Sir James Hight

New Zealand Listener, Volume 18, Issue 454, 5 March 1948, Page 5

Sir James Hight

EICESTER WEBB, who) wrote the fine tribute to Sir James Hight that appears in this issue, told us that he could not get on with the job as long as his subject was "Sir" James. He had to forget the title and think of the learned, simple, and wise man before he felt at ease. Our own position is a little different, first because the chiefpurpose of this article is to direct attention to Mr. Webb’s, and in the second place because we cannot, as he can, claim a close personal association with Sir James as teacher as well as friend. We can however feel as he does that James Hight belongs not only to Canterbury College and Canterbury but to the whole Dominion; that he is one of New Zealand’s worthiest sons; and that while no title was ever better deserved by a New Zealander or gave satisfaction to more people, it made no difference at all to the place the recipient already had in public estimation. It is in fact almost an offence to assign public estimation to such a humble man. To estimate him at all is to embarrass him, and to praise him something that will come very near to paining him. It is better to follow Mr. Webb’s example of fixing his place in the history of our university, to ask what he has contributed that has been essentially his own, and to consider what the contribution would have been if he had taught history and economics out of a less full mind, Mr. Webb supplies the answer: information rather than knowledge, knowledge rather than wisdom. What we owe Sir James most of all is the example of a long and useful life lived studiously and humbly. In other words he has been a good and wise man in the sense in which those two words can still occasionally be used. Happily too his goodness and wisdom have been displayed where they could most influence his contemporaries and successors.