1.—13 a.

10

(I. W. YON ZEDLITZ.

5. Where would the initiation take place—take the question of the syllabus?—[n my opinion the power of inithition would rest both with the professorial body, with the conjoint body, and lay body; but in practice it would be exercised by the local bodies. 6. Do I understand that you suggest that the local body should initiate the syllabus? —Yes, that is my personal idea of what should be done. 7. You think we should follow Wales? —You are asking me a very difficult question, because I confess that if I were an autocrat, and were asked what 1 considered to be the most statesmanlike way of getting over the difficulty we are in, I should advocate making one centre the chief seat of a teaching university. I think that would be a proposal having no chance of success. 8. Perhaps you would like to think it over and tell us about it later on?—lf I were sole master and free from other considerations and other people's opinions, I should say the most statesmanlike course now would be to create a university in the full sense of the word in one of the two Smith Island centres —either Canterbury College or the University at Dunedin—and leave the other colleges on the footing of professional schools or technical schools of the type represented in Germany by the technical high schools, and in particular the Commercial High School of Berlin, an institution of university standing. 9. The teaching staffs now have no common meeting-ground?— Arc you await' that the Senates have invited the teaching staffs to meet on a common ground?— That was on one occasion. We make reference to that in the pamphlet. 10. That shows a little advance on the part of the Senate?—lt is one for which we are very deeply grateful. 11. Supposing they did meet on a common meeting-ground, can we assume that they would come to a conclusion satisfactory to all on the question of the syllabus ? —I know our real troubles are going to begin if we succeed in carrying out what we have put before them. The great difficulty is that it must take a very considerable time. We have men who came out a considerable number of years ago and who have goi thoroughly wedded to the present system. They have got into more or less narrow grooves, and the prospect of getting some of my colleagues out of these narrow grooves is most appalling. We shall have to look to changes of an exceedingly gradual description, but we look to improvement in the general methods of appointments to the staff, like that of Doctor Inglis in Otago, atid to a gradual leavening. Every well-appointed new professor is an ally in our camp, and incidentally the public will not be horrified by sudden and violent changes. Then, again, there is this consideration : that some of our colleagues are able to take up an attitude of, say, hostility to modern ideas. Put them upon a Board and it is exceedingly difficult to take up a line which they can otherwise take up with a certain amount of effectiveness. There you have them on the University Senate, and members of the Senate like Mr. Allen are exceedingly courteous towards these professional gentlemen, and naturally assume that they represent the view of the general body, and you know it is exceedingly difficult to put a man out who has been twenty years there, on the ground that he does not represent the views of others. We know that any changes are going to be very gradual, and I know that I shall not see some of them in my lifetime. Still, we thought it worth while to put these matters before you. 12. You know the modern policy of the Senate has been to ask advice from the Professorial Board on some questions. Has it not been a difficult} witli the Senate that they could never get anything like a unanimous voice from them? —Call them together and you might get a majority voice. Look at the way the English people arc; working :if they get a report from the academic gentlemen and find that there is a considerable minority, they go into details and try to use their own judgment. 13. Is not the Senate doing that now?—l do not know. 14. Did they not do that in connection with the B.Sc. degree?—We gut a majority report. There was only one point on which there was a sharp division of opinion; and what is exceedingly promising for the future is that we did manage to come to an agreement on all points except one, and even that we could probably have got if we had been absolutely independent. We were exceedingly limited in the scope of what we had to discuss. If the Senate is desirous of getting the opinions of the professors, the best way is to call them together. 15. Did they not call them' together I—Once1 —Once only. 16. Mr. TAike.] Is it your proposal to extend the scope of inquiry into the insular disability that we suffer from in this Dominion—and, I am going to add, on the technical side, the engineering side —by having a particular college dealing with particular work in the South, which prevents the students in the North Island obtaining the same privileges as those of the South Island; or, in other words, will you extend the scope of the inquiry with a view to considering whether the four colleges should specialize or be more extensive in their operations? —I should say lam anxious that the scope of the Commission should include that question. My opinion is that we ought to specialize rigidly in connection with technical schools. We have a good Engineering School now, and if an attempt were made to have four they would give relatively poor results. It is better to have one which is sound than four not sound. 17. I am in agreement with you, but I want you to consider whether it is not advisable, if these colleges were located on one Island, that the State should advance sufficient money to enable the poorer students from a distance to obtain the privileges which the State extends now, but which the individual cannot obtain on account of financial strain? —That is a question we have not touched upon. We look upon it rather as impertinence upon our part to refer to questions dealing with large sums of money. The way we are looking at it is that our end of the stick is to make this education available for practically the whole of every class of the community by its being placed in the four colleges, and to make that, with regard to the bulk of it, as good as it can be, so that the student shall not suffer. Our desire is to see that the people do not suffer through getting a relatively inferior education. When it comes to technical-school work like engineering, we realize that we cannot have it in the four centres, and that far the better plan is to have it concentrated in one centre, while facilities should be given to students from other parts of the Dominion to go there.