An impressive ceremony

The annual ceremony of conferring degrees, round which the other student festivities of the week ostensibly centre, took place in Knox Church Sunday School yesterday afternoon.All the seating was occupied at an early hour. The graduates of the year entered in procession and occupied the front seats reserved for them. Afterwards the Chancellor, members of the University Council and staff took their seats. The audience consisted almost entirely of friends of the graduates, and ladies were largely in the majority. The absence of any body of students accounted for the proceedings being of an unusually peaceful and harmonious nature. The Chancellor, the Rev Dr Andrew Cameron, said that the Capping ceremony, while it was under the direction of the Council of the University of Otago, was a function of the New Zealand University. The conferring of the degrees by the Chancellor was then proceeded with. A number of degrees had to be conferred in absentia, but a very large number of the graduates were present. They were presented by the deans of their various faculties, and had the formula pronounced over them and the diploma handed them by the Chancellor. The hood was placed on their shoulders by Dr Jack. The whole ceremony was carried out expeditiously with dignity and without the least hitch. It occupied altogether about 50 minutes, and was watched with close interest. It was probably the most impressive and successful capping ceremony that has yet been held here. At the close, after the singing of the National Anthem, the graduates stood while those from the platform retired in procession.

Crumple zone suggestion
On the New Zealand railways are places more than one where a boulder big enough to stop a fast train may descend from the hillside and arrange itself across the rails. If these places cannot be watched, and if an approaching train cannot be warned that round the next bend an obstruction lies in wait, the make-up of the train should be arranged with possible collision in view. Tailed on to the postal van, next but one to the engine, should be two empty carriages, locked and inaccessible to passengers. In telescoping each other these carriages will absorb the shock of impact and bring the rest of the train to a stand without injury. This is the one and only sane way of arranging the makeup of a train that may hit a three-ton boulder. The train wrecked on the Main Trunk had shock-absorbing carriages in front, which carriages were duly telescoped; but alas they were filled with passengers. Hence the tale of horror that has blackened the record of our railways and is a pain and grief to all New Zealand. — by ‘Civis’

Mosgiel memorial design
The committee in charge of the Taieri Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Fund has let a contract to Messrs H.S. Bingham and Co, of Dunedin, for the erection of the monument which will be placed in the park fronting Gordon road, Mosgiel. It will be 34 feet high, of bluestone, with a cross of white marble surmounted with a bronze urn emblematical of the sacrifice made by the heroes who fell in the war and whose names will be engraved on marble slabs on the four sides of the base of the column. The monument is to be ready for unveiling next Armistice Day. . — ODT, 14.7.1923

 

Compiled by Peter Dowden