The Days of a Man 1907 



the History department of Stanford, then just 

 assigned to the special field of Australia and the Far 



Books East. Some time later he entered with alacrity on 

 t ^ e tas k f buying all useful books pertaining to the 

 history of Australia, Welton Stanford, Herbert 

 Hoover, and Dean P. Mitchell, '96, Hoover's general 

 manager for Australia, having generously contributed 

 about $3000 for the purpose. Purchases then made, 

 augmented by official publications of the Common- 

 wealth, formed a substantial working nucleus for 

 Treat's admirable courses in Australian history, the 

 first ever given anywhere in that subject. In the 

 country itself, political controversies were held to 

 render such an experiment unwise. 



Sydney ac- Among my pleasant acquaintances in Sydney out- 

 s ^ c t ^ ie academic group I may name the late Sir 

 James Graham, former mayor, a man with excellent 

 political and economic ideas; Charles Thackeray, a 

 journalist especially interested in angling; and Lady 

 Northcote, wife of the governor-general, a woman of 

 great personal charm and fine intelligence, whose 

 presence helped the people of Sydney to accept with 

 pleasure the British governor-general system which 

 Australasia as a whole seems to think a costly 

 anachronism. For the provincial governors, appointed 

 in London, have no political power whatever, being, 

 in fact, only special representatives of the King of 

 England, where (to quote from Lord Rosebery) 

 "royalty is not a political but a social function." 



In my six lectures, given in the great hall of Sydney 

 University, I discussed in detail methods of college 

 administration in the United States, and then re- 

 ceived invitations to speak on similar topics at the 



H 206 3 



