Page:Convocation Addresses of the Universities of Bombay and Madras.djvu/243

 throughout a number of years with the work which is done under the shadow of this University and with the youth who are proud to call it their alma mater. But before I proceed to this my special task there are two duties which it falls to me to discharge.

One of these is to call your attention to the wide gaps that death has made in our ranks since we last assembled in Convocation. The Rao Saheb Vishvanath Narayan Mandlik who was so long one of the chief ornaments of the Senate, has passed away amid the regrets of the whole community. We miss to-day the intellectual presence which has often lent dignity to these assemblages and strength and character to our academic debates. Himself a man of learning and a patron of learning, he has left to the students of this University the example of a life devoted to the pursuit of higher aims than mere worldly success, of high intellectual gifts consecrated to the advancement of true learning. And this example was rendered all the more valuable by the simple life in which it was embodied, and the independence of character which sustained it. Straight-forwardness and simplicity, honesty and energy of purpose, always manifest even to those who differed most widely from him — these were some of the outstanding features of the life to which as a University we this day pay tribute. And we miss not less the genial form of the late Mr. Justice Nanabhai Haridas. His life moved along very different lines from that of the distinguished Rao Saheb, and the example which it offers to the youth of our University presents different features. It is an outstanding illustration of the results of persevering devotion to duty. Without external advantages our honoured friend rose through force of character and faithfulness of work step by step to one of the highest positions in the service of his country ; and to many a young man in this hall, starting with high hope upon a similar career and face to face with like difficulties, his example cannot fail to be inspiring. Mr. Justice Nanabhai was latterly a prominent figure in your debates, and while most of us stood upon opposite ground none could but admire the unfailing good nature with which he maintained the unequal conflict; while the quiet humour which played beneath excluded every element of bitterness from the keenest opposition. In the death of Mr. Mahadeva Moreshvar Kunte we have lost one of the first graduates of this University. His residence during the last years of his life in another city prevented him from taking that