EDUCATIONAL

EDUCATIONAL.

UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO Mr. JUSTICE WILLIAMS.

UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO, which is affiliated to the University of New Zealand, was originally founded in 1869 by ordinance of the Otago Provincial Council, by which act the province of Otago led the van towards the establishment of university education in the Colony. Formed into a body “politic and corporate” with the power of granting degrees in arts, medicines, and law, the university of Otago was originally endowed with 100,000 acres of pastoral land, At its opening in July, 1871, there were three professors occupying the chairs of classics and English literature¹, mathematics and natural philosophy, and mental and moral science. A chair of chemistry and mental science was instituted during the first year of the history of the university. The provincial council of Otago conferred a second endowment of 100,000 acres of pastoral land on the university in the year 1872. Within the following two years a lectureship in law was established as the first step in the institution of a school of law, and a professor of anatomy and physiology, and lecturers in clinical medicine and surgery were appointed with a view to the establishment of a medical school. During 1874 and 1875. a chair of natural science and lecture ships in geology and zoology, and also in French and German, were established. The Otago university had meantime applied for a Royal Charter empowering it to grant degrees; the university of New Zealand had also applied for a Royal Charter, and as it was both inadvisable and improbable that two universities in one Colony would receive Royal Charters, an agreement was made in 1874 between the two universities by which the functions of the New Zealand university were restricted to the examination of candidates for matriculation, scholarships, and degrees, while the Otago university bound itself to become affiliated to the former, to hold in abeyance its power of granting degrees and to waive the claim it had advanced to a Royal Charter. The Otago university became possessed of an additional 10.000 acres of land, which bad been set apart for university purposes in the former province of Southland, and in 18S7, a further endowment of 11.000 acres, which had been set up for the support* of the museum, was vested in the university council, the land being situate in the Strath Taieri district. Besides the endowments already mentioned, certain educational funds held in trust by the Presbyterian Church of Otago and Southland are devoted to the support of professorships in the faculties of arts. The funds from this source having considerably increased in value, it has been found possible to support additional chairs, the original professorships being sub-divided. Thus the chair of English language was dissevered from that of classics in 1881, and five years later the chair of natural philosophy was dissevered from that of mathmatics, sufficient endowments being available for these purposes. The right of nomination to the chairs endowed by the synod rests with the board of church property; subject, however, to the approval of the former body. The university is entirely unconnected with any religious denomination with this exception, and it has no faculty of theology, its instruction being purely secular. The supreme governing body of the university is the council, the original members of which hold office for life; the duty of filling up vacancies devolving upon the Governor in Council since the abolition of the provinces. In 1881. the “University of Otago Council Election Act” was passed, two electoral bodies being formed, namely, the professors of the university of Otago and graduates of the New Zealand university having their names on the books of the university; the professors elect two members of the council, the graduates four, the remaining six being appointed by the Governor in Council. Elected members have seats under the new Act for a term of five years, the chancellor and vice-chancellor being elected by members of their own body for periods of three years; the appointment of professors and lecturers, together with the management of the finances of the institution, devolve upon the council; the conduct of the whole educational arrangements of the university being under the control of the professorial board, which consists of the professors and of such of the lecturers as the council may appoint. There is also a school of mines in connection with the university of Otago, which was established in 1878, three additional lecturers being added to the staff in 1887. Up to the year 1878, the university occupied the buildings in Princes street known as the Colonial Bank. The building now occupied was erected in that year on the banks of the Leith; the site contains eight acres of land and is conveniently situated to the hospital and museum. The university library, which was founded mainly by public subscriptions, contains over 5,000 volumes, which, for the most part, have been selected by the professors for the students. This library is open to the students and is a library of reference to the general public, who must however obtain cards of admission from the registrar. The chemical laboratory is chiefly used for the training of students, but on the ground of public conveniences has been open as a public analytical laboratory, for which purpose it is largely used in connection with the analysis of foods, fabrics, minerals, and other kindred substances. The professor of biology of the university of Otago, is curator of the museum, which is more fully referred to elsewhere in the pages of the “Cyclopedia,” the building being about five minutes’ walk from the university. In the year 1897, there were 201 male students at the university, the whole of whom hail matriculated with the exception of twenty-seven; there were thirty-three female students, only one of whom had not matriculated. A considerable number of scholarships is available, among which may be mentioned the Richardson scholarship, valued at £40 per annum, founded in 1871 by the late Sir John Richardson; the Scott scholarship, valued at £15 per annum, founded in 1874 as a memorial of Sir Walter Scott; the Taieri scholarship founded by the late Hon. James Fulton, M.L.C., in 1880; the Women’s scholarship, valued at £20 per annum, founded in 1885 by the trustees of Mr. J. Sperry, Mrs. Gordon Burn, and Miss Dalrymple; the Macandrew scholarship, valued at £25, established by public subscriptions in memory of Mr. James Macandrew. one of the founders of the university; the Gray Russell scholarship, valued at £40. founded in 1882 by Mr. George Gray Russell; and the Stuart prizes founded in 1804 from £100 bequeathed by the late Rev. D. M. Stuart. D.D.. chancellor of the university. An illustration of the university buildings is given with this article. The constitution of the university is as follows:—Council: Visitor, His Excellency the Governor of New Zealand; chancellor, His Honour Mr. Justice Williams, M.A., LL.M., Camb.; vice-chancellor, Mr. E. B. Cargill; Members of the Council, Hon. W. H. Reynolds, M.L.C.. Sir Robert Stout, K.C.M.G., Professor G. S. Sale, M.A., Camb., Rev A. Cameron, B.A., X.Z., Messrs. R. Burns. F.K.C.S., Ediu., G. G. Russell, D. AVhite, M.A., T. M. Hocken, M.R.C.S., Eng., F.L.S., and J. Alien, B.A. Professorial Board: the professors and lecturers on metallurgy, materia medica, surgery, and midwifery; Registrar and librarian, Mr. Augustus Hamilton; Teaching Staff: Faculty of Arts:—Professors, Georg.; Samuel Sale, M.A., Camb. (classics); F. B. De M. Gibbons, M.A., Camb. (mathematics): John Slinnd, M.A.. LL.D. (Aberdeen), (until ral philosophy); William Salmond, D.I)., Edin. and Glas. (mental and moral philosophy); James G. Black. M.A.. D.Sc., Edin. (chemistry); Thomas Gilray, M.A., F.R.S.K.. (English language and literature); G. H. F. Ulrich, F.G.S., graduate of Royal School of Mines, Clausthal, Hartz (mining and mineralogy); Aristide Dallas, Univ. Gallic. (French); Wolf Heinemann, Ph.D., (German); Faculty of Medicine:—Prof essors_:James G. Black, M.A., D.Sc., Edin. (chemistry); J. H. Scott, M.D., Edin., M.K.C.S., _Eug., F.R.S.E. (anatomy and philosophy). Lecturers: Win. Brown, M.A., M.B., M.C.. Edin. (surgery); Daniel ColQiihoun, M.D., Loud., M.R.C.P., Loud., M.R.C.S., Eug. (practice of medicine); William Stewart W. Roberts, M.K.C.S., Eng. (pathology); For dinand C. Batchelor. M.D.. Durham. M.R.C.S., Eng., L.R.C.P., L.M., Edin..L.S.A. (midwifery); John Macdonald, L.R.C.P. and S. Ediu., L.M.R.C.S., Eng., L.S.A. (materia medica) ; Prank Ogston, M.D., C.M., Aberdeen (medical jurisprudence and public health); Henry Lindo Ferguson, F.R.C.S.I.. L.R.Q.C.P.I, (ophthalmology); School of political economv :—F. B. De M. Gibbons, M.A., Camb.; School of Law:—A. R. Barclay, B.A., LL.B., N.Z. (law); W. D. Milne, M.A., LL.B., N.Z. (jurisprudence); School of Mines:—Professors, G. H. F. Ulrich, F.G.S., Graduate of Royal School of Mines, Clausthal, Hartz (director and professor of mining and mineralogy); J. G. Black, M.A., D.Sc., Edin. (chemistry); F. B. De M. Gibbons. M.A., Camb. (mathematics): John Shand. M.A., Aberdeen (natural philosophy); Lecturers: J. R. Don, D.Sc.. (general geology): F. B. Stephens, A.O.S.M., (metallurgy); M. Begg (mine and land surveying); W. Cutteu (applied mechanics). The financial summary for the year ended Mst of March. 1807, shewed the receipts of the university to he £12.278. including £1.073 balance from the previous year, and the expenditure £10,927.

His Honour Mr. JUSTICE WILLIAMS. M.A.. LL.M.. Camb., Chancellor of Otago University and Judge of the Supreme Court, was born in London in 18.37. and came to New Zealand in 1801. His honour’s biography is more particularly given in another portion of tills work as a Supreme Court Judge.

Dr. ROBERT BURN’S, who has been a member of the Council of the University of. Otago since 1869, hails from the Modern Athens where he was born in 1834. He was educated at the High School and at Edinburgh University, and is a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. Dr. Burns held the position of house surgeon to the Leith hospital for two years, and embarked for New Zealand in 1858 per ship “Three Bells,” establishing his present practice immediately after arrival. He was associated with Dr. Hulme, provincial surgeon, at the Dunedin hospital for about four years, and at the present time is jail-surgeon and surgeon to the industrial school, which positions he has long held. Dr. Burns is one of the original members of the council of the Otago University.

Mr. AUGUSTUS HAMILTON’. Registrar of the University of Otago. was born in Poole, Dorsetshire, in March, 1854. He was educated at the Dorset county school and Epsom Medical College, and came to Wellington in 1870 per ship “Collingwood” as surgeon’s assistant. Taking service under the Wellington education board, Mr. Hamilton became a teacher at Thorndon school, being subsequently engaged in other schools in the Wellington district: later he went to the Okarito school in Westland. for the purpose of working at the botany and zoology of the district. A year later, Mr. Hamilton became teacher at Petane, Hawkes Bay, where he remained for some time. Whilst in that district, he founded a museum in Napier in connection with the Hawkes Bay philosophical institute, of which body he was for seven years secretary, and also filled a similar position with the Napier athenaeum. In 1S89, Mr. Hamilton was engaged to arrange the natural history court in the Dunedin and South Seas Exhibition, and again visited Dunedin to close up that court at the termination of the exhibition. He succeeded the late Mr. W. H. Mansford as registrar of the university of Otago in 1890. Mr. Hamilton has been connected with the New Zealand Institute for some years, and contributed about fifty papers on scientific subjects to the “Proceedings” and other publications, particularly in connection with the Maori race and the extinct birds of New Zealand. He is author of a very beautiful and elaborate work entitled “Maori Art.’ which deals with the art and sciences of the Maori race, and is being published by the governors of the New Zealand institute through Messrs. Fergusson and Mitchell of Dunedin. At the time of writing—February, 1898—two parts of his work have already been issued. These have been very highly commended by ethnological societies and students in Europe and America. Mr. Hamilton’s object in publishing this work, is to preserve by means of photography, accurate representations of wooden carving in which the Maori race are so skilled. He has already taken from five to six hundred photographs for the purposes of his work, and he has a high reputation as an enthusiastic collector of everything relating to Maori history. He is an ardent photographer and is vice-president of the Dunedin photographic society. He has been an exhibitor at various art exhibitions, his subjects being generally landscapes in oil. Mr. Hamilton is a member of the Church of England diocesan synod, is on the standing committee and a diocesan nominator. He has for a long time been a member of the council of the Otago institute, of which he has acted as secretary, and was sometime president. Mr. Hamilton was married to a daughter of the late Mr. McKain, of Petane, and has one son and four daughters.

Professor GEORGE SAMUEL SALE, M.A., Camb., who fills the Chair of Classics, was born in 1831 at Rugby, and was educated at Rugby School and afterwards at Trinity College. Cambridge. He took his degree in 1854 with first-class honours in classics and second class honours in mathematics. In 1856, he was elected fellow of Trinity, and in 1857. was appointed lecturer in classics. In 1860, owing to ill-health. Mr. Sale left England by the ship “Minerva,” lauding in Lyttelton in February, 1861. In May, 1861, he became the first editor of the “Press” newspaper, of which, however, the real control was in the hands of the late Mr. James Edward Fitzgerald. At the end of that year, Mr. Sale went to the Otago goldfields and for about nine months was engaged in mining. Ho subsequently returned to Canterbury, and in 1863, was appointed provincial treasurer and receiver of land revenue by the superintendent, Mr. Samuel Bealey, at. the instance of Mr. (now the Hon.) William Rolleston, who was the provincial secretary. In April, 1865, at the request of the provincial government, Mr. Sale went to Hokitika and look charge of the West Coast goldflelds, as commissioner and agent for the Canterbury provincial government. After the separation of Westland from the province of Canterbury, he returned to England and entered Lincoln’s Inn, with the view of being called to the English Bar. But in 1870, the Otago university having been established, Mr. Sale became a candidate for the chair of classics, to which he was appointed and which he has held ever since. In 1874, he was married to Miss Margaret M. Fortune, sister of Mrs. James Davidson. afterwards Mrs. Cunningham Smith, and has two sons and two daughters.

Professor JOHN SHAND, M.A., LL.D., who has held the Chair of Natural Philosophy at the University of Otago since 1870, hails from the parish of Elgin, Morayshire, Scotland. he was born in 1834, and was educated at the Elgin Academy and at the University of Aberdeen. Professor Shand graduated M.A. in 1854, and the honorary degree LL.D. was conferred upon him in 1889. For nine years he held the position of mathematical master at the Ayr Academy, and subsequently held a similar position for three years at the Edinburgh Academy. He was appointed in Dunedin to the chair of mathematics and natural philosophy at the date first mentioned, and when these subjects were divided in 1886, he elected to retain the chair of natural philosophy. Professor Shand is a member of the New Zealand Institute, and a member of the Australian Association for the advancement of science. He served on the royal commission which was appointed in 1877 to inquire into the operations of the University of New Zealand and its relations to the secondary schools of the Colony, and which completed its report in 1879. He has been connected with the education board of Otago, of which he was a member for ten years and three times elected chairman, and for the same period was one of the governors of the boys and girls High Schools of Otago. Since 1877, Professor Shand has been a member of the senate of the New Zealand University, and was elected a member of the council of Otago University representing the professors in 1895. Professor Shand came to New Zealand in 1871 per ship “Wild Deer,” arriving at Port Chalmers. He is married and has two sons and seven daughters.

Professor JAMES GOW BLACK, M.A., D.Sc., Edin., who fills the Chair of Chemistry, hails from Drumtochty, Scotland, and is the original “John Koss,” Drumtochty’s Australian professor in Ian McLaren’s “Days of Auld Lang Syne.” Dr. Black was born in 1853, and was educated at Duukeld, Drumtochty, Perth, at the Moray House Training College, and at Edinburgh University. He took the degree of M.A. in 1864, and was the first on whom that degree \\ as conferred after a three years’ course of study. Two years later the degree of B.Sc. was conferred, and in 1869 he became D.Sc. During his university career he took several medals, as well as a junior Hope scholarship in chemistry and the Baxter scholarship in experimental science. Dr. Black started the educational institution in Edinburgh known as Scott and Black’s collegiate classes in Picardy Place, the fees of which establishment were ten guineas, or three times higher than those charged by any other institution. In 1871, Dr. Black together with four other gentlemen, established the Edinburgh Naturalists field club of which he became vice-president; this same club has now a membership of three or four hundred. Dr. Black is a fellow of the Royal Botanical Society of Edinburgh, and of the Educational Institute of Scotland. Prior to coming to the Colonies he declined the professorship of natural philosophy at the Andersonian College, Glasgow, and was unanimously elected out of twenty-three candidates as professor of natural science at the University of Otago. lie arrived in Port Chalmers to take up his duties about the end of 1871 per ship “Christian McCauslaud.” Dr. Black is the author of a work on “Chemistry for the Gold-fields.” published in 1885. In 1884, when the New Zealand Government decided upon the establishment of a school of mines in the Colony, Dr. Black was selected to inaugurate the movement. He visited the various mining centres, conducted practical classes and delivered lectures among the miners, the Thames and the Reefton school of mines being established. With Professor Etard of Paris. Dr. Black entered into the elaboration of the permanganate process for the extraction of gold from its ores. Professor Black is a Master Mason, having been initiated in Lodge 20, at Zeehan, Tasmania. He is married to an Edinburgh lady and has one son and two daughters.

Professor JOHN HALLIDAY SCOTT, Dean of the Medical Faculty and Professor of Anatomy and Physiology at the University of Otago, was born in 1851 in the city of Edinburgh, and was educated at the Edinburgh Institution, and at the University. Professor Scott took the degrees of M.B. and C.M. in 1874, the M.U.O.S., England, in 1876. and graduated as M.D. at Edinburgh in 1877. He was elected fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1879. For six months he was house surgeon at the Edinburgh hospital, under Professor Spence, and for a like period was house surgeon at the Royal infirmary, Stirling. He was then demonstrator of anatomy at Edinburgh University for a period of eighteen months, and was appointed to the position he now holds in 1877. Dr. Scott is interested in art, is himself a water colour artist, and has been secretary to the Otago art society since 1880. He is a member of the Otago Institute and has been both president and secretary. He is a member of the senate of New Zealand university, which latter office he has occupied since 1890. Dr. Scott married in 1882 a daughter of Mr. John Bealey, one of the early Canterbury settlers, after whom Bealey township was named, and has three sons and two daughters.

EDUCATIONAL.

Copyright © 2007 Colonial CD Books Last modified: 11/15/07

Copyright © 2007 Colonial CD Books
Last modified: 11/15/07