Philippa Stevenson: Waikato University born out of hard-fought battle

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It's an unlikely candidate for a ripping yarn, but the story of the foundation of Waikato University fits the bill, and then some.

Characters and intrigue galore, skulduggery in spades, tragedy and triumph by the bucketload. And that's only the first chapter.

The whole story will be told when a book on the university's history is launched in February 2005 - the 40th anniversary of its founding .

But historian and Waikato University senior research fellow Michael King, the new book's author, provided a sneak preview when he gave the annual Margaret Avery memorial lecture last week.

Dr King entitled his address Root and Branch, but said it could easily have been called "Tooth and Claw". He convinced an audience, made up mainly of fellow academics, of his claim, and amused them at the same time. A tough call and, as one commented, much like having your thesis peer-reviewed by a committee of 40 rather than four.

New Zealand's first four universities, in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin, were all established by the end of the 19th century in what the lecture's promotional blurb described as "a florescent era of university foundation throughout the English-speaking world".

Hamilton may have been a city since 1945 but that counted for little when, in 1956, the locals aired their pretensions to establish a school of higher learning.

If another university was going to flower, apparently, it was not to sprout from the green fields of the Waikato at the behest of the good burghers of an unsophisticated cow town best known for its butterfat and occasional All Black.

Hamilton should know its place, and that was as a plodding centre for producing farmers, not aspiring academics, was the consensus of those who had safely holed up, unchallenged for more than 50 years, in the colleges which constituted the University of New Zealand.

The scathing condemnation of such Hamilton uppityness was encapsulated by a Minhinnick cartoon in the Herald that depicted the university's founder as a cow and students being lectured on the finer points of rugby. (That was, of course, the year Waikato won the Springbok head, being the first provincial side to beat the 1956 South African team).

Hamilton people suggested an agricultural science university be founded in association with the Ruakura demonstration farm. They were knocked back because Ruakura (which ironically went on to become an internationally acclaimed research centre) was designed to turn out farmers, not scientists.

They then proposed that a medical school be attached to the large and growing Waikato Hospital. They were denied that, in a Catch 22, because the city did not have a university to support such a school.

This last rebuff prompted the establishment of the University of South Auckland Society, so-called because its founders wanted the support of other towns in the mid-North Island, such as Tauranga, that also harboured a desire for a university.

In June 1957, a report by the society argued that the population of the region could support a university. While Auckland had around 430,000 people and an annual growth rate of 14.25 per cent, the South Auckland region (including Gisborne) had 346,000 and was growing at the rate of 22.49 per cent.

It took eight more years of thrust and parry to realise Hamilton's version of dreaming spires.

Dr King sought to pinpoint those most responsible for Waikato University's establishment.

He concluded its true paternity lay with two men of contrasting nature. The first was Douglas Seymour, a curmudgeonly barrister and solicitor reminiscent of Rumpole and, like the fictitious character, given to sprinkling his speech with Greek and Latin quotes.

The irascible Mr Seymour, the founding president of the University of South Auckland Society, was, as he described his endeavour, "out to kill to establish something I believed in".

According to one of Dr King's entertaining asides, Mr Seymour was also the first general secretary of the RSA - until the organisation found out he was a "bellicose pacifist". He also backed Kawhia over Whangamata as an up and coming beach resort.

During Mr Seymour's five years heading the society he proved as good at alienating people outside Hamilton as he was at getting support from within the city. Unfortunately, outside the city was where all the decisions were made on whether a fifth university would be established.

His able and more diplomatic offsider, Anthony Rogers, a Hamilton GP and brother to long-time mayor Denis Rogers, often stepped in to heal the wounds Mr Seymour inflicted.

Known by his nickname of Rufus, Dr Rogers succeeded Mr Seymour as president of the society. He was the second of the pair Dr King named as the university's fathers.

Waikato University, now home to 13,500 students, has maintained something of a reputation for quirkiness, if not scandal.

If the first chapter is anything to go by, Dr King may turn out the first university history to rate as a potboiler.

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