Item 04: Memoirs of a Colonial Boy by Robert Joseph Stewart, ca. 1971 - Page 383
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[Page 383]
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which was repayable in instalments after graduation. The University made no concession whatsoever, and we ex-warriors had to pay full lecture fees, degree fee and buy text books - often quite expensive - from our own pockets. I didn't think that in my own particular circumstances this financial assistance was worth having, and had none of it: after World War II, returned servicemen were given very much greater monetary help and other concessions.
The student enrolment at Sydney University at this time (1923) was just under three thousand in all faculties and all years; a marked increase compared with the pre-war numbers. Just after the end of World War I, money was urgently needed for a big expansion of the University buildings, despite the recent bequest of eight hundred thousand pounds by the estate of the late Sir Samuel McCaughey, which was used largely to endow a number of extra professorships.
The State Government of the day agreed to grant substantial sums in aid of the proposed building programme, but stipulated a measure of control of the University's affairs, by having two Governmental nominees on the Senate. Hitherto, this august body had been quite independent, and free from any outside influence or control. At the same time the Government financed about forty "exhibitions", apparently so-called because they were awarded to school students who exhibited marked scholastic ability, in matriculation subjects, in the Leaving Certificate examinations: the award entitled them to exemption from the payment of University fees.
When I began my academiccareer, the main quadrangle was covered by the work-sheds and plant of the contractor completing its total enclosure, on north and east sides, by the erection of big dressed-stone buildings to house the new School of Architecture and the administration staff, respectively; in keeping with the Gothic style of the main building but much plainer. Also, a carved-stone Gothic block was being built on the front of the old dull red-brick Botany School and Macleay Museum building, to match the Great Hall alongside, with an