Emeritus Professor G. W. von Zedlitz

He followed the foundation professors and his appointment to the new Chair of Modern Languages in 1902 was a piece of rare good fortune, for he brought to the College a new quality. The first four professors did yeomen service and laid us all under a heavy debt. But it is no reflection on any of them to say that each in some respeat was limited. "Von" belonged to the small company of the unlimited and in his contacts with the public, the students, the staff, he poured the new wine into the old bottles. No one would challenge the statement that from 1902 till 1915 he was the personality of the College. His roots went wide and deep into the culture of Europe and to this rather isolated and raw colony he re-interpreted life on wider horizons and with deeper measures. He was one who obtained the warmest affection of his students and this feeling was intense and lasting. When the organization of the Jubilee Celebrations was being discussed numbers of those who attended his classes thirty years before begged that they should be given the opportunity of hearing him lecture again in the old familiar way. Such a request must be rare indeed; it is an acid test of the great teacher. Unfortunately his illness robbed the old students of this pleasure and for them and for many others the absence of "Von" threw a long shadow over the ceremonies that marked the Jubilee.

What the College lost by the shameful Act that ended his first official connection with us, who can say? (1) All we know is that the blow was in some measure lessened by the broadmindedness he displayed in maintaining with us contacts that gave satisfaction to both sides. The Council of 1915 deserves well, not merely of the College but of the Dominion, for refusing to give way to the dishonourable pressure exerted upon it by politicians who went back on their word and bowed to the clamour of a mob excited by a vindictive few. While the country should forever be ashamed of its conduct, the Council did good service in maintaining the honour of the College and the freedom of the University. (2) Later a Council, changed in personnel, missed the great opportunity of supporting the stand made by its predecessors. It failed to see justice done by restoring "Von" to his Chair in 1919. A later Council, however, did what it could in 1936 by making him Emeritus Professor, an appointment widely approved.

Not many people know the abuse that was showered privately and publicly On this noble mind. Yet in all those hard years (1915-1936) what struck me most forcibly was the freedom of his soul from any pettinesses. At the crisis of the trouble all he asked was that he should be allowed to pursue a course that would make the path of the Council as smooth as possible. But he never refused to have the great principle of academic freedom fought out at the cost of the mental distress of himself and his family. After the blow had fallen I never heard him complain or utter a vindictive word. Whether the victim or the accusers showed the qualities that we are pleased to call British was never in doubt in my mind. For his enemies (and his real enemies were few) he provided a lesson in patience, equanimity, self-control and philosophic insight, a lesson they might have learned if they had been able. These events are past and their full history has still to be written. But for us at Victoria University College there arc the memories of "Von," He was the good companion; time spent in his company was never wasted. His outlook on life was broad and healthy. He understood that men were not angels and thought, perchance, that this was just as well. He possessed a sympathetic understanding not only of those whose opinions agreed with his own but of all who held honest convictions. If anyone doubts this let him ask the members of any W.E.A. group to which "Von" acted as guide, philosopher and friend. In this way he typified the University spirit at its best and made a contribution to the life of our College for which it will be for ever grateful.

T. A. Hunter,