The University Commission

Abstract

THE University Commission is sitting frequently and has heard witnesses representing nearly every interest and every shade of opinion which have a right to be represented before it. We have no knowledge of the effect which the evidence laid before them has produced upon the minds of the Commissioners; but we are sure that it must largely depend on the view which they have adopted as to the nature of their duties. They may regard themselves as entrusted with the task of finding the terms on which a heterogeneous crowd of colleges and mechanics' institutes may be huddled together, called a university, and allowed to confer degrees on such conditions as the rivalries of competing institutions may permit when tempered by the moderating influence of Crown nominees, county councillors, representatives of the School Board and of the learned societies, and any other assessors whom fancy may suggest. Such a solution might no doubt secure peace in the sense that, wearied out by long debate and hopeless of a satisfactory solution, those who are most nearly interested in the question might at last be compelled to make the best of a bad job.