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4. Summaries of CeHain Oral and Written Evidenc..
I.—The Rt. Hon. and Most Rev. Dr. J. H. BERNARD, Provost of Trinity College,
Dublin.
(a) Evidence given Monday, April 12th, 1920.
In May, 1919, the Board of Trinity College, made application to the Treasury for an Emergency
■Grant from Parliamentary Funds. During the course of the negotiations the Board accepted the con¬
dition that in due course comprehensive inquiry into the whole resources of the College and into the use
which is being made of them should be instituted by the Government, and that the Board would co¬
operate with the Government in rendering such inquiry as effective as possible. There was no mention
at the time of any inquiry into the constitution of the "University and the College, which forms part
of the published terms of reference of the present Commission, presumably in order to bring the Com¬
mission into line with the Oxford and Cambridge Commission.
With regard to the Recommendations of the Commission of 1906-7 (Final Report Section 168),
Nos. 4, 7, 14, 16, 21, 27, 28 have been carried out. Of the remainder, some of the more important,
e.g., 6, 12, 18, 25 and 29 have been partly carried out, while a number are merely statements or do not
arise. Recommendations 11, 13, 19, 20, 24 and 26 have not been carried into effect. Nor do the
changes in the constitution of the Governing Body go a^ far as was contemplated by the Commission
(if 1906-7, the Professors having only two representatives.
The Claim for Financial Aid printed in September, 1919, and submitted to H.M. Treasury, is now
obsolete and the figures need to be increased all round, owing to the steady rise in the cost of labour,
material, etc.
The scale of professional salaries is much lower than at the Modern Universities and must be raised
or the older Universities will be forced to content themselves with second-rate teachers.
During the War the College finances were managed with the utmost care and a vigorous attempt
was made to effect a saving, but this economy was largely at the expense of the staff. During the past
eight months necessary expenses have increased at an alarming rate. It may be possible for the College
to make both ends meet this year owing to the exceptionally large number of students, but it is not
clear that the same expense can be met next year. Particular attention is drawn to the scanty resources
of the Library.
(6) Evidence given Monday, June 21si, 1920.
The new Ordinance and Decree of the Board, dated May 24th, 1920, with regard to changes in the
methods of appointment to Fellowship and the appointment of Lecturers have been formally approved
and signed, and are now the law of the College. The terms of the Ordinance will now constitute the
normal method of election to Fellowship, although the Ordinance of 1916, and a special provision of the
King's Letter of 1911, provide other avenues of approach, but a candidate for Fellowship under the
provisions of the new Ordinance must, as required by the Statutes of the College, be at the time of his
election a graduate in Arts of the University of Dublin. Graduates of Oxford or Cambridge who
take an ad eundem degree in the University of Dublin are eligible to compete, but graduates of other
Universities can only become Fellows of Trinity College if elected under the provisions of the Ordi¬
nance of 1916 or the King's Letter of 1911.
Since April the Arts Fees have been raised from sixteen to twenty guineas per annum. The Board
were reluctant to take this step, but an immediate increase in revenue is necessary, as it is at present
quite inadequate to cover ordinary expenditure, without launching out in any new direction or raising
salaries. It is estimated that the cost of wages and material will be £6,700 more in 1920 than in 1919.
Salaries are not considered at all in this estimate.
The non-recurrent Treasury Grant of £12,000 has been largely used to compensate the staff, who
were almost starved during the War. Without an immediate increase in revenue the existing buildings
and household staff cannot even be maintained.
Further construction in connection with the Chemical Laboratory and the Library is most urgent.
The former requires to be enlarged and reconstructed and a new Reading Room to hold 200 is imperative
for the Library. The estimate for the latter project is £30,000. An extension of the Hostel for Women
Students is also urgently necessary.
With regard to salaries, the Chairs of Celtic Literature, Classical iVrchaeology, Education, Geology,
German, Irish Language, Political Economy and the Romance Languages are most in need of increment.
The burden of the Observatory and the Botanical Gardens is very great and the Government might
reasonably undertake to bear the cost of the former, as in Edinburgh.
In conclusion, it is to be hoped that the services which the Universities have rendered to the Empire
•during the War will not be forgotten, and it may be fairly asked that the University of Dublin, which
gave all it could without question, and which had such great losses, should be considered
