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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Auckland Provincial District]

Auckland University College

Auckland University College. In December, 1878, a Royal Commission on University and Secondary Education was appointed by the Governor of New Zealand. The 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 £4000 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 £4000 per annum. By “The Auckland University College Reserves Act, 1885,” three blocks of land—10,000 acres in the Taupiri, 10,000 acres in the Parish of Karamu, 10,000 acres in the parish of Waimana—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 the University College. The 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, Sir William Jervois. 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, the Mayor of the City of Auckland and the Chairman of the Auckland Board of Education, are members in virtue of their offices. The other nine form three groups—namely, 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. Elections were made by the graduates for the first time in 1890, prior to which the three members elected by them had been appointed by the Governor-in-Council. One member of each group retires annually. The Minister of Education is the visitor of the College, and the council consists of—Sir G. M. O'Rorke, M.A., M.H.R. (chairman), the Mayor of Auckland (Mr. David Goldie), the Chairman of the Auckland Board of Education (Mr. Lemuel J. Bagnall), the Most Rev. W. G. Cowie, D.D., Rev. W. J. Williams, Hon. J. A. Tole, B.A., LL.B., Messrs Jackson Palmer, G. L. Peacocke, F. E. Baume, LL.B., Tom U. Wells, B.A., and J. S. Maclaurin, D.Sc. The Rev. D. W. Runciman, M.A., is the registrar. The professors are—Messrs H. A. Talbot-Tubbs, M.A. (Classics), C. W. Egerton, M.A. (English), H. W. Segar, M.A. (Mathematics), F. D. Brown, Hon. M.A., B.Sc. (Chemistry and Experimental Physics), and A. P. W. Thomas, M.A. (Biology and Geology). The lecturers are—W. E. Thomas, Mus. Doc. (Oxford) (Music), J. W. E. P. de Montalk (French), and Mr. Athloy Hunter, Assoc. M. Inst. C.E. (Engineering). Monthly meetings are held by the Council, which elects its chairman, and five members form a quorum. The Professorial Board, which is constituted by statute, 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 of 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 which are paid by students for attendance at his lectures. The number of students who attended lectures in 1899 was 220, and there were also nineteen students examined who were exempted from attendance at lectures, but two attended a few lectures so that the total number of students was
Auckland University College.

Auckland University College.

page 198 239. The net revenue from land endowments in the same year was £2531 5s 1d. Earnest efforts are made to render the College as useful as possible to those who require a knowledge of science for manufacturing or technical pursuits. In 1884 Mr. Thomas Bannatyne Gillies, a judge of the Supreme Court of New Zealand, presented to the College Council the sum of £3000 for the purpose of founding two Science Scholarships, to be named respectively the “Sinclair” and the “Gillies” scholarships, in memory of Dr. Andrew Sinclair, uncle of the late Mrs Gillies, and in memory of Mrs Gillies herself. This gift has been utilised in the manner prescribed; and the scholarships are at present of the value of £50 per annum each. The College library contains more than 6000 volumes, of which upwards of 1000 volumes were bequeathed by the late Professor Pond, and nearly 600 volumes by the late Mr. J. L. Sinclair, of Otahuhu. Books may be taken out under certain conditions prescribed by the Council, and all students have free access to the library. Until recently the College authorities have had to put up with more or less unsuitable accommodation. After trying various expedients, the Council, in 1898, requested its chairman, Sir Maurice O'Rorke, to place all the facts before the Government. In response to the application thus made, Parliament voted £1000, and the Government authorised Mr. C. R. Vickerman, of the Public Works Department, to prepare the necessary plans and to supervise the erection of the buildings which the College Council might take in hand. Buildings sufficient for the requirements of the College for many years to come have since been erected and furnished, at a cost of over £1500.