NEW ZEALAND UNIVERSITY.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5375, 19 June 1878, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND UNIVERSITY.

The following, is the speech of the Chancellor of the New Zealand Uuiversity at the presentation of the diploma of the B.A. degree at Christchurch on the lltn instant : -

“We are met here to* day for the purpose of congratulating and doing honor to two gentlemen who have completed satisfactorily the Uuiversity curriculum. X am very sorry to find that one of those gentleman is not able to attend to-day. He has been obliged, in discharge of his other duties, to be absent. There is one gentleman, however, here in attendance. It has been resolved by the Senate of the University that wherever it is practicable the diploma for the degree of Bachelor of Arts should be presented with some amount of form and' ceremony. X -have accordingly endeavored to make it known ns publicly ns I could that the ceremony would take place here to-day, and specially invited the authorities and members- of the twe affiliated institutions of this city, the members of the Board of Education, and the public My duty now is to address the gentleman who is, I may say, 1 the central point of our meeting here to-day. I have to. announce to you, Mr. Alfred Ooombes Newton, that you satisfied the test presented by the regulations under which you have been examined, and that you have become entitled to the honorable distinction of -Bachelor of Arts in the University of New Zealand, and I would remind you t’nr-t this distinction is not one of mere local significance. What we are here doing to-day is recognised throughout the British dominions under the charter granted to" this University by the Grown. ■ Graduates of this University obtain the rank; 'precedence, and consideration of graduates not only in this colony, but in the whole British Empire. You, Mr. Newton, and Mr. Hill too, I may add, have become members of that widespread fraternity of learning, that bond of recognised literary men to teach knowledge in our common schools to the civilised world. This is, lot me remind you, a very great privilege, and I dwell strongly upon the greatness of this privilege because it enables me to point out at the same time the corresponding duties and responsibilities which fire thereby imposed upon you. As every privilege has an honor and dignity, so every privilege entails - duties and . corresponding : responsibilities. And, in the first’ place, I would remind you that the ultimate object of a University, or, indeed, of any other educational , institution, is not to confer degrees' or : to award marks of distinction, but to promote sound learning. You will, therefore, not fail to carry into effect 'the intentions and wishes of the University. If you, at this stage, stop short and abandon the pursuit of studies which you have commenced, you will fail in this. The success which you have met with will not, I hope, appear to you to be the end, but rather the beginning—not so much the completing of : your work as the preparation for future work. The very term graduate seems to suggest this, for it indicates that you have reached a stage — gmdus , step—and I trust that in the higher walks of learning your 1 previous training will enable you to make your work more thorough. The liberal and general education which, as an undergraduate, you have received, will,- I hope, so help to strengthen your faculties and will so have given you. powers of application, and have formed in you habits of- accurate and correct thought, that will make ; any profounder study of special, branches of knowledge comparatively easy for you. ; Suoh : an education has not only a refining and civilising influence, which not only is calculated to form : your tastes, but is also a very great—l was going to say the best—preparation for. any special career of employment in life. ' It has been well said that the soundest legal knowledge has come from schools where law was never taught, and the most accomplished physicians have been Cultured where medicine was but in name —-and so it is that the training which you have received as au undergraduate will fit you, I hope, for every employment in life, and will make you all the more able to follow any purpose which you may choose. I will only say one word more, and that is to remind yon, and to make it known to tliia assembly, that every admission to the list of graduates in this University brings us nearer to the time when the University will be capable of exercising its full power. So soon as we have thirty bachelors of two years’ standing, or of a higher degree, than a convocation is constituted’and the election to vacancies in the Senate will be exercised, instead of by the nomination of Government, by the University itself. I hope it will not be very long before this consummationis accomplished, and, before the University will act on its own independent power. I will say no more on .this occasion, but 1 will present to you with my congratulations the degree which you have’earriCd,and wish you every happiness and success, in your, calling. .