A Short History of the Canterbury College

Front matter

A SHORT HISTORY OF THE CANTERBURY COLLEGE

Canterbury College, Worcester Street Front, Looking East

A Short History

Chapter 1

History of the Canterbury College

5

Chapter I.

THE BRITISH BACKGROUND.

In the fifties and sixties of last century, when the men who were most prominent in moulding our university and its policy left the Old Country, university reform was one of the burning public questions in England. Oxford and Cambridge, where teaching had well-nigh become extinct, were waking from their long "organized torpor." The first provineial university had been established at Durham in 1833, and London, dating from 1826-8, was empowered to grant degrees ten years later. The examination system at Oxford was reorganized in 1850, and in 1850–2 two royal commissions, one on Oxford the other on Cambridge, began the work of reform that continued on into the early eighties. The Oxford Act of 1854 so far relaxed the strict religions tests there as to admit Nonconformists to matriculation and the B.A. degree, and allowed the establishment of private halls. A similar Act was passed for Cambridge in 1858; but even after this all except members of the established church were excluded from the government and the teaching bodies of the universities and colleges, and from the possession of the more permanent emoluments, The broadening of the courses of study, as well as the relaxation of entrance restrictions, was one of the objects of reform, and in 1851 Cambridge instituted the Natural Science Tripos and the Tripos in Moral Philosophy.

During the sixties there was constant agitation for the abolition of all religious restrictions. In 1867 the University Education Act provided for the admission to the universities of non-collegiate or unattached students. In that year, too, provision was made in the University of London for courses for women. In 1871 Gladstone, who had for many years stubbornly opposed the proposal, himself carried the sweeping legislation which removed all the religious tests at Oxford and Cambridge except in the case of College headships, clerical fellowships, theological chairs, and degrees in Divinity.

In the early seventies the process of reform proceeded apace; Cambridge introduced the university extension movement, and in 1869 and 1871 there were established there the houses for women students, which became Girton College in 1872 and Newnham Tall in 1875, In 1873 women were admitted informally to the Tripos examinations at Cambridge.

The discussions that heralded the establishment of university institutions in New Zealand were clearly influenced by these and similar reforms at Home and the public opinion responsible for them. Cambridge had shown itself more responsive to the demand for change than Oxford, and many of the most active of the founders of our local institutions, Rolleston, Bowen, and Joshua Williams, for example, were Cambridge men. They were influenced, too, by the rising strength of democracy as shown by the Second Reform Bill of 1867, and other political reforms round about 1870.

Chapter 2

Chapter II.

CONDITIONS IN NEW ZEALAND.

In New Zealand the period of the early seventies was one of especial activity in thought and action—a "boom" period from every point of view. The decade of Maori wars had just closed, the country was pulsating with the new blood transfused into it through Vogel's loan and immigration policy, and provincial rivalries and jealousies were taking on a particular keenness in the struggle for the abolition of the provinces as well as the competition for the abundant loan money. The larger and more progressive part of the population was to be found in the South Island. There the denominational origin of the two principal colonies, Otago and Canterbury, Presbyterian and Anglican, was to influence deeply the division of opinion between them as to the nature of the university system. Denominationalism had always been a powerful factor in the arrangements made for primary education in the provinces, and in the circumstances must inevitably colour current views on superior education, Yet, though provincial feeling was strong, there was developing also a certain national spirit and outlook, which was to prevail in the university settlement made in 1874, as it did in the abolition of the provinces in the following year. The separation movement—involving the proposal to divide New Zealand into separate colonies—which had received very strong support in the South, had definitely failed by 1867. In their utterances on the universities question, we find the leaders of Canterbury thought, like Tancred, Rolleston, and Bowen, voicing the fear of denominationalism, and demanding a truly national university with due provision for local institutions affiliated to it.

Canterbury was the province which progressed most rapidly during the early seventies. In 1873 the population was 55,204, an increase of nearly 25 per cent over that of 1870, all of fine, specially selected British stock, with an abnormally large proportion at the most active ages, and prepared in every sense of the phrase to set their hands sternly to the plough. Settling on broad, sunny plains and back country comparatively easy of access, well-watered and well-grassed, with no large forest or numerous native tribes to bar their progress, they developed with almost unparalleled speed the growing of wool, then rapidly rising in price, and of wheat, the first crop of which sometimes returned a net profit of £5 per acre on land that had cost the freehold owner only £2. (Reeves, Long White Cloud, p. 326). The export trade of Canterbury and its annual budget of revenue and expenditure were then larger than those of any other province except Otago.

But the Canterbury Settlement had other than material aims. It was born of ideals for which there could be no hope of realization in the Old Land, as well as of fears for the imminent loss of what seemed to its founders the most precious elements, in English civilization. The future was dark and troubled. Men's hearts were failing them for fear." (Canterbury Papers, 1.) "It is my only consolation that the Church of England is putting forth vigorous scions in foreign lands when the time of her glory as far as human eyes can judge, is departing from her." (FitzGerald to Godley, June 5th, 1850).

Among those in Canterbury who cherished the cause of education at this period when the second generation of the Settlement was growing up was the last Superintendent of the Province, who held office during 1868–76 through three elections. William Rolleston, who had arrived in 1858 and taken up pastoral land, was a brother of the Professor of Physiology at Oxford, and had graduated with Honours in the Classical Tripos at Cambridge in 1855. He had been a member of the Education Commission of 1863, of which Tancred was Chairman, and which framed the school system of the province, and had held office in the General Government under Weld. His rigorous retrenchment policy had helped to bring the province safely through the financial stress of the later sixties, but he fully recognized the wisdom of spending the utmost possible on educational institutions, and gave the best of his energies to the movement for increasing the facilities for superior education in both province and colony.

Chapter 3

Chapter III.

ORIGIN OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW ZEALAND.

It was during the period of 1867–74, at the culmination of the reform movement in England, that the university system of New Zealand was moulded in the heat of political, denominational, and provincial conflicts. The ideal of the Canterbury Association, to be referred to later, remained unrealized, and it was not till 1867 that the General Assembly took thought of the means of higher educbtion. Only a brief summary of the Ditter controversies and the decisions made, many of them very short-lived, can be given here, There was a proposal to establish a colonial or national university, which had to give way to a Select Committee's recommendation of a system of scholarships for New Zealand youths tenable at the Home universities, similar to the plan then followed in Tasmania. The New Zealand University Endowment Act of 1868 provided for a grant from the public funds of £250 a year for each of eight such scholarships. It also enabled each province to reserve land up to 10,000 acres for the endowment of a colonial university when such should be established. It was in Otago that the desire for a university was keenest. Public opinion there was in favour of the immediate establishment of a teaching university, and a movement led to the constitution of the University of Otago by a provincial ordinance of June 3rd, 1869.

Nothing had been done by the General Government towards awarding the scholarships authorized by the Act of 1868 when the creation of the Otago University changed the essential conditions of the problem. There was a strong body of opinion opposed to the Otago idea of a teaching university located at Dunedin to serve the whole country. It inclined to a central University of New Zealand, with functions limited to prescription of courses, conduct of examinations, and award of degrees and scholarships, and supervising and assisting by grants the university teaching which would be done in institutions to be affliated on certain conditions to the university. The party of this opinion, led by Rolleston, Tancred, and Stafford, prevailed in the end.

Henry John Tancred, son of Sir Thomas Tancred, of Boroughbridge, Yorkshire, had arrived in Canterbury in 1851, after being educated at Rugby and seeing active service in the Austrian armies in Hungary and Italy. He had long been a member of the Provincial Council, since 1866 its Speaker, had been a Provincial Executive Councillor, and had held offices in three colonial ministries. He was active in all educational movements, and was the first Chancellor of the University of New Zealand, from 1871 till his death in 1884. Edward William Stafford, who had been educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and was an early resident of Nelson, had already during his two premierships (he was Premier again in 1872) established a reputation for a centralising policy.

In July, 1870, a joint committee of Parliament recommended the institution of a University of New Zealand, with which the University of Otago was authorized to amalgamate if it should think fit; if the amalgamation took place within six months of the passing of the Act, the University of New Zealand was to be established at Dunedin. In default of amalgamation the university was to be established at some place at the discretion of the Government. No exclusive privileges were conferred such as would prevent the subsequent establishment of a university at any other place in New Zealand. The university was forbidden to apply any religious tests. It could teach as well as examine, and was given power to affiliate colleges for teaching purposes. Provision was made for an annual grant of £3000 for maintenance expenses, including professors' salaries and for the establishment of lectures in the affiliated colleges.

Rolleston and Tancred objected strongly to the act; they wanted to establish the university as an examining body, non-localised, and controlling affiliated colleges throughout the country. Their view was taken by the majority of the Council of the University of New Zealand. Otago was willing to amalgamate, but the Council resolved that it was undesirable to fix upon any particular place as a permanent site, and that it should confine its action to founding university scholarships and lectures in affiliated institutions. It proceeded to execute the policy expressed in these resolutions in June, 1871, advertising its conditions of affiliation and its scholarship regulations. The attempt at agreement between the two universities was thus foredoomed to fail, and the precipitate action of the Council of the University of New Zealand drew severe strictures from the General Government. The Council was charged with wishing to force Otago into affiliation after having refused to amalgamate with it. The University of Otago was formally opened on July 5th, and its first classes met on the 10th.

Such was the position of affairs when in August, 1871, the first steps were taken to link up Canterbury with the new machinery by the establishment of an institution which might claim to affiliate with the University of New Zealand. Feeling ran high on the main question, but in September the two Councils agreed to a compromise which was embodied in the University Bill of 1871, but proved unacceptable to Parliament. Of the two universities, the leaders of educational opinion in Canterbury preferred the national institution, and its aims and policy were clearly outlined by the Chancellor in his inaugural address to the Canterbury Collegiate Union classes in July, 1872.

Chapter 4

Chapter IV.

POLICY OF THE UNIVERSITY.

The University, charged with the duty of giving an impulse and a direction to higher education throughout the whole country could not, without depriving many parts of the advantages to which they were entitled, devote all its means to the establishment at any one spot of one great seat of learning. It should establish several seats, not organizing an independent school, but building upon institutions already existing. A central seat might attract no students; and because of the grouping of the population round several different points forming the centres of several different communities, no institution which was to be of general benefit ought to be limited in its operation to any one particular spot.

The influence of a university, in the second place, should be felt among all classes. In New Zealand power and social position are not exclusive privileges of any particular set, and since those who to-day are at the bottom of the ladder may to-morrow be at the top, we must so frame our institutions as to exclude no class. Clearly if all our resources were directed towards the creation of only one seat of learning for the whole colony we should be offering advantages to a select few, those on the spot, and the comparatively rich who can afford travelling and residential expenses. The object of the University was in direct opposition to this; to foster a love for the highest learning wherever a large community has been formed, to seek out and encourage talent wherever it is to be found; and to give facilities for obtaining an education of the highest class to those whose means might not allow them to take advantage of a distant institution.

The two main principles to which the University should give effect were first to encourage and assist institutions likely to develop into efficient university colleges in the chief centres of population, and secondly to discover among the youth of every class the most promising and to help them by scholarships and prizes to develop their abilities to the utmost. An affiliated institution would have the exclusive privilege of educating the university scholars and a claim to share in the grant of £1500 set apart for that purpose. It must satisfy certain requirements as to equipment and teaching. It was to meet these requirements that the Canterbury Collegiate Union had been formed. It seemed that a concentration of the scattered resources into one well-organized system would be more effective than dependence on one body alone. There were three institutions for the promotion of higher education in the province, Christ's College, the Canterbury Museum and Library Trust, incorporated by provincial ordinance as a school of technical science, and the Christchurch High School, whose efforts, if combined, would produce the greatest result.

Chapter 5

Chapter V.

THE COLLEGE OF THE CANTERBURY ASSOCIATION.

Of the institutions mentioned, Christ's College was of peculiar interest as a creation of the founders of the Canterbury Settlement, designed partly to perform the functions of a university college. From the very inception of the plan of the Canterbury Settlement by Wakefield and Godley in 1848, the idea of a college was, as appears in the minute books and despatches of the Association, an essential part of the scheme, In fact the most cherished and attractive feature of the whole enterprise, though the one that ultimately proved to be the least practicable, was the proposal for the religious and educational endowment of the Settlement, The Bishop of Norwich, in an appeal for emigrants at a meeting at Ipswich in May, 1850, said that in carrying out their views "they contemplated something higher than the best schooling—something like an university institution." The Rev. Thomas Jackson, the Bishop designate of Lyttelton made many long and eloquent references to the college at public meetings organized by the Association in all these stress is laid on the collegiate (or university) department of the college as well as on the grammar school. A fall and elaborate scheme was published in May, 1850; the collegiate department would be the Canterbury University—"a local Cambridge or Oxford"—and it was expected it would attract students from India and Australia, and would become the educational centre of Australasia, in the widest sense of that term. On October 1st, 1850, Godley, then in New Zealand, was informed by the Association that the Bishop-designate had made all necessary arrangements for beginning the work of the College on arrival. "If we consider the effect of the universities in forming the character of the English gentry, and on producing the general tone of English society, we may be able to estimate the value of an institution of a similar kind, and imbued with the same spirit, in the southern world." Oxford had been approached for help, and some six or seven valuable endowments had been obtained in other quarters. There was a detailed plan as to the constitution of the governing, the professorial, and the tutorial bodies. In view of the chief 'occupations of colonial life, the physical and practical sciences, especially agriculture, were to occupy prominent places in the course of studies.

Chapter 6

Chapter VI.

FORMATION OF THE COLLEGIATE UNION.

As a result of preliminary meetings between representatives of Christ's College and the Museum Trust, a body established by the Provincial Council, a conference was held at Christ's College on Monday, August 14th, 1871, when the two corporations formed the Canterbury Collegiate Union with a Board of Governors consisting of the Superintendent of the province (then the Hon, Mr. Rolleston), the Speaker of the Provincial Council (Mr. H. J. Tancred), the Provincial Secretary (Mr. W. A. Kennaway), six members elected by the governing body of Christ's College, and the six life members of Museum and School of Sciences. At this historic meeting were present: Mr. C. C. Bowen (in the chair), the Very Rev. Dean Jacobs, the Rev. Canons Cotterill and Dudley, the Rev. W. Harris, Mr. W. J. Hamilton, his Honour Mr Justice Gresson, the Rev. C. Fraser, Dr. Julius von Haast, Dr. Barker, and Mr. W. H. Wynn-Williams.

Two days later the Board met, and elected Mr. C. C. Bowen president and the Rev. C. Fraser honorary secretary. Dr. Barker was appointed treasurer the following May. All the persons already named were members of the Board with the exception of the two canons, the Rev. W. Harris, Judge Gresson, and Mr. Wynn-Williams. The other members were—Dr. W. Donald, Mr. J. D. Enys, Mr. R. J. S. Harman, Mr. T. H. Potts, Mr. H. R. Webb, and the Ven. Archdeacon Wilson.

The Board at once applied for affiliation to the University of New Zealand, and for a grant from that body.

In the letter of application they say that "they are themselves specially anxious to develop the institution under their charge in the direction of physical science and natural philosophy, but are prepared to supply instruction also in classics, mathematics, English language and literature, and general history."

On March, 26th, 1872, the Board met at the Museum to consider arrangements for the first session of its classes. The Rev. W. C. Harris, Dr. von Haast, Dr. Powell, Mr. Tancred, and Mr. C. C. Corfe were asked to accept appointment as lecturers in classics, geology, biology, history, and mathematics respectively, to lecture two hours a week for the three terms of thirteen weeks each at a salary of £100, plus class fees. The appointments were accepted, but Mr. E. Worthy acted on behalf of the Rev. Mr. Harris, head master of Christ's College, who was absent from the colony, and Mr. Tancred, who was Hulsean Chichele Professor of History at Christ's College, with a small emolument, preferred to act without salary.

The founders of the Union and of the movement leading up to the establishment of Canterbury College were naturally all men of prominence in the settlement, Charles Christopher Bowen (knighted in 1910), born in Ireland, had been educated at Rugby and Cambridge, and was one of the "pilgrims" of 1850. As private secretary to Godley (1851–2) he had been in close contact with one of the most active and original minds of the time, and he soon won notice and office in provincial politics. In 1872 he was Resident Magistrate at Christchurch, and Chairman of the Board of Education for the province. He was two years later to become a Minister of the Crown, and in 1877 to pilot the famous Education Bill through the House of Representatives.

Henry Jacobs, M.A., and Fellow of Queen's College, Oxford, was the first Professor of Classics and the Watts-Russell Professor of Divinity in Christ's College, Canterbury, and the first head of the Grammar School. At this time he was Incumbent of St. Michael's and All Angels and Dean of Christchurch, as well as Sub-Warden of the College, and had long established a reputation for scholarship, devotion to duty, enthusiasm, and clear-sightedness in the cause of education, Like Bowen, he wrote verses which are prized for their poetic qualities, as well as their historical value

Archdeacon Harris, M.A., Oxford, was then head master of Christ's College Grammar School; Canon Cotterill, B.A., Cambridge, Rural Dean and Canon since 1866, one of the "pilgrims," was remarkable for his generosity and self sacrifice in all efforts at social progress.

W. J. W. Hamilton, born in Kent, a son of the rector, had been secretary to Governors FitzRoy and Grey, active in exploration both of the coast and the interior of the islands, and had held high political and civil offices. He was now a Governor of Christ's College, and on the eve of his retirement from the civil service.

Henry Barnes Gresson, B.A., of Trinity College, Dublin, had been Judge of the Southern Districts (Wellington and the South Island) since 1857.

Julius von Haast, PhD, F.R.S., was the Provincial Geologist, appointed 1861, and Director of the Canterbury Museum, which he had founded.

Dr. A. C. Barker, surgeon, had been associated with Dr. Haast in founding the Philosophical Institute. Ie was one of the "pilgrims" of 1850, an earnest supporter of the Wakefield ideal in colonization, active in all church, education, and scientific movements. He had been a Provincial Councillor. His collection of original drawings and photographs of early Canterbury was to become priceless.

W. H. Wynn-Williams, a brother of Sir Watkins Williams, of the High Court of Justice, had practised law in Christchurch since 1860, was a member of the Provincial Council, and had been Provincial Solicitor. Richard J. S. Harman, born at Dublin, and educated at Rugby and King's College, London, was a "pilgrim" prominent in business, provincial politics, both in Council and Executive, and the Church. He was a Fellow of Christ's College. Henry Richard Webb, was to remain a member of the governing body of the university institution till his death in 1901, John Davies Enys, F.G.S., was a pastoralist with botanical and geological tastes, and a member of the Provincial Council. Thomas Henry Potts, F.L.S., of Governor's Bay, was a naturalist who gave charming expression to his studies in "Out in the Open." He was a Provincial Councillor and also M.H.R. William Donald, surgeon, had been a leading citizen of Lyttelton from 1850; the was an ex-Provincial Councillor, a Fellow of Christ's College, and one of the most active promoters of church and charitable work in the province.

Archdeacon Wilson was one of the clergy who had come out under the original plan of the Canterbury Association.

The Rev. Charles Fraser, M.A., Aberdeen, a man of great ability and literary attainments, was the first minister of St. Andrew's Church (1856–1883), the mother Presbyterian church in Canterbury.

Walter Kennaway had been in the Provincial Council since 1867, and was in the Executive Council as Provincial Secretary (1870–4), in which capacity he had charge of the legislation affecting the Union and the Canterbury College.

Chapter 7

Chapter VII.

THE COLLEGIATE UNION CLASSES.

The secretary gave notice of an interesting motion concerning the admission of the High School into the Union, and the formation of a Lower Council of University and Public School Men, presumably to control or supervise secondary education within the province. Apparently nothing resulted; on May 2nd consideration was postponed, and the Union minutes and correspondence contain no further reference to it.

A letter of April 8th, from the President to the Chancellor of the University summarises the resources of the Union. There were four lecture rooms, one at the Museum, the others at Christ's College. There is an interesting reference to the intention to build a new library at the college at least 40 x 25, which would be permanently available. This was the library demolished in 1922 to make way for the War Memorial House on Rolleston Avenue.

On April 18th the University granted affiliation to the Union, and on the 30th notified the grant of £300 in aid of the next year's work on certain conditions as to efficiency. The Board now met frequently at regular intervals, from May, 1872, always at the rooms of the Philosophical Institute, situated in the building on the site of the present Public Library. In June the Union asked the Provincial Government to transfer the reserves of 9000 acres made previously for classical education to the University of New Zealand. This was not done, these reserves being ultimately vested in Canterbury College by the ordinances of 1874 and 1875.

On July 8th the Board was informed that £350 had been voted it by the Provincial Council. It thereupon completed the appointment of the lecturers named above, and set up a committee on lectureships. It was resolved that "While the Governors abstain from prescribing the details of any course of lectures ... they are of opinion that much of the advantage to be derived from lectures will be lost if a considerable amount of pains be not bestowed by the lecturers in guiding the private studies of their students."

On July 16th the Board directed that lectures should commence on Monday, July 22nd, and that Mr. Tancred, as Chancellor of the University, should be invited to deliver the opening address. The time table adopted provided for evening lectures with one at noon on Saturdays. Later a few other day lectures were given. The fees payable were at the rate of 10s. 6d. per term per course of two hours. The three university terms were to be followed—Lent, February to May with fourteen days' vacation at Easter; Trinity, June to August; and Michaelmas, October to November. University, as distinguished from general students, must matriculate and attend at least three full courses each term. The Union would buy textbooks and resell to students. Mr. R. Mainwaring was appointed Registrar, and the Rev. C. W. Turrell, lecturer in French and German.

The meetings following were concerned with administrative details. The records of the Union bear striking testimony to the keen interest of its members in the work they had set themselves to do. Advice was sought from Judge Gresson as to instruction in Law, and Dr. Foster was appointed Lecturer in Jurisprudence for 1873.

During the first (Trinity) term eighty-three individual students enrolled. The number of students in each subject was:—Classics, twenty-two; mathematics, twelve; physical science, thirty-seven; and modern languages, forty-three. The fees collected amounted to £49 12s, The enrolments for the three terms in 1873 and the first term in 1874 were sixty-six, seventy-three, fifty-seven, and forty-five respectively. Among those enrolled during the first year were five University junior scholars, viz., W. H. Atack, now manager of the New Zealand Press Association; A. W. Dillon Bell, now civil engineer, Auckland; E. H. Bell, Head of Christ's College Grammar School and now Vicar of Sydenham, England; Henry Cotterill, the well-known barrister and solicitor; and Mortimer Davie, civil engineer, of this city.

Among the elder members of the class were to be found some of the leaders of the community, The Chancellor himself sat as a simple student in the botany and zoology classes, with him Mrs. Tancred, Mr. and Mrs. Worthy, the Rev. G. Cotterill, and Archdeacon Willock; in the modern languages class were Dean Jacobs and Mrs. Jacobs, and Mrs. Haast. Many names to become well known are to be found in these early lists:—William Pember Reeves, W.B. Perceval, G. Gould, C. J. Merton, J. B. Heywood, Arch. Binney, John Deans. In subsequent terms we find J. J. Thomson, T. D. Condell, E. K. Deacon, C. Whitcombe, G. Whitcombe (scholar), Hon. W. Montgomery, P. Fairclough, Rev. A. Fitchett, T. Jamieson, W. V. Milton, G. T. Booth, C. C. Bowen, T. S. Foster, Miss Grierson (Mrs. A. J. Merton), E. V. Hamilton, W. H. Herbert, J. R. Thornton, W. Taylor, C. E. Salter, J. W. Twentyman.

On October 10th the Board petitioned both Houses of the General Assembly against the Auckland University Bill, which proposed to establish a teaching university for the North Island at Auckland and to share with the Otago University the colonial subsidy of £3,000. The Bill passed through the Lower House but was dropped after the first reading in the Couneil. Thus was the New Zealand University again saved from its attackers. On November 19th Mr. F. de C. Malet was appointed Registrar in place of Mr. Mainwaring, who was leaving the colony. Mr. Malet was also Registrar of the University of New Zealand, the offices of which were then in Christchurch.

On the 26th the Board took an important step in petitioning the Provincial Council to make permanent provision for university education in Canterbury. The petition called attention to the gradual improvement in the standard of education in the province, the need of a university curriculum, the presence of a substantial student body, and sufficient teaching power to justify the attempt to establish a permanent and systematic institution, and asked for the setting apart of liberal reserves and for provision for preliminary expenses, and the constitution of a governing body.