HELP FOR THE WEALTHY. Another Cheap Luxury Wanted.

Free Lance, Volume IV, Issue 191, 27 February 1904, Page 6

HELP FOR THE WEALTHY. Another Cheap Luxury Wanted.

THAT is a rather large order which the University Senate makes upon Parliament this week. Just £10,000 m hard cash for division between the University Colleges of the four centres. What for ? Oh, merely to build dormitories and dmmg-halls at each of these institutions, so that some very exclusive young men who attend them as students may go into residence at their alma mater, and be saved from contact with the common herd who live at home or m ordinary, vulgar lodging-houses. * * * We have no doubt that in bringing forward the motion, which was adopted on the voices, Sir Maurice O'Rorke had not the slightest suspicion he was preparing a way for setting up very objectionable class distinctions His solicitude was for the sons of settlers who might come to town to prosecute their studies at the University, and find it hard to get comfortable lodgings. But we think he is providing against a hardship and a difficulty which are non-exist-ent There is no lack of (cheap and comfortable lodgings for young men m the four large towns of the colony. And what answers well enough for the youthful clerk and the respectable artisan ought to suit the country settler's son who comes to town to keep terms at the University College ° * * * Of course, if h& has been born with a silver spoon m his mouth, and cradled m the lap of luxury, anything so common would be quite out of the question In that case, he can afford to pay for whatever superfine kind of living his proud and delicate stomach craves for On this question it seems to us that Professor Salmond and Professors Macmillan Brown and J. R Brown stated the case of sound, good sense and practical experience Professor Macmillan Brown thought the tendency of the hostelry system would be to assist the sons of wealthy men and not to benefit the poorer students. Professor J. R. Brown cited his own experiences as a student m Glasgow in support of his opinion that

the cost of living in a hostel was decidedly greater than in lodgings, and led to the growth of an obnoxious spirit of caste. * ♦ • That undoubtedly is the danger. The students who lived in College would form a kind of aristocratic club among themselves, establish an unwritten but none the less strict and exclusive code of rules, and make things very unpleasant all round for the poorer class of student who could not afford to keep the pace with them or had to work for his living In short, the College hostel system would tend to bring forth a set of university prigs and snobs of a sort too much m evidence elsewhere It is the same sort of spirit which leads to "ragging" in smart regiments. We hope it will not be tolerated in New Zealand. * * * Professor Salmond presented another aspect of the question when he urged that the £10,000 would be bet^ ter spent in augmenting the salaries of poorly-paid teachers. Butchers' assistants were receiving more pay than some of the second and third assistants in primary schools, and an M A. with honours is getting the wage of a carpenter. This is plain English, and" it carries conviction with it. Before we start to splash our thousands about in building dormitories and running dining-halls for university students, let us get nearer the roots of the tree of knowledge, and begin to pay a decent living wage to our sweated primary teachers. If we know anything of the temper of Parliament, that cool demand of the University Senate for £10,000 to ape the fashions of university life for the benefit of the smart set will receive a mighty short shrift