Auckland University College.

HISTORICAL SKETCH.

THE introduction of University Education into New Zealand was effected by the Superintendent and Provincial Council of Otago, who, in 1869, passed an Ordinance under which the University of Otago was established. Following closely on the founding of this institution was the establishment of the University of New Zealand under an Act of the General Assembly, "The New Zealand University Act, 1870." This University subsequently received a Royal Charter, whereby the Degrees which it confers are declared entitled to "rank, precedence, and consideration" throughout the British Empire, as fully as if the said Degrees had been conferred by any University of the United Kingdom." It was apparently contemplated by Parliament (vide section 19 of the Act last quoted) that the New Zealand University and the Otago University should be amalgamated; but the negotiations for this purpose having failed, the two institutions remained for some time distinct bodies. In the year 1874, however, the University of Otago surrendered or put in abeyance its power of conferring Degrees, and became affiliated to the University of New Zealand; and at the same time it was stipulated that the University of New Zealand should not directly exercise functions of teaching.

In the year 1873 the Superintendent and Provincial Council of Canterbury passed an Ordinance for founding "The Canterbury College;" and the College was accordingly established with the same standard of University education as that of the University of Otago, but without the power of conferring Degrees.

In December, 1878, a Royal Commission on University and Secondary Education was appointed by the Governor of New Zealand. This Commission, of which Sir George Maurice O'Rorke was Chairman, met in January, 1879, a the 9th

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of July following reported that two Colleges, with an income of £4,000 each, ought to be established in Auckland and Wellington, and that suitable buildings, at a cost of £12,500 each, should be erected in those cities. In the following year the Royal Commission repeated these recommendations.

"The Auckland University College Act, 1882," which became law on the 13th of September in that year, definitely established the Auckland University College, and endowed it with a statutory grant of £4,000 per annum. By "The Auckland University College Reserves Act, 1885," three blocks of land, containing about 10,000 acres each, and a block containing about 354 acres, which had been devoted to the purpose of promoting higher education in the Province of Auckland, became vested in the Council of University College.

The Auckland University College was affiliated to the University of New Zealand, by the Senate of the University, on the 6th of March, 1883; and on the 21st of May in the same year the College was opened by His Excellency the Governor of New Zealand, Sir William F. Drummond Jervois, G.C.M.G.

The recommendation made by the Royal Commission, that College buildings should be erected, has not been carried into effect. The building in Eden Street, which was formerly the District Courthouse, was in 1883 placed at the disposal of the College Council by the Government, for the purposes of College work. The large room of this building is formed into a lecturehall, and additions have been made for the formation of laboratories. In "The Special Powers and Contracts Act, 1885," the Governor was empowered, when the offices then occupied by the Survey and Crown Lands Departments in Auckland should be vacated, to transfer those as well as the District Courthouse mentioned above, to the College Council. The block of land on which these buildings stand extends from Parliament Street to Beach Road, containing an area of 1 acre 11 perches. This transfer was carried into effect in the year 1890; and by an expenditure of about £1,200 of the University College funds the premises were rendered fairly suitable to the purposes of the College.

The Governing Body of the College is constituted and incorporated by the Act of 1882, and is styled "The Auckland University College Council." It consists of eleven members, two of whom are ex officio, viz., the Mayor of the City of

Auckland and the Chairman of the Auckland Board of Education. The other nine form three groups, consisting of three members each, viz., three elected by the members of the General Assembly resident in the Provincial District of Auckland, three appointed by the Governor in Council, and three elected by the Graduates of the New Zealand University on the books of the College. These last three members were appointed by the Governor in Council until the College numbered thirty Graduates. Elections were made by the Graduates for the first time in 1890. One member of each group retires annually. The Minister of Education is the Visitor of the College. The Chairman of the Council is elected by the Council. The Council meets statedly at least once a month, five members forming a quorum. "The Professorial Board," which is constituted by the Act, possesses, "subject to the approval of the Council," the power of fixing the course of study and the days and hours of lectures and examinations, and prescribing the subjects of examinations for scholarships, exhibitions, and prizes; and it has, "subject to a right of appeal to the Council," a general control over the discipline of the students, the management of the library, and the direction of the College servants. It elects a Chairman annually. Each Professor or Lecturer is entitled to receive, in addition to his salary, the fees that are paid by students for attendance at his lectures.

Mr. Thomas Bannatyne Gillies, a Judge of the Supreme Court of New Zealand, presented to the College Council, in the year 1884, the sum of £3,000 (three thousand pounds), for the purpose of founding two Science Scholarships, to be called respectively the "Sinclair " and the "Gillies" Scholarship. They were so named in memory of Dr. Andrew Sinclair, uncle of the late Mrs. Gillies, and in memory of Mrs. Gillies herself. This munificent gift was forthwith utilised in the manner prescribed; but these Scholarships had to be put in abeyance for some years in consequence of the falling off in the value of the land on which the money was invested. They have now, however, been revived, and are at present of the value of £70 per annum each.

The Auckland Amateur Opera Club, in the year 1890, presented to the College Council the sum of two hundred guineas to be expended in that and the two following years for the encouragement of the study of Music. Money Exhibitions,

accordingly, were granted, to be competed for by students attending, or about to attend, the classes of the School of Music in the College. The results were considered to be very satisfactory, but the Exhibitions ceased to exist when the two hundred guineas were expended. The Countess of Onslow, in 1891, gave two silver medals to be awarded to the most deserving of those students in the Music classes whom the Regulations excluded from competing for Exhibitions. Similar gifts were made for the years 1892, 1893, 1894.

Lady Glasgow provided similar medals for 1895, 1896, and 1897, and Lady Ranfurly continued the medals for the years 1898, 1899, 1900, 1901, 1902, 1903. At a meeting of the Council held 22nd November it was resolved that medals in the future be provided by the College out of the fees received for special musical examinations.

A valuable addition was made to the College Library on the 31st March, 1894, by the late Professor Charles Alexander Maclean Pond, who had held the chair of Classics and English from July, 1891, to October, 1893. The whole of his library, consisting of upwards of a thousand volumes, of standard English and Classical works, he bequeathed to the University College, and the books are now placed in a special press in the Library, each book being labelled as the bequest of the lamented Professor.

The Council is under great obligation to the late Mr. James McCosh Clark, who was Mayor of the City of Auckland during the years 1881, 1882, and 1883, and who, on the termination of his Mayoralty, was presented with a six-inch telescope by the citizens of Auckland as an appreciation of his public services and as a mark of the citizens' respect and esteem for Mrs. Clark, during her husband's Mayoralty. The use of this telescope has been placed at the service of the College, and it is now mounted at the top of the brick tower attached to the College building. The thanks of the College were tendered to Mr. and Mrs. Clark, for granting the use of the telescope to the College, by resolution unanimously passed by the Council on the 20th December, 1894, and similar thanks were given on the 16th November, 1896, to Mr. and Mrs. Clark for granting the College the use of a celestial globe.

By the will of the late Mr. J. L. Sinclair, who died at Otahuhu, on 12th November, 1895, the testator bequeathed to the Auckland University College Council all such of his books as the Professorial Board of the College might consider suitable for the College Library. 580 vols. were selected and added to the Library, each book bearing a label showing that it was bequeathed to the Library by the late James Leask Sinclair

In the year 1897, it was found necessary to provide a new Physical Laboratory at a cost of £328 4s. 6d.

On the 20th June, 1898, the Council requested the Chairman (Sir Maurice O'Rorke) to draw the attention of the Government to the insufficiency of the accommodation in the College buildings for the classes attending lectures, and to the inability of the Council to provide the requisite accommodation out of its current revenue. This application was attended with success, so that on the 28th November, 1898, the Chairman was able to report that the Government had met the application in a liberal spirit, and that £1,000 had been cheerfully voted by Parliament. The Council tendered a hearty vote of thanks to Sir Maurice O'Rorke for his successful efforts to obtain this grant. The Government further showed their liberality by permitting Mr. C. R. Vickerman, of the Public Works Department, to prepare the necessary plans and to supervise the erection of the buildings. Tenders were called for, and that of Mr. John E. Guthrie, amounting to £1,116 11s., was accepted on the 29th of March, 1899. Other additions were afterwards found to be desirable, the cost of which was defrayed out of the funds of the College, and the total amount paid to the contractor was £1,213 6s. 6d. It was agreed to spend £120 on securing proper precautions against fire, and after providing suitable furniture the total cost amounted to £1,558 5s. ld. The new rooms are admirably adapted for the purposes for which they have been provided, and will be sufficient for the requirements of the College for many years to come.

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On 11th May, 1900, a letter was received from Secretary of the Education Department, intimating the establishment of a Sir George Grey Scholarship in Auckland University College, and enquiring whether the Council of the College would undertake the awarding of the Scholarship for the current year

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