his reach, he finds the necessary training in the many branches of Physical Science. And if he need to be taught patience in attending to minute objects with the hope of great results, he finds in the chemical laboratory endless examples of the importance of almost microscopical quantities, and patient, quiet investigation, followed by startling and brilliant discoveries ; and if, indeed, “the proper” though the most neglected “ study of mankind is man,” he may turn to the history of the past, the various forms of government, the civil, military, and economic laws under which men have lived, he may cast an inward gaze upon the wondrous microcosm of thought, feeling, taste, imagination, will, in its evervarying moods and most unbending laws, and from all these may learn to know himself— to sympathise with his fellow-man —to recognise his duty, and to perform it. It may appear demanding too much of students to insist on attention to all those diverse subjects ; but good reasons and high authority might bo given for doing so. Cicero affords us both when ho says—“Omnes artes quoo ad humanitatom pertinent, habent quoddam commune vinculum, et quasi cognatione quadam, inter se continentur.” With such connection and such relationship subsisting between them, there cannot bo tho overwhelming difficulty someassertin giving common attention to them all. Lopsidedness, however admirable in a few of the inferior animals, cannot be recommended as an excellent thine in man. Our own Milton, that great master of the English tongue, and greater in prose than even in verse, affirms that “ that education only can bo considered as complete and generous which fits a man to perform justly, skillfully, and magnanimously all tho offices, both private and public, of peace and war,” So much of this education as .each man is capable of attaining tho University places within his reach. No one may be able fully to master every subject; but every man may make sure that what he has learned is accurate and is thoroughly understood. That prince of Professors, the late Dugald Stewart, of Edinburgh, says —“ It ought not to be the leading object of anyone to become an eminent metaphysician, mathematician, or poet, but to render himself happy as an individual, and an agreeable, a respectable, a useful member of society. A man who loses his sight improves the delicacy of his touch ; but who would consent, for such a recompense, to part with the pleasures which he receives from the eye?” The moral of all this, as addressed to you the students of the University, is that you should give earnest, honest attention to every department of study, believing that every item of knowledge will become useful in your after career, Spurn the advice which bids you trifle with the classics—- “ Yos exomplaria Grcoea Nocturna yersate manu, versate diurna.” The literature of the world has yet to find a greater epic poet than Homer, a greater naturalist or reasonor than Aristotle, a greater philosopher than Plato, a greater historian than Thucydides, a greater orator than Demosthenes. Shakespeare himself is not more sublime than Eschylus, more reflective than Sophocles, nor more tender than Euripides, such a literature must well repay your labor. Only, remember, there are other literatures to be mastered now. There is a wider range of authors to be selected from. But what you do read, read thoroughly. Never fear lest you develops into Admirable Crichtons, or characters of that sort. There is little danger of any such catastrophe. Work your best at everything you undertake, and bo assured that the work and the knowledge“and the skill will be useful in the aftertime. It is very noteworthy in tho history of modern discoveries and inventions how many have been suggested by the side lights from apparently incongruous subjects. Galileo’s discovery of equality of time in the vibrations of the pendulum was largely owing to his medical studies and his acquaintance with tho pulse. John Hunter ascribed much of his success in anatomy to his early practice as a joiner. Gibbon declared that his experience as a captain of tho train bands—like John Gilpin—near London, helped him mightily in writing his Decline and Fall of tho Roman Empire. Darwin’s great theory of evolution seems to have had its origin in his own and his father’s botanical studies. The history of science is full of illustrations of the advantage gained from these side lights. There are two special grounds on which I would seek to establish the great importance of University learning in a young and rising colony like Now Zealand. Tho one is the great necessity which exists for raising tho standard of education throughout the whole community. Already there are threatening symptoms that Great Britain is in danger of losing her commercial and manufacturing supremacy among the nations—and mainly through tho comparative ignorance of her working men. Germany triumphed in the last war with France by tho superior intelligenee and capacity for acting alone possessed by her individual soldiers. It is tho common education enjoyed in the United States that multiplies the Yankee notions and sends American implements in husbandry, in carpentry, and in railways into nil tho markets of tho world,

Neither the old country nor the young colony can submit to be distanced in competition ; a d t) prevent this wo must educate, educate, educate —in the primary schools, the middle oloss schools, and the University. To make the education of the country successful it must be complete in all its parts. The second ground on which I would urge thefimportance of University education is that we must train rightly and wisely tho strongest and keenest intellects, from whatever class they may spring. Tho true prosperity of a country depends largely on the character of its public men. In this country the highest prizes of political life are—or in a generation will bo — within the reach of its men of intellect and force of character whatever rank they belong to, the political leaders of the next generation will be tho clever lads of the present. They may either be demagogues or statesmen, bn they will infallibly come to the front. It should be our aim, by placing the Univorai training within the reach of all who care for it and are likely to benefit by it, to see that our ablest men shall be statesmen and not demagogues. The education, tho training, tho long habits of obedience involved in the course of school, academy, and College learning, are at least one guarantee of power to rule. They only can rule well who knowhow to obey. I cannot avoid congratulating you on tho suitableness of tho place in which wo are met for such an occasion as the present, : and expressing the hope that it may be permanently secured for similar purposes. If our University is to have a local habitation as well as a name, where could it be more fitly placed than on the banks of the Avon, and in a building so suggestive, in tho very style of its architecture, of the long centuries during which the pursuits of learning have been peacefully and successfully followed in England. (Uhojrs.j The power of legislation has departed from within these walls, and is not likely to return. This comely building needs a suitable tenant, and is psculiarly fitted for tho purposes of tho University. Its graceful columns and curiously wrought capitals, its high vaulted roof, chevroned with bars of gold and rich oat color, the tracery of its windows, in which the light of heaven streams through mottoes of piety and wisdom, are surely meant to remind us of what genius, and wealth, and taste, and artistic skill, and patient toil, have done to adorn the homo of freedom in tho northern seas. They seem to tell us that to make these islands a Britain of the South wo must transplant more than the power of manufacturing cheaply and of bartering our goods to a profit—that we must bring with us and cherish those institutions of Government and law and learning and religion which have se long flourished in the homo country in such halls as these, which alone give a true value to life, and are essential to the freedom, prosperity, and happiness of the people, And no occasion can be more appropriate to such surroundings than the ; r sent, when we meet to do honor to the young men who have distinguished themselves in tho course of their preparatory training, and now go forth to the actual business and responsibilities of life. Such a place as this is needed by tho University. It is here ready to hand, built at a very considerable cost, almost useless for any purpose but admirably suited for tho University, and requiring no outlay on tho part either of the Government or of any local authorities. I again give expression to the hope that it may be secured for tho University. And now one short word to you, graduates and undergraduates, as to your duty to the University with which you have connected yourselves. It was tho fate of some of us in the old country on receiving our degree to be bound by oath to obey tho laws, promote tho interests, and defend the honor of our Alma mater. Without the oath the same duty is binding upon you. It is upon the results of your academic career, your future conduct and your character that the honor of tho University mainly depends. Tho colleges may have the wisest of Governors and the ablest of Professors, and yet they would fail of success unless you proved yourselves worthy. By your eminence in learning and by your success in the business of life, jou will honor your Alma mater and do good to your country, as well as benefit yourself, above all by a pure and just and honorable life. “ Self-reverence, self-knowledge, selfcontrol— These three alone lead life to sovereign power —power to live by law, Acting the law we live by without fear.” At all times be true to yourselves, your country, and your God. [Loud cheers.] The proceedings then terminated.