HC Deb 05 August 1867 vol 189 cc848-9
MR. LEADER

said, he wished to ask the Chief Secretary for Ireland, Whether Sir Robert Kane, the President of Queen's College, Cork, has accepted the office of permanent Head of the College of Science in Dublin; and, if so, whether the Government will now carry out the following recommendations of the Royal Commissioners on the Queen's Colleges:— We regard the non-residence of a President of a College as a serious bar to its well-being and progress; such an officer is pre-eminently required in the Queen's Colleges. To the reasons relied on by Sir Robert Kane as supporting his view of non-continuous residence we cannot for a moment give our consent. We therefore consider that residence should be a condition of holding the office of President, and residence in the sense that the College shall be the President's home?

LORD NAAS

said, in reply, that the College of Science which had lately been established in Dublin was not in any way under the control of the Irish Government, and they had, therefore, no cognizance of what was going on there. But he thought the best Answer he could give to the Question of his hon. Friend would be to read the following letter he had received that morning from Sir Robert Kane:— I have not as yet accepted the office of head of the New College of Science, nor has it yet been offered for my acceptance. I am now in charge provisionally of the Industrial Museum, doing the same duty as I have hitherto done, pending the completion of the new arrangements, as its director. I have been offered and accepted the honorary office of Chairman of the Council of Professors, which involves no new duties, and to which an honorarium, not a salary, of £100 a year is attached. This is an entirely distinct matter from the headship or presidency of the new College. Your Lordship is already fully aware of my entire willingness to be retired from Cork College if the office which I am proposed to fill in the new College of Science be rendered really that of administrative head and similar to that of President in the Queen's Colleges.