THE UNIVERSITY SENATE IN SESSION.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 50, 28 February 1881, Page 4

THE UNIVERSITY SENATE IN SESSION.

(N.Z. Times.) The chief apartment of ibat famed institution, Bellamy's, has for th,e past few days Been used as a debating ball by the University Senate, and if it could bo aeen bow by a strongly antiTemplar M.H.B. he would he would probably quote " To what base' uses," &c, while Sir W. Fox would perhaps exclaim, "Look on this picture and then on thai !*' The associations of the place have not, of course, had the least ibfluence on so grave and reverend a body as the Senate — probably they could hold a long session in a distillery oi* wine vault and come out immaculate. The sittings have not been lengthened, as Reohabifes say thoae of the House »re, by frequent visits to tbe best-known corner of the rcom; in fsc», to prevent the minds of senators from becoming abstracted, and possibly to remove temptation from the D»th of youtfc — tbe University is only ten years old — that corner haa been strongly boarded off during the sittings. Tbe general appearance of the room ia naturally quite different from its normal state in session time, when the establishment is kept at high pressure ministering to legislators. Far leas noise is made by the senators than by the Assembly, and the proceedings of the latter as compared with those of the latter (in Bellamy's) are decidedly dry — in a double sense-not to say monotonous. In a letter received by the Senate yesterday, it is styled an "August Body," and it viould never do for an august body to make the peculiar combination of sounds that came floating tbrought Bellamy's door during an adjournment of the House. Twenty sen&tors do not make as much noise as Mr Banny and Mr Pyke holdipg an argument; and John Lundon and Mr Speight discussing a point — the one with a pewter pot and the other : with a glass of water, held rather conspicuously — would emit a greater volume of sound in half an hour than tbe Senate doea in a sitting. There is nothing more patent than a water-bottle on the Senate table, while a filter is kept in reserve on tbe eide-bo&rd. Tbe course of University legislation is, therefore, unaffected by tbe unhallowed atmosphereof Bellamy's; — iu fact, it iB even tioped the solemn and decorous itfluenceß imparted to the place by the august body may survive till next session, and have a permanent ameliorating effect on the habitue) of the establishment. But that eeems too much to hope for, and probably tbe statistics of total consumption during next session will equal ihose of former years, while a sonometer would register the usual volume of noise emitted. However, the Senate will leave tbe filter las a silent monitor to our legislators, and who knows what great effects may from little causes spring ?