Aquinas College dinner

May I begin by greeting everyone in the languages of the realm of New Zealand, in English, Maori, Cook Island Maori, Niuean, Tokelauan and New Zealand Sign Language.  Greetings, Kia Ora, Kia Orana, Fakalofa Lahi Atu, Taloha Ni and as it is the evening  (Sign)

May I specifically greet you: Professor David Skegg, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Otago and my colleague on the Rhodes Scholarship Committee; Scott Walker, Master of Aquinas College; Alumni of Aquinas, Dalmore, and the University; Alison Finigan, Head of Otago University Alumni Communications; Distinguished Guests otherwise; Ladies and Gentlemen. 

It was with pleasure that my wife Susan and I accepted the invitation from the University of Otago to attend this dinner to mark 20 years of ownership of the AquinasCollege by the University.  Also represented, plus or minus, is a half century of use as a University hostel which is itself another matter deserving merit.

I would like to take an opportunity to reflect briefly on my time here and the importance of halls of residence in a university environment.

1964, the year of my residence is kind of at the other end of a lifetime for me.  I was here for a year with the intention of studying towards a degree in medicine.  But what the year taught me, among other things, was that medicine was not to be my vocation.

I returned to Auckland, subdued but resolved, relinquishing bursary, staying at home, and entering the LawSchool from which I later graduated with a Bachelor of Laws Degree in 1970.  I did that working in a law office, and going to University part time, and was part of the last group of people in New Zealand who did that as a matter of course.

A more than 35 year career in law followed, as a prosecutor and defence lawyer, as a Judge and then two five-year terms as an Ombudsman ending in 2005.  A year later, just over two years ago, I took up appointment as New Zealand's 19^th Governor-General.

While I have visited Dunedin many times since 1964, more latterly with my wife, returning to the University and to Aquinas for an event gives one pause to reflect on how much has changed.  When I lived here, it was primarily a hall of residence for young men considering themselves to be much more than just young, and taking on whatever was on offer.

I look back on an array of people that was amazing to a 19 year old.  There was an international element - people, for example, from the US, Pakistan, Fiji and Uganda.  There were people on to their second and third careers.  There was an All Black.  There were people who could so effortlessly quote Shakespeare and the Classics as to make a new entrant feel gauche and with much to learn.

As it is today, the OtagoUniversity in 1964 was a student friendly institution.  But it was a much smaller place, where people walked everywhere, even if just in the Valley on the flat parts! 

Gladstone Street

on which Aquinas is located was called "Coronary Hill".  In the early 1960s I have been surprised to learn, there were fewer than 4000 students, whereas now there are more than 20,000. 1964 was the year of the Tokyo Olympics—the year Peter Snell pulled off the double in winning both the 800 and 1,500m—and when Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, and the Platters and the Inkspots were just beginning to be displaced by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.   Names like Wilson Whineray and Ken Gray were the centrepiece of the All Blacks.  It was the year after President Kennedy's assassination and the Viet Nam War was beginning to escalate into the tragedy that was to unfold in the later 60s and early 70s.

Keith Holyoake was in his second term as Prime Minister—and was to remain there for another eight years.  

Aquinas, in the 1980s when the Dominicans diminished, was sold to the ElimChurch, which used it both as a hall of residence and as backpackers' accommodation, as well as a facility for the Church's parishioners.  I can remember an Anglican Maori Priest friend telling me that Aquinas had gone to "Karakia homai te paki paki"

It was bought by the University in 1988 and its religious affiliation came to an end.  It was initially renamed Dalmore House after the suburb in which "Coronary Hill" resides. 

Personally, I am another who thinks it was a good thing that the College was then renamed Aquinas and is in keeping with the name of the saint after whom it is named.  While often called St Thomas Aquinas, he should be probably be known as St Thomas of Aquinas as that is the name of his residence in Aquino, Italy rather than his surname.

St Thomas is recognised as one of the "Doctors" of the Catholic Church.  While we primarily associate the word "doctor" with medicine these days, the Latin origin of "teacher" makes it sensible that many schools and other places of learning have also been named after him.  The motto, Discendo Sapiento, the motto of Aquinas, emphasises wisdom in the quest for excellence. 

Seeing, and being inside Aquinas after all these years, is like meeting up with someone in mid-life that you knew as a teenager.  You can see aspects of the person you once knew but you are also strongly aware of how much they have changed and developed.  The face is familiar, but it is also different.

The Priory, where the Dominican Fathers lived, is now student accommodation and from exercising the soul to exercising the muscles, the chapel is now the College gymnasium!  No longer necessary is the amusement which so many of us never grew tired of, that of one person scaling upwards and tying a fishing line to the chapel bell and then in the middle of the night, with seemingly no one being responsible, listening to the bell toll.

The College has also been carpeted throughout, which I'm sure makes it feel much warmer.  I can certainly recall the contrast in temperatures between an Auckland summer and a Dunedin winter!

And the 166 student complement now living here is more than double the number resident in the 1960s, although I am advised that, by Otago standards, Aquinas is deemed a "small" hall.

As it is for many of the first-year students, to this day, living at Aquinas represented a big change.  Not only was I in a different city and suburb quite different from the Ponsonby and Glen Innes in Auckland where I had grown up, but it was the first time I had been away from my parents for any lengthy time.

Transition then is one of the great merits of halls of residence, especially for out-of-town first year students.  Instead of launching headlong into the world of flatting, halls of residence provide a way towards making your own way in the world.

There is much greater freedom than living under your parents' roof, but also present is a firm sense of support and advice to fall back upon when needed.   

It is for the same reason that many parents prefer to send their children to a hall of residence, particularly in their first year, and why such halls often receive more applications than they can fill.  This is especially so for the parents of international students whose children are not just in a different city, but a different country and culture as well.

But halls of residence are much more than just a source of meals, a bed, desk and a roof over the head.  They are also social centres and many people who live in them - rose-tinted glasses notwithstanding -look back with fondness to their time in a hall of residence, as is evidenced by the creditable turn out this evening.

While he was a theologian, philosopher and celibate individual (one might irreverently think the antithesis of the everyday student) St Thomas Aquinas, had a keen sense of the human psyche that is reflected in his writings. He recognised that becoming a well rounded individual required more than just books and study.  Indeed, he apparently once wrote that: "It is requisite for the relaxation of the mind that we make use, from time to time, of playful deeds and jokes."

I wish that the Aquinian defence might have been made available for one or more of the meetings that I was called on to have with the Dean and on two occasions with the Rector, during 1964!

Aquinas also recognised the importance of friendships and human companionship.  As many who have lived in halls of residence can testify, friendships are often established that last a lifetime.  I made several friends from that year in Dunedin and, crucially, more than one of them are retained and cherished to this day.   If you will permit me to quote from St Thomas again, he well described the virtues of friendship when he said: "Friendship is the source of the greatest pleasures, and without friends even the most agreeable pursuits become tedious."

For all these reasons, it is a pleasure to be back here again, among friends, and to join everyone in celebrating the 20^th anniversary of the University of Otago's ownership and management of AquinasCollege. 

The College has served the community and particularly its student community since the 1950s.  Seeing the facilities available today, I congratulate the University, through you Vice-Chancellor Skegg, and the College staff, through you, Master, Scott Walker, on your clearly evident care and fine management of the hall. 

And on that note, I will close in New Zealand's first language Maori, offering everyone here greetings and wishing you all good health and fortitude in your endeavours.  No reira, tena koutou, tena koutou, kia ora, kia kaha, tena koutou katoa.