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learning than training. In America it lias been largely supplied by the students themselves through the well-known Greek-letter"" societies. There is a growing tendency to recognize its value in the trainingTof citizens, and the Scotch universities are now encouraging the erection of halls'of residence. This view is put with singular force and elegance, if with some exaggeration in a passage quoted from Cardinal Newman by one of the student representatives at Wellington : — If I had to choose between a so-called university which dispensed with residence and tutorial superintendence, and gave its degrees to any person who passed an examination in a wide range ol subjects, and a university which had no professors or examinations at all, but merely brought a number of young men together for three or four years, and then sent them away, as the University of Oxford is said to have done some sixty years since ; if I were asked which of these two methods was the better discipline of the intellect .... was the more successful in training, moulding, enlarging the mind, which sent out men the more fitted for their secular duties, which produced better public men, men of the world, men whose names would descend to posterity, I have no hesitation in giving the preference to that university which did nothing, over that which exacted of its members an acquaintance with every science under the sun. If this be so, if the community life of the students' hostel produces men better adapted for public life, in a word, more capable citizens, its value should be specially great in a new country like New Zealand, which is engaged in building up a social and political system of its own. It seems a true instinct that led the students to put hostels in the forefront of their demand. There is, however, a serious difficulty in the way, the difficulty of finance. A university hostel, however economically it is run, is necessarily more expensive than the ordinary lodginghouse. This is the case even where, as in Rolleston House at Canterbury, there is no Warden appointed by the College, and the management is entirely in the hands of the students. There are makeshifts that are pi tup with in a lodginghouse, which would not be and ought not to be tolerated in a university hostel. To most of the students a few shillings a week is a serious consideration, and, if they are left a free choice, the bulk of these will almost certainly choose the less expensive accommodation. In Wales, where the majority of the students are in narrow circumstances, the University authorities have been forced to recognize that if hostel life is to be developed and the cost to the student therefore reduced to the lodginghouse level, the hostel must be based, partially at least, upon endowment, and their aim is to secure by public grant or private gift a sufficient building fund, so that the element of rent at least may be eliminated from the student's expenses. We cannot think of any form of benefaction directly affecting student life which would have a more wholesome influence than the building and equipment of a Students' Hostel, to be controlled by a wise and inspiring Head. Such a hostel for women, St. Margaret's, has recently been built and endowed at Dunedin by the efforts and generosity of Lady Ross. In this hostel the. cost to the resident student is slightly less than the cost of ordinary lodgings. Experience in Great Britain goes to show that the hostel should be of a certain size, if it is to fulfil its function of educating the student by association with his fellow-students. If the accommodation falls much below fifty, " the right sort of people are not likely to meet each other " ; if it rises above, say, ninety, it is difficult for the Head to keep in personal touch with individuals. Again, " hostels should not be occupied by particular classes of students, or exclusively by those entering with the same training or contemplating the same career." The Students' Union, first started at Oxford, has spread like the Students' Representative Council through the universities of the Empire, and like it has become a centre of the corporate student life. The Union, consists of a commodious building in which provision is made for reading, writing, games, committees, debates, &c. —sometimes for meals. In short, it is the Students' Club, in many cases built by funds raised by " past and present " students, in practically all maintained by their subscriptions, and, subject to the maintenance of university discipline, left by the University authorities to their unfettered control, whether in household management or in the arrangement and conduct of discussions and debates. Modern university life is hardly complete without it. Here again the erection of such a building offers a worthy object for the educational philanthropist.

Hostels cannot be financed out of fees.

A suitable form for benefaction.

Students' Union.

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