Cite: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article3623998

Tags (Keywords)

Add New Tags

Comments

No comments yet.

Add New Comment

No corrections yet

AUSTRALIAN UNI VEItSlTIES.

At the annual commemoration of the University of Sydney, held on .Satur- day, the Vice-Cliaiicellor. Dr. Mac L'aurin, delivered a thoughtful address. Prominence therein was given to the benefaction of the year, the gift by Mr. T. N. Russell, a well-known retired ironmaster, of the sum of £50,000 for the purpose of establishing an engineer- ing school within the University. The University of Sydney Jias been enriched by many noble donations, the aggregate of which cannot now fall far short of half-a-million sterling. Add to these the splendid grounds and buildings be- stowed hy the wise liberality of the State, the affiliated colleges partly built at the cost of the great denominations, and the handsome yearly Parliamen- tary grant, and it will be seen that this institution has already attained to a remarkably strong position. If the stream of private benefactions in the future should equal that of the past, it will not be long before the insti- tution is independent of further Par- liamentary assistance. Perhaps as much may also be said of the Univer- sity of Melbourne. It is to the credit of our civilisation thdt these two edu- cational institutions have so soon reached the degree of development and the high and far-reaching usefulness which they exhibit to-day, and that both have been assisted in their pro- gress by colonists who have had a dis- posable surplus of wealth. It is easy to forgive the passion "for making money when the money is devoted to noble objects.^ One feature of the Rus- sell benefaction is that it reached

the University during the benefactor's lifetim'b. It is á living man's generos- ity and not a! 'fléau' man's ibequest. " Let me," said,Dr. Mac L-aurin on Sat- urday, " quote the words' of a wise -man of business in addressing his counsels to persons of fortune." These are the wise man's words :

Further accurnulations only add to your cares, they encourage the de- moralising habit of hoarding and the love of money,- and they involve the necessity of some day having to hand over your accumulations to some one else, over whose expenditure of the same you have no control,' who, whether an individual or .a"society, is very likely to expend them' In a' manner of. which, if living, you -Would not have approved. It is well, therefore, to spend or give surplus money In your lifetime, and you will now, and -again, find that a con- siderable sum may be bestowed on some excellent object, which can, at the worst, hardly do harm, and which may confer a great benefit on your fellow-creatures.

The wisdom in these words reports and commends itself to every intelligent man who reads them. The pity is that there are so few persons amongst tis

who have the power of acting upon them. Better that religious, charitable, and educational institutions should get legacies than he altogether forgotten ; hut how good it would be for these com- munities if the persons of fortune in

them delighted' duiing their lifetime in

founding, expanding, and endowing per- petually bénéficient sources of light and love I A purer pleasure is unimagin- able. A better-destiny for the surplus accumulations of individual wealth is unimaginable. It is in the power of persons of fortune now amongst us to create a University of Queensland. Without making one real personal sacri- fice, devoting to so noble an object only what is literally their surplus wealth, wealth that eau do absolutely nothing for them if attempted to be spent selfishly or if continued to be hoarded selfishly, for Nature has rigidly fixed the selfish pleasure-giving power of wealth within narrow limits, they could "bring into existence a University of Queensland which in the course of time would be tlie honourable and magnifi- cent rival of the Universities^ Sydney

and Melbourne,

Dr. Mac Laür'in discussed tnefaim and scope of a ^university. We always ¡know what in a general way to-expect when a university dignitary announces this theme. For there is a universal

consensus of opinion about thegwork of these institutions. " Can it be con- ceived," asked Dr. Mac Laurin, ''that the liberality of Parliament and the beneficence of private founders had no further aim than to enable a few for- tunate, clever persons to acquire a legal right to tack spme letters of the alpha- bet on to their names ? Surely no-such paltry, motive was the .wellspring of -the*

splendid munificence which has in so short a time enriched this Institution. Without doubt there was a higher ob- ject in view-the advantage and wel- fare of the community at large." ?" It Is impossible to banish paltry and Sordid -motive from universities. It may even be contended that so excel- lent a thing is knowledge in itself that to admit students who are only ani- mated by a paltry motive is hetter than, if that were possible, to exclude them, " We must put up," said Dr. Mac Laurin regretfully, " with the ambition for a degree which. pla}'s such an im- portant part in our system of education, and is, I suppose, not to be dispensed with. After all, a degree has some meaning, and, when properly given, it signifies that the recipient is a scholar. or a person of cul- ture."1 Yes, upon the whole a degree has a lot of meaning, of meaning con- stantly changing for the better as the effect of university instruction and dis- cipline tells upon the graduate's life. University students are young in years, and only in rare cases adequately ap- preciate the advantage of constant as- sociation with a great seat of learning while they are still attending lectures. It is in the after life of the students, in their (Character and iwork in the world, that we must look for the jus ITflcatlon of the private benefactions and Parliamentary grants in aid of uni- versity education. Thus looking, we shall find what we seek for. More and añore do knowledge and wisdom ?become their own reward, and do those who pursue them outgrow the paltriness -of their early intellectual motives and ambitions. k

The great problem of a university, according to Dr. Mac Laurin, is " to benefit the community by training the select youth of the country du the ac- quisition of skill to bring themselves under the dominion of Reason, and to bring the powers of external Nature., so far as it may be possible, undar the same subjection : to subdue, re- strain, and control the irrational pro- pensities which, if unchecked, spring up naturally, like poisonous weeds, in every man's breast ; to trim, order, and bring into a kosmos the chaos of the unrealised possibilities which exist in such profusion in this country." As to the first of these aims, Dr. IMac

Laurin said :

The University i's to be, above all things, a school of conduct, in which its ?alumni may be trained to become good men and good subjects of the Queen, so that their private lives may be an ex- ample of uprightness and virtue, and if they be called to public affairs they shall evince a steadfast enthusiasm for the public good, avoid all tortuous and devious paths of self-seeking, shun the facile cruelty of savage invective, and abstain from the all too common error of attributing base motives to those who may be of a different opinion.

This is true and well put, but we must not expect that the student will emerge from this school of conduct a perfect man or perfect woman. The univer- sity is and can be only a school of conduct. Invaluable lessons may he learned in it. Foundations of imper- ishable character may ho laid while students are amenable to its powerful influence. But it is in the after life that we must look for the great re- sults. Let the university atmosphere he rich in noble and penetrating power, and the few years spent In the uni- versity -will purify and elevate the com- paratively many years of the afterlife.

Of course, as Dr. Mac Laurin in- sisted, a university has a wonderful value to the community in the other aspect and direction of its work, the subjection of natural forces to human reason and control. The practical utilities of science are daily enrichinc all mankind. Universities are centres of research and fountains of know- ledge. But it is as the school of con- duct, of culture, of mental discipline, of breadth of sympathy, of intellectual tolerance, of unselfish aims, of reason- able patriotism, of reverence for wis- dom and goodness, of intelligent en- thusiasm, of chivalrous devotion to duty, that the university answers the greatest end of its existence. It is in what in the course of life they help to make of the student himself or her- self, and not in the material benefits, professional or other, to which they may be a guide, though these are not to be forgotten or despised, that we find the highest service and justifica- tion of these magnificent educational

institutions.

= ??.

Zoom

plus
thumb
minus
left
thumb
right
up
thumb
down