CHRISTCHURCH.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2626, 8 June 1877, Page 2

CHRISTCHURCH.

Thursday. The Canterbury College was opened by the Governor .this afternoon, and addresses were read by the Chairman of the Board of Governors and Professor Cook. The Governor, in reply, spoke at.some length on education generally. A large number of ladies and gentlemen were present. After the opening ceremonial the Governor had luncheon with the Board of Governors. In the address to his Excellency the Governor, read by the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Canterbury

College at the opening ceremonial to-day, tlie Chairman gave a sketch of the establishment and progress of the College, and then went on to say the board had taken steps to establish a school of agriculture, in connection with a model farm, which, it is hoped, will be in full operation in a few months.. A building for a high school for girls, under the control of the board, is now in course of erection, and it will shortly be completed, and in all probability be open in September next. The board is now endeavouring to make arrangements for the establishment of a school of mines as a department of. the College. At the present time there are on the teaching staff the lecturers giving instruction in classic and English literature, in mathematics and nataral philosophy, in chemistry and physics, in geology, in modern languages, in biology, in jurisprudence and cognate subjects. The number of students attending the classes this term is 78, of these 16 havemntrlcnlatcdin the University of New Zealand, to which this College.is affiliated. The address concluded by expressing gratification at the presence of the Governor, thus aiding the good cause of education. His Excellency replied in a very eloquent speech, thanking the Board of Governors for the opportunity thus afforded him of associating his name with the cause of higher education in the colony, and expressing his conviction that the College, when completed, would be of infinite service not only to the city and district in which it is situated, but also to the colony as a whole. He combatted the notion that the establishment' was premature. It was not alone for the present, but the future, that they had to provide. He enjoyed looking to the marvellous progress made during the past twenty-five years, and could not but see that, so far from being premature, institutions of the character of Canterbury College were a positive necessity. In conclusion, he begged most heartily to congratulate the city on possessing so excellent an institution in its midst.