CURRENT TOPICS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 220, 23 January 1911, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS

"CAPPING." The Chancellor of the University of New Zealand (Sir Robert Stout, C.J.) is an uncompromising opponent of one phase of college life. He is about to use his great influence, to abolish capping ceremonies, not because he dislikes the ceremonies, but because undergraduates on such occasions get "out of hand," and become hilarious, rude, unmannerly and raucous, just as if they were mere Oxford men, or Cambridge undergrads., or Edinburgh students. It is extremely trying to a great man who has prepared much wisdom to fire at a mixed congregation of students and their friends to be handicapped in his intention by "catcalls" and insulting remarks. The Prime Minister of England was recently quite unable to finish an address to Edinburgh students at a capping ceremony, but he did not suggest the abolition of capping ceremonies because his remarks were inaudible. It is a just contention that if great educationists have matters of importance to impart to students that they should defer them until they get them in class and under proper discipline. The real facts are that, students who have been carefully "swatting" for a term are not fit subjects for pompous lectures. If capping lectures are worth anything they are worth giving in an atmosphere where there is no possibility of disturbance. To abolish a ceremony out of pique is of no use to the great cause of education, and capping time need not necessarily be regarded as an occasion for instruction. Anybody who has been a student or knows students, is aware that after a hard term young men relax almost hysterically. It is the same phase of feeling that induces small boys to rush into the playground capering and yelling at the top of their voices. It is the same feeling that makes released girls scream for no apparent reason. It is the same feeling that makes youngsters "giggle" in church; footballers sing loudly after either victory or defeat; soldiers yell simultaneously on quick movement after suspense, and so orf. There is something wrong with the person who has not the natural instinct for reaction. A chancellor may be very angry with a mob of students who object to ,"leave off work to carry bricks," as it were, but the obvious remedy is to cease lecturing at capping ceremonies. There is no reason why lecturers at cappings should not issue their intended remarks in pamphlet form if they are really convinced of the utility of lectures out of school. We happen to know the average capping lecturer pretty well, and are convinced that he regards his remarks of much more importance than the capping. The student has a perfect right to think otherwise, and it is sincerely hoped that no influence, however great, will be allowed to destroy a ceremony designed, in the first instance, not for the exercise of misplaced oratory, but for conferring degrees on those who have earned them. '

ALL-RED SHOTPING. New Zealand manufacturers and shopkeepers in various towns throughout the Dominion made a special effort during one week of the year to exhibit goods "made in New Zealand." It is an inccntiye to patronage of New Zealand industries, especially (and only) if the "price is right," and it is a splendid illustration of the growth of -skilled industry. "We will try te believe that the "All-British Shopping Week" that London intends to set aside during March has been inspired by New Zealand. It is peculiarly indicative of a growing Imperial spirit that London, which is the world's greatest mart, should consent to practically "shelve" foreign products even for a week, and this will probably do much to convince the millions of people in London that a self-supporting Empire is a promise for the future. Not so very many years ago, the phrase "All British" would have conveyed to the average Londoner nothing not contained in the British Isles, but the best kind of Imperialists have so industriously sowed the seed that the Londoner may nowadays see in the words the vast oversea dominions that are as British as London itselfe The presence of direct representatives of all British dominions in London is a constant reminder of the line, "Wha.t do they know of England, who only England know?" And this "All-British. Shopping Week" will demonstrate more forcibly than all the speeches that could be spoken and all the articles that could be written the vastness of the Imperial storehouse and the dwindling necessity for calling on the foreigner to feed London. A display of New Zealand goods, of foodstuffs from Victoria, of wool from New South Wales, of grain from Ontario, sugar from Queensland, or fruit from Tasmania is more direct in its appeal than a thousand learned lectures or a million lantern slides. The great world of London does not stop to think how it is fed, whence comes its clothes, or who makes the goods it uses, but if for one week London becomes a great all-British store, the popular mind must necessarily learn the great lesson the display is intended to teach. Happily and appropriately the idea has been given to London by oversea representatives, who have of late years been so wonderfully successful in spreading the knowledge of those parts of the Empire extending beyoiiTi the British Isles. The feeling is evidently growing at Home that the colonial is not a "foreigner," that he is just as British as the resident of Clapham or the denizen of York, and that the brotherhood, commercially and defensively, is necessary for the safety of the Home-born and the colonial Britisher.