“UNIVERSITY SHOULD HAVE BIGGER LIBRARY”

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 205, 18 November 1927, Page 13

“UNIVERSITY SHOULD HAVE BIGGER LIBRARY”

I PROFESSOR GRANT’S ADVICE FAREWELL TO NEW ZEALAND Saying a rather regretful good-bye to the New Zealand University at a small assembly of the staff and administrators of the Auckland University College, Professor Grant, of Leeds University, who has been teaching history at Canterbury College for the past year, spoke of the superior keenness of the New Zealand student, but gave some good advice on stocking the college libraries. He had been very much attracted to the staffs and the freshness and keenness of the students, but he thought that the shortage of books in the libraries was a drawback to the pursuit of learning. Libraries cost much to amass, but brought little on sale. There was an enormous plenitude of printed books in England which scholars left to various purposes and he wondered whether if some powerful voice, carrying weight with the scholars of England, could not, by stressing the enormous value such libraries would be in the Dominions, divert some of these books overseas. He thought it would be productive of great results. Professor Grant stated his belief in the great value of interchange of teachers in the universities of the Empire. The idea was looked on very favourably in England. The difficulties which arose from the difference of the seasons and the university sessions were not unsurmountable. When he went over the Auckland College buildings in 1913 he had been rather depressed. Fine buildings had a great influence on the university life. Men should feel in the present building that they were not only in a better house, but that there was a better spirit in their learning.