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The Spike Golden Jubilee Number May 1949

VI

page 69

VI

Doornk loof,

Irene,

Transvaal.

I send Victoria College, Wellington, my warm congratulations on the attainment of its Jubilee, and wish it a prosperous future in the long years ahead.

This message is not unconnected with the memory of the late Richard Maclaurin, who was one of the foundation professors of the College. We were contemporaries at Cambridge University, where we became close friends and where, from him, I first heard of Victoria College.

Subsequently, when I was in a position of some influence in South Africa, I did my best to entice him to South Africa, but the competing claims of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology carried the day, and he became President of that great Institution. He was a great figure in the scientific and University world, and added lustre to whatever institution he was connected with.

And with his memory I join that of another great New Zealand man with whom I formed a later friendship, Ernest Rutherford, one of the supermen of science. My recollection and friendship of these great men blend with the name of Victoria College, to which I send my respectful and sincere salutations on this milestone in its career.

If I may also speak on behalf of our old University of Cambridge and of the University of Cape Town, of both of which I have the honour to be Chancellor, I would add their congratulations and good wishes as well to Victoria College.

(Signed) Smuts