Page:Convocation Addresses of the Universities of Bombay and Madras.djvu/279



take advantage of the offer of the Government to give the privilege of electing two Fellows annually to a constituency composed of Masters of Arts and the holders of equivalent degrees. Such a privilege is enjoyed by the Calcutta University, and though it falls grievously short of our wishes and hopes, it is not quite without value. In the current year, it will enable the new constituency which the Government will constitute to supplement the recently Gazetted list of Fellows, which is a shorter list than was Gazetted either in 1889 or 1890, and a much shorter list, unhappily, than that of casualties by death and retirement which we have had to deplore during the past year. About 11 or 12 of our European Fellows have left India, the greater part of them probably with no intention of returning. Among these we find the names of Brigade-Surgeon Lyon, Mr.Justice Scott, and the Rev.R.A.Squires. The list of casualties by death is larger still, and includes the honoured names of Mr.Shantaram Narayen, who died while holding office as Syndic in Law, Rao Saheb Mahipatram Rupram, Mr. Raghunath Narayen Khote, Mr. Serjeant Atkinson, Mr. J. Flynn, Sir Henry Morland, who died while holding office as a member of the Board of Accounts, Mr. Rehatsek, the Rev. Dr. Narayen Sheshadri, Dr. Temperley Gray, Raja Sir Tanjore Madhavrao, the Rev. F. X. Fibus, Rao Bahadur Mahadev Wasudev Brave, and Mr. Ganesh Ramachandra Birloskar, who became a member of the Senate only two years ago. The mere recital of these names reminds us most sorrowfully of the services rendered to the University in the past, and in some cases up to within a few weeks ago, by friends who have now passed away, to our abiding loss. Before I bring this address to a close I should like to refer, and I will do so very briefly, to a matter which is becoming daily of increasing importance. It is the subject of the finances of the University. You are well aware that we have never yet been able to carry on the work of the University without the aid of a subsidy from the Government. The fees which we take from candidates at the several examinations do not suffice for the adequate remuneration of the examiners and our other expenses. We are at present receiving from the Government an annual grant of Rs.15,000, for our general expenses, and a special grant, in the Public Works Department, of Rs.2,000, for the maintenance of the Garden. Now I am sure that it is your earnest desire that this University should be a self-supporting institution, just as the Universities at Calcutta and Madras are self-supporting. The most obvious way of securing that end is to revise the scale of examination fees and to levy a small annual tax on mem-