Page:Convocation Addresses of the Universities of Bombay and Madras.djvu/99

 ship, will, I feel sure, be accepted as a just ground of excuse by the Senate for the absence of the Chancellor to-day.

The report which has just been read by the registrar refers very shortly to several very important matters which have engaged the attention of the Syndicate during the past year. When presiding in this place last January I mentioned that the Syndicate was not only aware that changes must be made, but. had appointed a Committee for the purpose of considering all the questions which had been started in connection with the management of the examinations. This Committee was presided over by Mr. Justice West, than whom it would have been difficult to find a gentleman who, from his experience in educational matters and from the great interest he has always taken in the affairs of the University, was more capable of leading the discussions to a practical result. The Committee considered all the suggestions which had been made to the Syndicate, including those put forward by Mr. Jacob, and finally laid down 26 separate questions for discussion, of which 18 resulted in modifications being made in the present system, while as regards the remaining 8 it was decided to make no change. The deliberations of this Committee lasted from January to April, during which they held 10 meetings; and their report, after having had those points of which the advice of the Faculties was required, submitted to them, was finally discussed by the Syndicate who, after obtaining the consent of the Senate on the matters which by the statutes required your decision, adopted nearly all the proposals made. Before alluding to these in greater detail, I must draw your attention to the great labour and thoughtful care exhibited by the Committee, and for which our best thanks are eminently due; it forms another instance of the "unbought exertions of those who direct the action of the University"; to which Sir Bartle Frere alluded in his Convocation address in 1867, and of which he said, "Government attach a double value to whatever it does, because the progress it achieves affords an excellent practical refutation of the doctrine that no good or useful service to the State can be expected unless directly paid for in money or money's worth The principal changes consist in having the Pass qualification for Matriculation, viz., the English paper, sent to the educational centres, so that the students who do not wish to come to Bombay unless they pass this test, may be saved the expense and trouble of a long journey. It is an experiment of which time alone can prove the worth; but I venture to think that if successful it must end in a further extension of the principle which will eventually include the