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 abey ance 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 Council 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, and on the 9th

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 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 has 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 the College work. The large room of this building is formed into a lecture-hall, 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 the premises have been 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 examination 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.

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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 since 1888, in consequence of the falling off in the income derived from the land in which the money was invested, until the present year, when the state of the funds warranted the Council to offer for competition in November last a Sinclair and a Gillies Scholarship, each of the value of £50 per annum, tenable for three years.

The Auckland Amateur Opera Club, in the year 1890, pre

sented 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 no longer exist. 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, but they are now discontinued.

On the 21st May, 1894, Lady Glasgow signified her intention of offering similar medals for three years, 1895, 1896, 1897, to the Students of Music, to take the place of the Countess of Onslow's medals, which were about to terminate.

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 a great obligation to 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 service and as a mark of the citizen's 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 being 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.

College Regulations.

1. There shall be in each year three Terms. The first Term shall begin on the first Monday in March, and end on the tenth of May. The Second Term shall begin on the first Monday of June, and end on the tenth of August. The Third Term shall begin on the first Monday in September, and end on the tenth of November.

2. The fees for lectures shall be ten shillings per Term for a course occupying one hour per week, one pound per term for a course occupying two hours per week, and so on proportionally. For laboratory instruction the fees shall be ten shillings per term for one half-day per week, one pound per term for two half-days per week, and so on proportionally. Provided that attendance at a course of lectures during the First and Second Terms shall entitle to exemption from payment of fee for attendance at a course of lectures on the same subject and not occupying a greater amount of time per week during the Third. Term; and similarly as to attendance in laboratory.

3. On payment of the fee at the office of the College a card of admission shall be issued, which must be countersigned by the Professor or Lecturer. No student is entitled to attend at lectures or in laboratory until he shall have complied with this regulation. The first lecture, however, of every course will be free.

4. Admission to lectures or laboratory shall not be restricted to matriculated students, but shall be available to all persons who have paid the prescribed fees.

5. Every student who shall have attended a course of lectures or laboratory instruction during at least two Terms of the year shall be entitled to be examined at the Annual Examination in the subject of that course without payment of any examination fee

6. Each Professor and Lecturer shall keep a roll showing