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When "Time" magazine devoted its cover and a lengthy article to the biography and work of Ingmar Bergman in March last year it was a belated recognition of Sweden's enfant terrible as a figure in world cinema. Arthur Everard, our contributing editor, now discusses Bergman's films with particular reference to "Wild Strawberries," recently screened in Wellington.
The first mention we heard of Bergman's name was as the scriptwriter of Hets (Frenzy), a film directed by Alf Sjoberg in frenzy was highly regarded at the time of its release, but seen in perspective now it emerges as not much more than a fairly competent exercise in the story about adolescent love and its destruction by a sadistic schoolmaster and lack of adult understanding. How much of the lack of tension was due to script and how much to direction is not obvious, but certainly there was nothing in the script to stamp it distinctively as Ingmar Bergman's. The scenes of the schoolmaster Caligula's cat and mouse torture in the classroom were beautifully done, and the overwhelming air of melancholy and hopeless adolescent love permeating the story created a tragic atmosphere.
Sjoberg made the film a specific protest against authoritarianism and, more important within the context of the times, a protest against totalitarianism. The film was a warning to neutral Sweden about the Nazis, but little of this can be found in the film today unless one has the knowledge of hindsight. Generally, the film is somewhat better than an average commercial product, but of no real lasting interest.
While Frenzy was a great success for its director and scriptwriter, when Bergman turned to his first directorial assignment (at the age of 27), he did not write his own screenplay but adopted a Danish play. Thus film Kris (Crisis) was made in Det Regnar Pa Var Karlek (It Rains on Our Love) in 1946, and Skepp Till Indialand (Ship to India) with Musik i Morker (Music In The Dark) in
Then in
Fangelse (Prison), made in the same year, is in a completely different style. Here, Bergman started his experiments in expressionism and allegory that were to become so familiar in his later work. He was developing also that analytical style in which he loves to probe among the sources of suffering. Guilt, fear, humiliation, horror, sadism; the elements are shortly to emerge which can be recognised as hallmarks of his method in later films.
A maths teacher has a conversation with his pupil, now a film director (and in prison) about making a film with Hell as its subject. Bergman used this introduction as the basis of a film in which he regarded life itself as a vision of hell. He peopled his conception with a poet, a prostitute, and a pimp and used a treatment in which symbolism, naturalism, nightmares, film within film and violent action and editing make uneasy bedfellows. A confused failure (Bergman called it "a morality play for the cinema"), the diretcor had overreached himself.
In Torst (Thirst) marked a return to a more humane theme.
The main characters, Ruth and Bertie, are travelling through Europe just after the end of the war. Their past lives continually intrude upon the present and their marriage is now reduced to bickering and mutual torment (cf the later couple in Wild Strawberries). Ruth remembers an operation which robbed her of the child of an earlier lover (and planted in her the unquenchable "thirst" of the title); Bertie recalls an affair with the neurotic Viola. But the journey ends with an uneasy reconciliation—both realise that they still have each other and that loneliness is more difficult to bear than anything else.
Erich Ulrichsen has described Thirst as "the film in which Bergman gets closest to real human beings and moves us most." It also provides perhaps the most extended variation on one of his favourite themes: the acute stage in a marriage when love is replaced by uncertainty and distrust. Thanks to the fine playing of Eva Henning and Birger Malmsten (and Bergman's direction), the film becomes a kind of plea for more honesty and decency in personal relationships.
Till Gladje (To Joy) contained familiar Bergman trademarks—a snarling couple, anguish and jealousy in love, love-hate relationships—but with some attempts to inject tenderness where appropriate. This juxtaposition proved unsuccessful and the various elements were never fully integrated.
His first film in the fifties was a crime thriller called Sant Hander Into Har (High Tension, or It Can't Happen Here). This was a stereotyped "bread and butter" piece and was immediately followed by his first film of major importance, Sommarlek (Summer Interlude), in
Marie, a young recruit at the Opera Ballet School falls in love with a student and they spend an idyllic holiday together. But tragedy strikes: her lover meets with an accident. The years pass and Marie becomes a prima ballerina. Another man comes into her life, a sympathetic journalist called David. Now torn between memories of her first love and her feelings for David, we are shown how she strives to achieve love and lasting happiness.
This is one of Bergman's "Summer" films, in which he continues his exploration of young love. Summer Interlude is an almost wholly lyrical film and its portrait of the young lovers finds Bergman in his most tender mood (despite some characteristic, and perhaps intrusive, symbolic elements involving a diabolical ballet master). Gunnar Fischer's luminous photography gives the film a rare visual elegance, especially in the holiday scenes and the interiors showing the Stockholm Ballet in Swan Lake. Maj-Britt Nilsson plays with much youthful charm as the dancer Marie—another aspect of womanhood as seen through Bergman's searching eye.
One summer evening, four women, each married to one of four brothers, sit and reminisce as they wait for their husbands to arrive on the boat from Stockholm. One recalls how her marriage was temporarily interrupted by the arrival of a past lover; a second tells of her student days in Paris and an idyllic romance with a young painter; a third laughingly recalls how she and her husband were forced to spend a night in a broken lift. The film ends with the youngest member of the group starting off on her own adventure . . .
Here, in Kvinnors Vantan (Waiting Women),
It is here that we see the Bergman troupe starting to materialise —the credits read like a list of friends names. Photography by Gunnar Fischer, music by Erik Nordgren with Anita Bjork, Eva Dahlbeck, Maj-Britt Nilsson, Gunnar Bjornstrand and Jarl Kulle. From now on, Bergman works with much the same nucleus of actors and actresses, adding a new face now and again but always including some of the old team.
In Sommaren Med Monika (Summer With Monika),
Though some of Bergman's lately released earlier-made films have been severely mauled by the English critics, Peter John Dyer of Films and Filming (a critic who can be more irrational, savage and nasty than Time if he wants to) said of this film "Every moment the lovers are on the screen, one is gripped by the analysis and shock power of Bergman's observation ... with Bergman's strong sense of atmosphere to lend a discreet lyricism and grace to the performances, the film achieves a genuine individuality."
Harriet Andersson also starred in Bergman's production of Gycklamas Afton (Sawdust and Tinsel) the following year. Gunnar Bjornstrand also appeared in it, and Ake Gronberg, who played a small part in the previous film, now had a major role.
Sawdust and Tinsel is a study in humiliation and sadism. Albert Johansson, a middle-aged circus owner has forsaken his family for Anna, a proud, passionate equestrienne, who eventually allows herself to be seduced by a neurotic young actor. Albert takes to drink and mercilessly taunts Anna and an elderly clown who has previously been involved in a scandal over his wife. After Albert has been beaten in a fight with the actor, he attempts suicide. He fails, and he and Anna continue their hellish life together in charge of the circus.
In this film, Bergman lakes a long sustained look at the darkest side of the human personality. The plot development includes scenes of hysteria, sadism, eroticism, nudity and is often reminiscent of the masochistic German school of the
The success of the lift sequence in Waiting Women led to its full development as a basis for Bergman's next comedy En Lektion I Karlek (A Lesson in Love)
Bergman's comic flair, even, or especially, in this reworking, did not shine. The usual Bergman motifs appeared, especially the use of Bjornstrand as the pompous, middle-aged foolish Casanova. Slapstick crept in, along with farce, and the comic dialogue wasn't particularly funny. The final lapse of taste, involving reconciliation in front of a fake Cupid, has been particularly well hammered by the critics, though they praised Eva Dahlbeck's and Harriet Andersson's performances for transcending their material.
The story' of Kvinnodrom (Journey Into Autumn) a Thirst in its theme of sexual humiliation and treatment. Again, the performances by Bjornstrand, Dahlbeck, Andersson and Ulf Palme were better than the material deserved. One obvious feature of the film was Bergman's deliberately sadistic treatment of an elderly man's infatuation. The plot was poor, and the over-use of "significant" signs and details made some of it overly pretentious.
By now, in Sommamcttens Leende (Smiles of A Summer Night). This is his first real masterpiece. Here, fantasy and irony mingle perfectly in a curious but satisfying style. In all his earlier works it were as though Bergman had been indiscriminately mixing as many styles as possible into each film.
With Smiles of A Summer Night, for the first time style, content and playing form a unity. Turning from the contemporary scene to a period comedy of manners, Bergman evoked the spirits of Schnitzler, Wilde and Strindberg in this decidedly Nordic morality play. The characters are not particularly realistic, yet through them he is able to deliver a sharply personal homily on the vagaries of love.
After some preliminary skirmishings, the main part of the story is set in a beautiful country mansion, during a traditional "symbolic" Swedish summer night. In this setting, a motley collection of husbands, wives, mistresses and lovers work out their destinies— some of the actions cause pain, others result in unexpected happiness. Everything is suffused in an atmosphere of mid-summer magic —when love seems to be the only important thing in the world.
The next year, Det Sjunde Inseglet (The Seveneth Seal) were released. Here, without a doubt, was Bergman's most controversial and ambitious work to date. Obviously influenced by his own upbringing, with its memories of his father's sermons and the "medieval paintings and carvings on the walls and ceiling," Bergman has endeavoured to symbolise our current dilemma by re-creating an equally harsh past age. The result is complex, occasionally obscure and always intellectually stimulating. Stylistically, the film is beautifully "realised"; and the playing has the strong haunting quality of a legend.
Set in the plague-stricken Middle Ages, this allegory is centred on a duel between an idealistic knight and Death himself. Although their chess game is weighted in the latter's favour, it gives the knight precious time to ruminate on his own attitude to God and the condition of the people he meets. Fear, superstition and cruelty are present all around him, but there is also innocence. And Death's victory. when it comes, is somehow less complete and sweeping than it might have been.
In itself, this picture would have been enough to set the film world by its ears, but when Bergman made his next film, a study of guilt and heartsearching in old age, the result, Smultronstrallet (Wild Strawberries) created a further furore.
In the light of his other films, it is easy to pick Bergman trademarks appearing throughout this one. First, there are the familiar names—Bjornstrand, Folke Sundquist, Naima Wifstrand, Ake Fridell, Max Von Sydow. The photography is by Gunnar Fischer—as meticulous and beautiful as ever, the music is by Erik Nordgren— listen for the poignant use of the solo cello theme at the moments when the professor remembers his childhood. Then there is Bergman's use of sound, and, more especially, silence. This is most noticeable in the dream sequences where natural sounds are given an extra dimension—almost of physical sensation —they are so skilfully used with the accompanying image. All the way through the Him there is conflict and interaction; once more the bickering couple appears but this time it is not just mere bickering but a self consuming union in which the husband and wife are held together by the bond of their mutual hate and worthlessness.
There are one or two technical faults to mar the overall perfection, a lapse of continuity in the first nightmare, bad matching of studio material to location work (where Sara soothes the baby when the owls are circling and screeching) and one lapse in the dubbing when Professor Borg and Marianne visit his mother.
Ingrid Tulin (as the Professor's daughter-in-law) gives strong competition to Victor Sjostrom and to me she is the really enigmatic character in the film. She is not only strikingly beautiful, but I feel that by not making everything about her as explicit as he has for Borg, Bergman has given us a subsidiary character who is more interesting than the professor himself.
The theme, that of gradual self realisation in old age, depends on making us see the professor as a hard, cold, iceberg in whom the finer feelings have atrophied. Unfortunately, Sjostrom does not give this surface appearance of coldness which is then to be shown being broken down with increasing self knowledge. It is a small thing and of not much consequence compared with the total conception of man's interdependence (and dependence) on the love of others. Despite some exaggerations, its human committment is strong and clear.
(Registered for transmission by post as a newspaper at the Post Office. Wellington.)
For nearly two months now, students have been settling into their new building. If we had any aesthetic sense at all, we should have blown the place up and started again. The building is a sham, a fake, a veneer, lacking in good design and good taste. Yet we, who, of all people, are expected to be outspoken, even at the expense of tact, are content to accept this bad architecture without protesting.
Our values are all wrong. We think of what is practical or functional in terms of cost, not design or usage. Our sense of the beautiful is thrown out the back door, and we construct a new aesthetic on mercenary lines.
We have in the Student Union Building a concrete embodiment of a number of desirable abstract ideas: Little Theatre, cafe, common rooms, and so on. Yet the realisation of these ideas is a far cry from the expectation. So we tend to speak of the S.U.B. in the terms of the abstract ideas rather than the concrete facts. People do this every time a new building is opened.
No matter whether the plunket rooms, or church, or hostel, or assembly hall, are designed well for their respective functions, no matter whether (he building is appropriate to its surroundings, or beautiful in itself: the building is there, it will be used for that purpose, and it has cost so many pounds. That is all the general public wants to know, and there the matter ends! The same thing happened with the S.U.B. It is opened, and speakers vie with one another to boast about the glorious view, the excellent cafe, accommodation, and the most modernly equipped Little Theatre in the Southern Hemisphere. And nobody can hear because the room has such poor acoustics!
We worship the term "spacious common-common room" and apply it to a certain large room in the S.U.B. But that room is not made a common-common room merely by the Little Formica labels over the swing doors. What you and I mean by the term is a comfortable, warm, relaxing room. The term brings to mind pictures, books and magazines, carpets, fireplaces, cloth upholstery and curtains. That room which hears this comfortable label is a cold room of painted concrete, plywood, plastic and shiny linoleum; Venetian blinds, old newspaper, rubbish tins. In the abstract, this room has an admirable viewover the harbour. In fact, the view exists only for those who are standing, and those people are only standing as a prelude to sitting down or leaving. So the view claimed for it does not really exist.
Economic efficiency saw to it that we got much that is uninspiring and comfortless in the building. Economy broke up the panorama windows into small panes. Economy put the plastic badge on the outside and the plastic furniture inside. Economy cut down on the lighting in the entrances and exits, making them dark and gloomy. Efficency wipes the building clean with a damp cloth; efficiency laid down mile on mile of dowdy linoleum, and gave us Formica-topped conference tables, efficiency put up Venetian blinds, and saw to it that wherever carpet was laid down, it would humble the visitor rather than welcome him.
Let us accept for the moment the use of cheap materials, linoleum, the little window-panes, Formica, and the poor lighting as in accordance with economic necessity. Why then be ashamed of these materials? Why is the linoleum in the common-rooms and cafe, in an imitation-wood pattern when it could be bold stripes or checks? Why does the Formica conference table-top have to be an oak veneer? If the windowpanes must be small, then arrange them in a restful order, don't make a lattice-work which obtrudes between the viewer and the view. If economy dictates that lights must be few and far between, then the investment should be in fluorescent tubes, not in light shades.
Even with the building as it is now, a sensible colour scheme would have made it immeasurably more satisfying. But colour is used everywhere to disguise the structure, not to express it. There is a veneer upon every visible surface in the building, and anybody who has an eye for the underlying structure will not be deceived by the surface glitter. Long, cold, unnecessary corridors will not be shortened or warmed by waxed plywood half-cladding. The great cylindrical pillars should be accentuated as the chief load-bearers in the building and should impress one with their strength and solidity; but instead have been camouflaged with sprayed cement and paint. Wood panelling has been used in the cafe., and wallpaper and paint elsewhere, to persuade the inhabitant that the walls are not brick or concrete but something else. This amounts to a refusal to acknowledge one's basic materials, and among architects today this is a serious charge.
We could remedy it, though. We could tear up the lino and put down cork tiles or parquet tiles, rip off the wood veneer and sprayed surface and whitewash the walls, reorganise the lighting system and furnish the place decently. But there would still remain evidence of poor design which can only be corrected by complete re-building.
Good design would have integrated the new building with the Hunter building. It would have eliminated the institution-like corridors, and created a natural and easy flow of movement through the building, instead of hindering it with multiple swing doors. It would have made the windows the right size and the walls suitable for hanging pictures. Good design would have given the building a worthy focal point in the place of the present dark stair-dominated foyer, would have given each room a " focal point, and unity to the whole. At the moment through the cafe, is the only direct enclosed route from the west entrance to the Association office. Neither space nor materials are treated with respect, and for this there is no excuse. Good architects may he hard to come by, but if one chooses the lowest bidder then one must expect the worst.
After 25 years we have a permanent building, but it is one of which we can never be justly proud. It could have been the exception among the Hunter—Kirk hotch-potch, but as long as we students allow ourselves to be represented by men with no other system of values than the commercial major mistakes of the kind that approved this building, will continue to be made.
(Abridged.)
Vol. 24, No. 12. Monday,
The views presented in " Salient" are not necessarily those of all members of "Salient" staff.
I want to start a column that anyone can write anything in (unless it's pornographic or delightfully scandalous in which case notify Kinsey!) It's for people who get ideas and feel the urge to share but can't be bothered expanding or shaping their ideas into any normally acceptable form of prose or poetry. It's for frustrated poets, schizophrenics, suicidal dipsomaniacs—in fact it's for the average student with nothing to commend him to any respectable type literary publication but whose ungrammatical genius is here appreciated by a reading public of the same ilk.
Anyway I've been doing this sort of thing for quite a while—it gives me a sort of feeling of "katharsis" which means the sort of purging relief you get when you come out of a terrifically tragic film and you breathe pure oxygen for a while very slowly. I don't actually get this 'feeling writing all this mess but I was thinking how adolescents are so continually introspective and what a relief they feel when they tear each other into shreds and then try to put back the bits a bit better except next crisis they shatter just as easily, and I thought that instead of all this emerging verbally, it's a pity to "waste my adolescent sweetness on the desert air" as it were, and if I wrote it all down I'd have it as a cute little souvenir to cynically treasure in my old age which at the moment I don't intend ever to reach (how I'm going to avoid it I really don't know but the theory's O.K.—me and Peter Pan both—at this rate I'll fill an issue without saying anything worth the trouble at all) but do please note my constancy of purpose—I always get back to what I was saying— there is a deliberate theme if you concentrate—actually you shouldn't really worry about it—just relax and follow all the little digressions for their own twisted sake.
Sometime this week I must try wearing my aunt's nice old X.O.S. maroon cardy with my beat wharfies jumper—what a combination—by the way I'm not going to introduce people—if you don't know who they are—tough luck—try the "Elementary my dear Watson stunt" . . .
When I'm alone in my room at night I hate the way screwed up cellophane gives a sudden crackle . . . you know this will only stop when I get cramp in my hand; (a) because this is a record of what I'm thinking; (b) because I'm thinking now; (c) because I can't stop thinking so what the hell anyway . . . back to why be introspective—I really feel good at the moment—and that's without any sex-interest at all—usually my fits of depression or idiotic bliss are vaguely connected with my sex-life—the Victorian 18-year-old wouldn't ever have dreamed of having a sex-life but nowadays it's an indispensable accessory . . .
You should see the mist over the city. Up high the sky is as blue as ink but closer no. And the trees on the side of the hill near Weir and the hill too are black outlined against it so that you have the two clarities of blue and black. Clear because of the mist—and the mist itself is coloured because it covers most of the formed and coloured remnants of life and these show through, more or less. Most is blurred like when my lenses are cloudy —but here and there an outline . . . Poor Esmerelda (or Neutron and Child or Peace that passeth all understanding or whatever you like to call it). She's been presented to us undeserving students, to the Chilean Navy, to the Ngaio Post Office, to the S.C.M. Cabin and finally to the staff common-room—she's even been dressed! And injury to insults—omewhere along the line her toes have been knocked off. It must be bad enough to have a figure like that anyway without being deprived of part of her anatomy! . . . The lady behind me in the bus bloody well annoyed me today. After all our noble efforts in Cappicade denouncing journalistic exploitation of Hastings Blossom Festival they go and have the headline "Police Ready for Louts" and it brings it all back again and all true civic minded citizens start to seethe in righteous indignation. Anyway there were two perfectly innocent Vic. students in typical varsity get-up velvet corduroys, desert boots, scarves, blazers—just walking along and she looked out the window and said in her screechy whiny nasal smug Kiwi voice "Louts that's what they are—shouldn't be allowed—somebody ought to do something about "them—I hope I can expect more of my son than that!" And we should worry about town-gown relationships—as long as people over 30 are suffered to continue their miserable existence, the younger generation are going to have hell ... I looked over the water and in the dark shadows under the wharves were reflected blue lights and up on the hill was a green searchlight and I thought "they should change colours because the sea can be blue or green but the sky is only blue"—why should colours be static—wouldn't a green sky be fabulous—a really stagnant water-green—is colour intrinsic in the eye or in the ray? Pink grass: no it would be horrible—after all you've seen the yellow-white grass from under something left for ages on a lawn—all etiolated and unhealthy like a sick sick "queer" . . . this is a lousy type-writer . . . How odd of God to choose the Jews but not so odd as those who choose a Jewish God and scorn the Jews —I hate Eichmann . . .
There's plenty more of this type raving where this came from. Any "Aunt. Daisy Daily Scrap-book" gems gratefully received from the lowest of contributors.
"The Topology of Knots" was the title of an address given to the Maths, and Physics Society by Mr W. Malcolm. He explained that in characterising knots mathematically we are interested in those properties which remain invarient under continuous or "rubber sheet" transformations. Such transformations can be represented analytically so we have precise concepts for the treating of knots. An explanation was given of a property of polyhedra invarient under continuous transformations, the Euler-Poincare relation, and how by a construction, this property can be used to characterise knots. It turned out that this property was insufficient to distinguish the given knot from a circle. Mr Malcolm next explained how group theory gave a characterisation which was sufficient for this but which becomes complicated and the subject has not yet been satisfactorily resolved by mathematicians.
Sir,—I regret that I was unable to attend the debate so unfortunately titled "Belter Red than Dead," From Salient's marginal comments however I venture to suggest:
To elaborate my third point, here is "Lovanish" Garden's statement.
"You don't see misery among the common people in Russia."
Now this utterance is unfortunate for Garden for many reasons.
Firstly, because it. is most probably quite untrue.
Hungarians know that after World War II Russian troops stationed in Hungary were mostly ignorant Asian savages compared to the most rustic Hungarian peasant. They committed many atrocities such as can be expected from any troops during and immediately after war. However, the point is, that their most prized loot was neither the raping of girls nor the stealing of drinks, but wrist watches, which were to many of them quite unknown before.
Later many Russians settled as technical experts or advisers—and because my family and I knew many of them very Intimately—I am certain that they found in Hungary a living standard that was much higher and quite superior to what they were used to in their own country. In spite of this, their propaganda claimed that the Soviet standard of living was above that of the Americans.
Secondly. Provided that the above claim could be proved it would still be Invalid.
Material prosperity can mean terror, constant fear and uncertainty, as the example of Nazi Germany shows which improved the economic position of its workers, ceased unemployment.
Thirdly. In spite of the claims of previous Soviet propaganda, Khrushchev recently admitted that the living standards of American workers is vastly superior to that of the Soviet ones, moreover though the Soviet just succeeded (!) to win against Great Britain and France in this field, only in
Finally I want to express my contempt for the following statement.
"What about the one they sent back because he was a criminal?"
If this individual wants to judge 200,000 people on the basis of one or even many hundreds of criminals, he must be crazy! As a material fact there was a Hungarian Welfare Officer about two years ago who helped to adjust the refugees to this new life, but his work is no longer necessary as the Department of Internal Affairs had published their opinion that the majority of the refugees are well adjusted.
Sir,—I read with mounting nausea the sententious pedanticism of the fine arts editor. The most recent of his obnoxious effusions—his alleged refutation of the article by Mr Daniel—is, "crapulent." He accuses Mr Daniels of being "no rational examiner"—and then uses (rational?) adjectives, such as "illogical," "flippant," "tripe," etc. In using these about another writer he is no doubt displaying a highly developed flair for irony.
Further, I strongly criticise the policy of the juxtaposition of an article and an answer in the same issue. Surely the subsequent issue is the appropriate place for a reply.
(Abridged.)
Sir,—Why is it that certain contributors—Owen Dwyer in "Salient" No. 10, and Murray White in the following issue are able to obtain access to certain articles destined for publication in "Salient" before the general reading public of the magazine does? With this most unfair advantage, they are able to reply to various articles before the subject of their attack has even been seen by the majority of customers.
Let there be an end to this corruption and privilege!
[Doesn't Mr McLeod know? Anyone in the university can look through the editor's mail, rifle through his tiles, search his suitcase; a lot of people do. At least Mr White and Mr Dwyer are members of the Salient staff and had permission to read the articles in quest ion.]
Mr O. Gager, Christchurch: All contributions should be written on one side of the paper before publication will be considered. We cannot agree that Mr Phipps' article amounted to an "attack." although you may have interpreted his short story that way. (See "No Disarmament—yet.")
Consequentia Mirabilis: Your name and address required before publication of "Lamda" can be considered.
Sir,—Mr Daniel's article "Two, Four, Six, Eight—Who Do We Exterminate" is off the main point. He explains why Hitler was able to establish the Jews as universal scapegoats in the minds of the Germans, but these reasons in no way excuse subsequent German actions. I question the reliability of his figures to do with the high proportion of Jews in certain occupations, as these are likely to have been prepared by the Nazis.
That certain Jews were guilty of theft and swindling no more makes all Jews guilty than the actions of Hitler and his followers damn for ever all the Germans.
The trial of Adolf Eichmann is, in a way, the funeral for nine million people, who were not killed in battle but most deliberately and callously murdered. The cost of staging it must far outweigh any side earnings such as through films. It is, necessarily a painful and prolonged affair, but the world will be the cleaner for it.
Sir,—Your correspondent Andreasen raises some dubious methods of refutation from the grimy depths of antiquity. First, I must agree that the Victorian era produced a great deal of hideous things, not counting the hideous Royal family, even. I also admit that I never knew Victoria. I am, however, sufficiently trusting in the work of historians and chroniclers (not counting Lytton Strachey) to accept their statements and I think I am entitled to draw what conclusions I please from them. The conclusion I choose to draw in this case is that Victoria was a tyrant . . . my original words were "bloated old tyrant" but some ultra-royalist sub-editor cut out the adjectives. Incidentally, I hope your correspondent is a Science student. He would not get far in the Arts faculty with such an empirical outlook . . .
Second, and far more important, if your correspondent thinks so little of Wellington he knows what he can do. I don't know in which part he lives that smells so bad—perhaps he sleeps on the wharves—but one can always move, cannot one? Perhaps where-ever he moves the smell follows? If so, there are a dozen advertising agencies in town who will tell him what his best friend wouldn't
That would also explain the inhospitable clime . . .
Hate to wreck his composed air of much-travelledness but I also have seen the major cities of Australia and Europe, and have returned to Wellington with pleasure and in some cases relief.
Sir, I would like to deplore the lack of coverage in Salient given to the A.G.M. of the Students' Association. Most of the two front pages we re devoted to Little Congress which is only one aspect of student life and which involved only a few students. This important function involves all students and all aspects of student life . . . "The one. time each year when we, the students, directly decide major issues," to quote the author herself. yet only a few paragraphs crammed into a back pace were devoted to reporting it. The only way many students can learn how the Students Association affects them is through Salient and these same "major issues" were hardly mentioned let alone dealt with in sufficient detail.
Sir, I was surprised by the ill-informed comments of V. G. Maxwell in July 10 Salient regarding Dr. Buchman and Hitler. I would refer him to a 126-page report made by the Gestapo attaching Dr. Buchman and the Oxford Group. (Now called Moral ReArmament). It was first disclosed in an A.P. despatch by the American columnist DC Witt Mackenzie (see London Times. Dec. 29,
The document "denounces Dr. Buchman and the Oxford Group for uncompromisingly taking up a frontal position against National Socialism," in that "they encourage their members to place themselves fully beneath the Christian Cross and to oppose the cross of the swastika with the Cross of Christ, as the former seeks to destroy the Cross of Christ."
Mr Maxwell asks how many Jews there are in M.R.A. As M.R.A. is not an organisation but an ideology, there is no list of members. But I met in the United States both European and American Jews who were and still are giving their whole time to M.R.A.
M.R.A. is filling the vacuum of nihilism and atheism with a positive idea. Some Japanese students, who rioted in Tokyo in
Sir,—Thank you for the opportunity to see Mr Gager's article. It is the best effort I have seen him produce yet. Last time I pulled his leg, and he has now rather effectively pulled mine. As we have wandered somewhat from the original argument, I do not think a direct reply to his present article is required.
I would like to place my views on the subject more clearly for the benefit of Mr Gager. Our democracy is not perfect, as no system can be. I do not disapprove of anyone taking a public stand against the injustice that may arise in our society, whether the stand takes the form of a demonstration or otherwise. However, I do disapprove of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament very strongly.
I am convinced that nuclear weapons have, by their pressure, not their use, prevented a major war up to date and thus have saved many lives. I am also convinced that if we were to abandon the present defence policy that a major war on a wider scale than World War II would be inevitable. Therefore, on humanitarian grounds, nuclear disarmament, especially on a uniteteral scale is strongly opposed until such time as conditions permit such a step to be taken. Those who are swayed by C.N.D. arguments are ignorant of the real issues involved.
Sir,—I would like to draw the attention of your readers to the existence of a suggestion book in the Students' Union Office. Also I think it would be a good idea if current suggestions were printed in Salient.
Sir,—As usual. I wish to do a moan. I have no Idea who wore the contractors who painted the Inside of the new building, but they did a lousy Job. Anyone who cares to visit the Men's Toilet at the top of the main stairs will find the paint under the windows blistered and peeling already. I understand that this is caused by painting on a damp surface. At this rate, the whole marvellous edifice will have crumbled about our collective ears in another 20 years or so—and see if I care. In fact, I shall be on hand especially to say, "I told you so."
Sir,—I find your report on Little Congress II trite. I did not go to Little Congress II, and the prominence given to the idiotic ravings of those who did discourages me from going to Little Congress III. Publish the talks of guest speakers by all means but don't reduce the reports to such crude generalities as to make publication utterly useless. This criticism would apply especially to the report of Prof. Aikman's speech. Finally I deplore the wasting of two columns Nostalgia Strikes Again" and "A Few Celebrities" for the publication of unmitigated twaddle. The childish chatter might seem funny to your reporters but it only reflects a mixture of a juvenile hangover and banality.
Sir,—Executive candidates now they are elected reject us. This refers to the notice on the Student Association Office door; designed to foster student apathy and resentment by telling us to keep out.
There have been two notices to the effect; the first signed by Mr O'Brien, the second which replaced it was the artistic triumph of Mr Moriarty. No doubt there are many unnecessary and annoying visits to the office. But such notices could show more tact.
Perhaps if the executive came out and mixed with the ordinary students to listen to their views then the annual vote would be higher. If they thank the people who voted for them with antagonising notices then let apathy continue.
(Abridged.)
[The secretary appreciates Mr Pointon's views; but "tactful" notices had not worked in the past.]
Sir,—What your contributor "E. Pankhurst" fails to grasp is that nothing will lead to more intense desires for physical consummation than the "platonic" relationships she is referring to. It is these shared beliefs, ideas and ideals, this mental intimacy, that most fully arouses sexuality in sensitive and intelligent men and women. Such people are at least as likely to be repelled by undiluted undisguised lust as attracted to it. We can only assume that your contributor has strong, unacknowledged unconscious desires for such fulfilment or that she just doesn't know what she is playing with. Platonic relationships in her sense are only possible between homosexuals whose love needs are fulfilled by members of their own sex and who can therefore be sexually indifferent in heterosexual relationships. There are grounds for assuming that Plato was a homosexual.
Dr. Gupta has pointed out to Salient that some words in issue No. II had been wrongly attributed to him—Salient regrets that this has happened.
—Not That keen on profit-making
"Answer to four students" in Salient 11 read: "Cafeteria Comment: Absolutely no More Changes until we can see our way clear. Fruit Is a risky thing to keep and there Is No Profit." Salient apologises to the cafeteria management if undue emphasis had been placed on the words "no profit." The cafeteria would not refuse to sell fruit merely because there is no profit; but they are refusing to sell fruit because fruit can be a risky venture, and could result in heavy losses. The cafeteria will be prepared to reconsider the matter later on. They would probably be willing to sell fruit to please the student body even if it means no profit— provided the possibility of running heavy losses can be safely avoided.
This is the name of the Japanese Council against A. and H. bombs. From August 6-15 it is holding its annual conference in Tokio, which delegates of both western and eastern nations will attend.
At the beginning of June the Nuclear Disarmament leaders at Victoria received a letter from the Youth Campaign for N.D. in Britain and from the International Students and Youth C.N.D. asking that someone represent New Zealand at the conference. Miss Nyrie Atkinson has been chosen to go and the Wellington C.N.D. has raised the money for her.
Whilst New Zealand has succeeded in building up her own organisation to most people the problem still seems remote. Whatever individuals may think of disarmament, it would be madness for a country south of Asia on the fringe of the Pacific to rest in her present remoteness especially with her economic isolation quite broken.
There could hardly be a more appropriate place than Japan for a Nuclear Disarmament conference, and a no more significant place from New Zealand's point of view. I hope our very presence there is a precedent for further determined action.
Sir,—My friends are so Nice
My parents like them; my church approves; society accepts them they are society.
I like them
But they don't understand me: Because
When I get frustrated, Virginity's outdated.
Sir.—Can see no trace of Hunter building in leader picture, Salient 11. Has it:
My hopes are that it was the latter, the others would be a bit Bloody, but a distinct possibility.
Even' year the long suffering readers of "Salient" are subjected to a broadside of Tournament Blurbs from the various clubs; the teams are regularly portrayed as possessing all the virtues and capabilities of supermen: mighty of muscle and swift of action, they go forth to battle against their unworthy opponents. And every year, as a just reward for their efforts, the supermen bring back with them a small (presentation) wooden spoon (a little rash, and somewhat unjust.—Ed.).
So this year, one blurb at least will contain nothing but The Truth—a factual and reasoned assessment of the abilities and potentialities of the Swords Team— that glorious, unbeatable, ever memorable band of brothers, representing the epitome of invincibility and the peak of perfection in skill and dexterity.
Headed by the Captain, Rosso (the Rum-bottle) Martins, whose weaknesses were revealed by the present writer in an earlier issue of this paper, the Team may surely regard itself as unbeatable; the captain's vast knowledge of all aspects and ramifications of gladiatorial combat, and his constant effort to perfect his own technique in spite of an almost insurmountable inability to join more than two moves into a sequence, have given him a reputation before which any opponent must quail. This doughty warrior is closely followed by the equally notorious Tchupuskja von Peterson, who, as Assistant Groom of the Household Poultry in the Imperial Guard of the Grand Duchy of Steinecker, has seen some of the sterner side of military life. This is evident in his bombastic and aggressive fencing: few will stand for long before him. In the furious fighting that is doubtless to be expected, Jim French will be a tower of strength and immobile solidity. Swinging into battle with Gaelic cries, he accompanies his attack with rolling eyes, gnashing teeth, and filing nails—a galaxy of concerted talents all too rarely seen on the piste in these humdrum days. The fourth member is Dick Hall, whose nom de guerre of "Beau Sobreur" has. it must be confessed, puzzled us since his exhibitions against the Australians recently, and who is included before being pensioned off in the near future. He is expected to astound his opponents; he should, for he astounds us. Should anything be left, of our adversaries, Geoff Lowe will promptly perform the Happy Despatch upon them. Relying on his habitual glamorous appearance when not fencing (hence "Beau Brummel" to his friends) he has created an aura of aristocratic inviolability about him that causes even the Philistines from Canterbury to pause before hitting his sacred person.
Turning from the sublime to the ridiculous, we must consider the ladies of the team. Lorna Mackenzie will again come perilously close to disqualification for fencing in a classical orthodox style that is perfect in every respect; naturally her opponents, used to more violent affrays, will be too non plussed to retaliate. Dale Gouren, on the other hand, will come close to taking the Ladies' Open Judo Title, if her present performance is any guide. Sarah Tidey presents the third problem for young players; disdaining to attack, she relies on a redoublement of the counter riposte, done out of time, out of distance, and indeed, out of this world. Further descriptions of her amazing technique is beyond us. In the most difficult position comes Gerda Buehler, for she must present a fresh problem for her opponents, and it is clear that between them, the other three members of the ladies' team have left few aspects of fencing, orthodox or unorthodox, unexplored. Our confidence in Gerda is however, unshaken; she can be relied on to think of at least one attack hitherto unknown to the fencing world, and it is on this triumphant note that our team leaves for Palmerston and immortality. Ave Atque Vale.
Editor's footnote: (One hesitates to accept the above, but the fact is that Victoria has again got a strong fencing team. They have a lot of tournament experience behind them and. despite strong claims from Canterbury-, have an excellent chance to obtain eight shield points for Victoria. Good luck to them.)
Our team for Winter Tournament this year is:—
This year's team is new, but slightly better blended than the one we sent last year. There are three members of the "A" team, which is doing well in the club games, although only playing B grade this year. The new gymnasium has greatly improved the club spirit and we now have a goal to aim at. (literally!) We hope that next year with these advantages we will have many new members from which to draw our next year's Tournament team, which may succeed where others have failed!
At the present it seems certain that D. Beauchamp, M. Honeyfield and R. S. Clark will be the stars of the V.U.W. Harrier team at Winter Tournament this year. D. Beauchamp has recently struck form and is running well within the standard of the top 20 harriers in the province. He should manage a good placing in the Tournament race. M. Honeyfield and R. Clark are both reasonably fit and determined runners. Also they both have three tournament runs chalked up already and so should enter Tournament this year experienced and hopeful.
The team will be completed from the following men: B. Wilson, G. Caddie, T. Thornley, D. Eaddy and B. Wharton. B. Wilson is a strong runner with a steady record behind him in this year's events. In last year's tournament, though a newcomer to the sport, he ran a good race, finishing well up. This year should see an improvement. G. Caddie is very fit this year and if given the chance he would be likely to run himself tenaciously into a good fourth or fifth man position. J. Thornley, though not as fit as he could be, has run three or four good races this year. This man could run a binder and finish in the top 10 at Tournament, if he is given the chance. D. Eaddy and B. Wharton are both junior runners, but have been turning out with the fast pack at the weekend runs. D. Eaddy is a powerful runner and has led our junior team home in the junior races. B. Wharton is fit and, given the incentive, is capable of turning in a good race.
Although some of our best runners are ineligible for Tournament the team will still be a strong one. Already this year it has beaten Massey on the very course, that Tournament will be run on.
This year the Vic. team for Winter Tournament at Massey consists of Lim Kim Woon, W. Verhoeven, P. Luk and P. Swain; Misses M. Thomson and P. Collins.
Without doubt this team is much stronger than last year, since the top two A grade players Lim and Verhoeven are available. Just recently Lim fully extended three Wellington representatives — M. Dunn. J. Crossley and R. Moffat. P. Luk and P. Swain are both first year students displacing two of last year's members. Both have shown good form in inter-club and P. Swain won the Wellington handicap tournament.
Misses Thomson and Collins are both experienced players. Miss Thomson has played in the team for the past two years and reached the semi-finals of the individual tournament both years. Miss Collins rivals Miss Thomson as a player and completes the strongest team that Vic. has had for some years.
At the recent Wellington 2nd grade championships Vic. was well represented with two semi-finalists in the men's singles, a semi-finalist in the men's doubles; finalists in the women's doubles, women's singles, and mixed doubles. Our congratulations go to A. Gooch and Miss Thomson on winning the mixed doubles.
With the new gym in use, the table tennis club numbers have swelled considerably, and the standard of play has improved as a consequence. The club caters for all standards of players, with interclub teams from A to G grades. In an effort to raise the standard, various matches have been arranged with other centres in the North Island. Earlier this year 15 members played with distinction in Napier against some of Hawke's Bay's top players. A visit from the Manawatu Association is expected soon and a fixture with Wairarapa is under consideration.
As far as interclub matches are concerned, all teams have been doing well. The three C grade teams have perhaps the best record, the No. 1 team leading in its section, and the Nos. 2 and 3 teams lying third in their sections.
Recapitulating, the. club has become increasingly active this year and with the availability of top players, the team should do very well at tournament.
Don't forget, club nights on Tuesdays, 7 p.m. in the gym. and everyone is welcome.
Your representatives at the N.Z.U. deliberations at the forthcoming Tournament are Conor McBride (Senior Delegate) and Lance Leikis (Junior Delegate). These two will be on hand to straighten out any problems that may arise during proceedings.
The Boxing Club this year at Vic. has not functioned with sufficient organisation or members to be an official club, but there are a few persons who have been interested enough in the sport to train privately at Koolman's Gymnasium down town. From these, no doubt, there will be several willing sacrificial offers to compete against the Massey Y.F.C. lads, the rugby fit enthusiasts from Auckland and Canterbury, and the cheats from Dunedin who have learnt how to box.
Of this group Chas. Little could be the most experienced, although he has only one amateur fight to his credit. This lad is solidly built and will enter the ring a semi-fighter-cum-boxer. Maurice Rowe is a stocky well-shouldered youth for his weight, whose stalking style serves him well on attack, but leaves a tendency for slowness on defence footwork. Noel Clarke has progressed from the ignorant-of-boxing stage to the stage where he can realise how little he knows, However, his long reach and dogged style could be effective. Roddy Duncan has a heavy but slow punch. With even some training his weight could become very effectively directed. Roger "X" has an asset in his long loping left, but his footwork and defence will need improving. Tony Cooper is a light but tall lad who started in experienced but has trained steadily over the last few weeks. Others interested are: John Armstrong, Tom Wilson, David Hull end B. Haldane.
The main strategy of the team could be to be fit enough to run fast for three two-minute rounds. Then again, it might not be.
Editor's Note: Boxing at Tournament is now only a provisional sport. That is, points from the Boxing are not added to the total for the Tournament Shield. Should there be a resurgence of interest in the game, however, due consideration will be given to its inclusion in the programme as a full tournament sport.
Open teams contest.
T. S. Gan, G. Hewitt, D. Pidgeon, B. Baker, B. Teviotdale,
Restricted teams contest.
N. Jordan, R. Smith, P. Diggle, M. Cameron, P. Squires.
Our open team is fairly strong this year, consisting mainly of orange belts. Unfortunately, our opposition is unknown, but they also might have improved since last year. The restricted team is also likely to do well. This contest is likely to be very hard-fought.
In the individual championships we are suffering from the loss of last year's cup-holder, A. Guzzwell, but Gan, also a green belt, shows true Indonesian class and our hopes are pinned on him.
This year, the Universities skiing tournament will be held at Mount Cheesman, Temple Basin, from August 13 to 19 and is being put on by the Canterbury University Ski Club. Unfortunately, the National Ski-ing Championships are also on during those dates, at Coronet Peak.
Most of Otago University's skiers will be at these, but so also will Mr Prestant and Tom Huppert, probably the best university skier outside Otago.
These two are a loss to our team but we still have skiers of the calibre of Tom Robbins, Mike Goddard, Kevin Crossley and Colin Jeffeoat ably supported by Rod Moody, Tony TayIor and Jotin Patterson, and some excellent girl skiers in Jill Huppert, Anne Perry and Stephanie Moody.
The feeling is that we could fill either second or third place.
Last year, Victoria put on a very successful tournament at Mount Ruapehu and we came an overall second, the best achieved by a North Island university team for many years.
The Vic. team for this year will be posted on the Ski Club Notice Board after the weekend July 29 and 30. when the inter-club races are held on Mount Ruapehu.
If determination to win is any indication as to the final result of the Men's Indoor Basketball at Tournament this year, then Victoria should leave Palmerston North with the honours. So far this season the club as a whole, has been doing quite well, especially the A team, which is coming second to Marist in the Wellington A grade competition. Marist, with several N.Z. representatives have been winners of the A grade competition for the last two years.
Representing Victoria at Massey will be P. Betts, D. Edwards, D. Roberts, M. Clark, R. Heyworth. D. Lacey and J. Eade. Betts and Edwards, noted for their accurate set-shooting and hard driving play, with Roberts, at his best when under the basket, form an effective nucleus on attack. This will be Edwards's fifth. Roberts's third, and Betts's second tournament. For Eade, a steady defensive player, this tournament will be his second. Clark, fast and reliable with Heyworth and Lacey, two promising players, complete a fairly strong team. These last three will play at tournament for the first time.
The opposing teams will be hard to beat, especially Otago which is fielding the same strong team that won at Christ church last year. Canterbury, from past performances, can also be expected to field a strong team. Auckland generally manage to cause at least one upset and Lincoln has shown considerable improvement over the last two tournaments and now ranks as one of the leaders. Even though of little success in previous years, Massey have the advantage of playing on their home court.
The Vic. Record Club is now affiliated to the Students' Association. Their inaugural A.G.M. was held Thursday, July 20 and the following decisions were approved by the entire meeting (25-30 present).
That there be four officers and no committee.
President: Chairman: John Irons.
Vice-president: Marietta Boyack.
Treasurer: Mike Hinsch.
Secretary: Cathy Benefield.
Owing to the boorish behaviour of some bloated egoists who turned up at the second meeting, it was a shambles. There is ample opportunity for informal discussion before and after the set programme and it is merely courtesy to the guest hosts, to keep reasonably silent while their records are being played. In future, would all anarchists and soap-box orators please use the Common Common Room as only those who are genuinely Interested in listening to records are welcome.
The Portuguese colony of Angola has been seen in the past few months as the victim of a dictatorship—a dictatorship that holds Portugal in an iron cage and would do the same to her colonies. No one had heard much about this country (population 4,300,000 black, 200,000 white) until the Portuguese liner Santa Maria was seized by opponents of Dr. Salazar. Since then, stories from Angola of intimidation, savagery and atrocities have been making the headlines. And what started as an internal disturbance has gained international magnitude and caused extreme embarrassment to the Portuguese Government. The Government argues that its overseas territories are not colonies but overseas departments of a unitary Portuguese state; but so far it has convinced no one.
The growth of Nationalist movements in Angola, and the persistent unrest there have broken down the pretence that there is calm and peace, as well as Portugal's oft-mentioned claim that there is no racialism in her colonies.
Since
In a communique issued by the General Overseas Agency, a department of the Portugese Overseas Ministry, the government denied that it's forces in Angola were carrying out barbarous repression or committing atrocities. They also stated that there is no foundation whatever for these accusations— but from student reports that have been received and read by this reporter there is more behind the headlines and denials than meets the eye.
In
The communique continued. There is no foundation for the allegations that the Portugese forces are. committing atrocities and horrors. Yet the Archbishop of Canterbury (Or. Ramsey) stated, "That Christian pastors and teachers have been killed, and churches. schools, and villages have been destroyed."
The mounting repression has caused a steady stream of refugees to pour into the various countries around the colony. Among the latest were 10 African students who arrived after trudging through thick jungle and deserted plains for 33 days in order to avoid arrest.
University students from the Portugese colonies, including Angola, issued a statement (in
"Our main wish is to link hands with all those who want to join us in building up our countries in a democratic way . . . But, if our hope for a future of close co-operation with Portugal is not to be deceived, an end must be put to the preparations now being made for a colonial war which will shed our blood and sacrifice the blood of your youth in vain."
The ruction of the government was swift. On December 30, 1960, they removed the executive committee of the Association of African Students and replaced it with Portugese officials from Lisbon.
In an address to the Portugese nation on
Against such a background the story told by students of Angola, about the various methods used by the Portugese Government to stunt the educational progress of the Africans needs no further elaboration.
In the interior, where most of the schools are boarding institutions, the Angolan students spend most of their time working on farms instead of studying.
In the townships and villages, the situation is not much better. The native children can attend only a rudimentary school where the most backward methods of teaching are used. Children in such schools are forced to do eight years of primary education instead of the normal four given to the "non-indigenas"—" indigenas," is a name used by the Portugese Government to designate all the people who have not gone through the process of "assimilation"—so while a Portugese student takes 11 years to complete his primary and secondary education, the "indigena" needs' 15 years if he passes all his examinations first pop.
The responsibility for educating the "indigena" has been given to the Catholic Church.
In the schools, pupils are taught the elements of writing and reading. The teaching of history consists of a few superficial facts; and the unsavoury aspects of Portuguese history are taboo. Because of the "assimilation" policy, the pupils are forbidden to use their mother tongues.
After successfully completing his education, the pupil, if he wants to proceed further must pass an examination qualifying him to have an identity card, unless his father already has one.
Often the identity card is obtained at a cost of gold equivalent to the weight of the card. Having the means is not enough. The applicant must prove himself worthy of the card by actually demonstrating that he has been completely "assimilated" into the Portuguese way of life. A representative of the government must testily that the applicant eats, sleeps, enjoys his leisure hours, dresses, etc., like a Portuguese. Most of the Angolans are unable to pass the rigid tests set for them, as the wages they receive are too meagre for them to afford the way of life of their governors. So most can not obtain a card either for themselves or their children. Only 0.7 per cent, achieve "assimilation."
Besides the identity card, African students must carry a school card issued by their respective schools. Otherwise, they can be rounded up and sent to labour camps.
In summing up, the Angolan student is able to study only under the most difficult circumstances due to a regime which tries with all means available to stunt his natural development.
It is foolhardy to think that the "winds of change," sweeping relentlessly across Africa, will stop at the borders of Angola.
[The facts and figures given can he easily checked of time. Salient do not necessarily agree with the political statements made here about the Portuguese government.]
Dr. Shwayder arrived recently from the United States of America, and will be working for the next six months in the Philosophy Department. Dr. Shwayder is in New Zealand on a Fulbright Research Grant which does not require him to lecture but allows time for his own particular work. The philosophy of Language is the field in which Dr. Schwayder's chief interests lie.
Although he has travelled overseas previously, this is his first visit to New Zealand. He has found, he says, New Zealanders extremely kind, especially at the University.
Dr. Shwayder has found some of the contrasts between a New Zealand University and an American University very interesting. Here, he feels, the various staff members know each other better and are more interested in each other than in an American institution. This is explained, probably by the greater numbers at the Universities there.
The students in the United States have a wider background education and specialise later than in New Zealand.
There are some differences between the Philosophy Department at Victoria and that at Berkeley University, California, where Dr. Shwayder obtained his Ph:D., due primarily to the difference in the size of the departments, and in the rather more orthodox approach made here.
In his time here Dr. Shwayder hopes to travel to many parts of New Zealand, and also to have fortnight in Australia.
A new member on the Administrative side of the University Staff is Mr Walshe, who previously worked as an Assistant Secretary to the Appointments Board of Melbourne University. The Appointments Board, half academics and half people from industry, gives advice and information on suitable careers to graduating students. Mr Walshe dealt with Scientific and technical fields, and also some mathematics.
The Appointments Board arranges a programme of "campus interviews," when rooms are made available for employers to talk informally with graduates and undergraduates.
It is particularly interesting to look at the work of this Board in the light of "Careers Information Week" at Victoria, which could possibly lead to more ambitious work in this direction.
At Victoria Mr Walshe has the position of Assistant Registrar-Academic. He is one of the three Assistant Registrars who have recently been appointed, and will work directly, with Dr Williams. Part of his work will be to act as Secretary to various committees of which the Vice-chancellor is Chairman.
We are very fortunate in this country that many of the senior public positions are relatively permanent and non-political. In the United States the top jobs change with every president; consequently it is six months or so before the new appointees have the knowledge and control of their jobs that their predecessors had. In the interval such incidents as the Cuban invasion and even the atomic bombing of Japan could take place because neither the President or his top team knew what reliance to place upon their various agencies and pressure groups.
In New Zealand we do not change the heads of our departments with every change of government. The new Cabinet Ministers usually have a period of grace in which to find their feet before anything occurs that really demands a "policy" decision. But our record is not good.
New Zealand has a record of outstanding representatives at the United Nations. But Sir Leslie Munro, elected chairman of the General Assembly, was suddenly notified that his National Party appointment was not to be renewed by the Labour Government. Thus a man both popular and skilful is lost to his country. And now his successor, Mr Foss Shanahan, is not to be reappointed. The National Government seems to have so decided before even determining on a successor. Mr Shanahan attained the important position of Chairman of Unesco. Once again we lose the services of one whose loss we can so ill afford.
An even more saddening example is the way that the post of High Commissioner to the United Kingdom was kept vacant for the duration of the Labour Government; presumably because a suitable yes-man could not be found.
When a political party becomes the Government, its first duty is to the country, not to itself. Of course its principles and attitudes determine how that duty should be carried out. But the old old game of finding good jobs for one's friends, and perquisites for one's relatives, was only tolerable when the "public sector" was relatively unimportant. We hope the National Government will try to be relatively impartial.
It's here again Winter Arts Festival: the major event of the University year, at least, for those in the right circles—or with a fringe of culture. For the benefit of the unenlightened and the uninitiated Arts Festival is the annual New Zealand inter-varsity festival of drama, literary societies, music, art, debating, chess, modern languages, drama, jazz and law. This year Massey are the hosts, and with a variety of less "serious" events (but of course more important) organised for a really disorganised time it all promises to be magnificent.
Here is a brief outline of the programme: see the main notice board for details.
Everyone arrives, by hook or by crook, or the 8.30 a.m. train from Wellington.
2 p.m.: Official Tournament opening. That's for the sporting types with no culture.
8 p.m.: Official Arts Festival opening. Law functions started at 3.30 p.m.
8 p.m.: Jazz Dance and Jam session.
2 p.m.: Bus Tour: Massey campus and farms. Opening of Art and Photography—open every day of Festival.
4 p.m.: Inter-Varsity bed-pushing down Fitzherbert Ave.
7 p.m.: Church Service.
8.30 p.m.: Arts Festival Film: "The Paths of Glory."
9 a.m.: Chess tournament begins on every day.
10.30 a.m.: Recorded Classics play: "The Bacchae."
12 noon: Films.
3.30 p.m.: Music Discussion.
8 p.m.: Drama Festival. Vic. is entering: what will happen?
12 noon: Recorded music concert. Wednesday also.
4 p.m.: Literary discussion. Wednesday also.
8 p.m.: Drama Festival, Music concert
12 noon: Organ recital also.
7.30 p.m.: Joynt Scroll: The debating event.
7.30 p.m.: Modern Languages, Drama: French Club effort.
8 p.m.: Jazz Concert.
Films, music, literature, etcetra, etchetera, et-chet. This of course is not just for the competitors: we must have an audience to cheer us when others won't. So this is for anyone who turns up in Palmerston North, August 12-17 (first week of Varsity holidays.)
When Executive met on Saturday, July 22, the main topics discussed were the report on revision of bursaries, the proposed education questionnaire, and Winter Arts Festival.
Miss Picton's bursary report reviewed the progress made to date. The basis of the recommendations made in the Parry Report was approved. One major dissension was made to the suggestion that assistance with fees to part-time students should be abolished. Next development to watch for is the Minister's reaction at Winter Festival!
The programme for Winter Festival has now been received (see elsewhere in this issue). Misses Clark and Ross are Victoria representatives at Winter Council.
The possibility of Victoria's acquiring a computing machine has prompted the proposal of a comprehensive statistical survey of student conditions, which will probably take place early next year.
Studio of Ballroom and Latin-American Dancing. A school of dancing which oiks its pupils to study assiduously and offers expert individual or group tuition. The basic course is 5 half-hour lessons, but there is no limit to what can be learned. Phones 45-818 (B) and 52-975 (H).
A fine place in Lambton Quay between the Cable Car and Whitcombe & Tombs. The best range of dresses and coats In town, attractively displayed.
About half-way along Willis Street. Very smooth-flowing silent wool for knitting during lectures. Muffled needles sold. Seriously though, specialists, with the best range of plys and colours in town.
Opp. the Grand Hotel in Willis Street, below street level. An excellent range of mix-and-match separates—slacks, skirts, blouses, overblouses, sweaters, etc. Skirts with matching three-quarter coats are now. Suede coals and sports jackets, casual and charming. Also at 137 Cuba Street. For students only— 7½% discount on presentation of Library Card.
Discount does not apply to Sales.
Upstairs in Herbert Street, off Manners Street. On one side of a partition, coffee and fruit juices, on the other, dancing (live orchestra). Admission on dancing nights, 6/-.
At 48a Manners Street, a co-operative bookshop. Buying a single share (£1) entitles, you to 10% discount on all titles for life. Gorman, Spanish, French and Russian. Any book ordered from anywhere in the world—delay about two months.
Half-way along Willis Street. The bulk of the stock Penguins, plus selected American educational titles—probably the best representation in town of really good paper-backs. Useful references in Pelican, especially for English, History, Philosophy, Psychology.
At 102 Lambton Quay, Phone 43-910. Religious books of ail descriptions, e.g., theological, devotional, church history — and children's.
54 The Terrace. Carry a Complete Range of Student Books in Commerce and Law. Price Lists Available on Request.
(University Booksellers and Stationers) Lambton Quay, Wellington.
For the most complete range of Text Books. Discounts available to Students for Text Book Purchases.
22 Manners Street. Toughen up for the football season, loosen up for the cricket season, tone up for the swotting season. Personal individual tuition. There is a significant reduction in fees for groups of four or more. This is a special, for students only, and Library Cards must bo produced.
(Witcombe & Caldwell)
Half-way along Willis Street. Long-standing connection with University sport. Every one of Vic's twenty-four sports catered for here. All contingencies provided for.
In Lambton Quay, hard by the Cable Car Lane. Offer men's wear exclusively—durable stuffs at good prices. University blazers at £6.19.6. Weir blazers at £8.0.0. Also made to measure if required.
At 5 Willis Street. Everything to be known about trousers known here. Take your choice of styles and fabrics, take your choice of prices. 268 fittings.
At the bottom of the Plimmer Steps. Handy to the 'Varsity, to eating places and shops. Students and student teachers found here. Only bar in town with a choice of boors on tap. Rod Band Draught and Tui Draught.
Nearest to the University, on the corner of Willis and Manners Streets. Many like the Back Bar. Never too crowded and comfortably twilit. Handy to eating places. Red Band Draught, drawn from a refrigerated tank room.
In Farish Street, clearly visible from Manners Street. For women, cosmetics and beautifying varnishes. For men, combs and, recently, manly deodorants. And, of course, medicines and prescriptions and cameras. Produce your Library Card.
In the T. & G. Building, opp. Cable Car Lane. A most handy shop with the usual range of soaps, cosmetics, ointments and soothing balms. Prompt proscription service.
In 10 Willis Street above S. P. Andrew's, near Stewart Dawson's Corner. Hair stylos for girls. Highly individual attention and plenty of fashion ideas.
In Manners Street. beside the Post Office. An entirely now, well-designed little saloon with 3 chairs and a good standard of cutting. Continental haircuts a specialty. Tatts tickets.
At 86 Manners St., opp. the Regent Theatre. Tel. 40-529. For Capping, Tournament, Law, Commerce and Miscellaneous Balls, a good droit suit hire service. with individual service and/or alterations. For the exhibitionist—costumes to hire. Go wild, man.
Dine and Dance Supper and Dance
Tony Noorts' Orchestra
Featuring the electronic console organ, floor shows, vocalists. Ideal for all your social functions. Phones: 50-590 or 58-000/6033.
Curiously enough, they come in various shades of fawn. But they come. They have a reputation for responding soonest to telephone calls. After the ball or the party . . . 56-900.
At No. 3 Ballance Street, in the Maritime Building. Wholesale wine and spirit people. Vintners to Students' Assn. Especially of interest are their sweet and dry sherry sold in flagons, which go well at a party. Also rod and white dry table wines at 6/-. Minimum order 2 gallons.
Comes a degree. Comes a wife, child and bank account. Got in early with a BNZ cheque account. Pay by cheque. Get the record of your statement. Control your spending.
In Willis Street, near Stewart Dawson's Corner, and
In Lambton Quay, opp. the D.I.C. Two of a kind. Good food cooked with a light touch. Just the place for business girls. The salads are special. Prices good.
4 Roxburgh Street, off Marjoribanks Street, past the Embassy Theatre. Serves a delectable plat du jour at 3/6. Home-made cakes. Coffee, of course. Praiseworthy.
A network covered by trams, diesel buses and trolley buses, will take you anywhere in the City. Timetables can be procured at the Lambton Quay and Courtenay Place Terminals at 6d. per copy. The sight-seeing tours are truly remarkable and will make you familiar with the terrain of Wellington. Telephone 42-719 for further Information.
16. The Terrace. Phone 42-095. Angle-poise lamps, drawing instruments. precision slide rules, etc. Serving science for over 70 yeare, Watvic offers students the most comprehensive range of scientific equipment.
A letter I received recently from an irate reader:—
"Dear Hon. Sir—I should like to make an emphatic protest at one of the most monstrous atrocities of our Western civilisation. I refer, of course, to the inclusion of raspberry seeds in raspberry jam. This most pernicious scheme, aimed at the destruction of the moral nature of man, is undoubtedly Communist-inspired, but sad to "say, such subversive activities have even spread to our own cafeteria.
I should know—I had a raspberry seed stuck between my back teeth for two solid hours. At first I was not sure of the nature of this anarchistic revolt against the proper nature of things, but when I finally got the b———thing out there could be no doubt. It was bright red in colour, and inscribed with the hammer and sickle. Seriously, though. I think something should be done to rid our hallowed halls of learning of such a menace. How about a Society for the Prevention of Raspberry Seeds? It would be .just as sensible as some societies being formed recently. Actually it's not the annoyance of the seed itself that gets me; it's when you finally get rid of the obstruction to your saliva flow. Your tongue is ridded of an occupation and you are left thoroughly psychologically unbalanced and frustrated.
Yours in all due respect, hoping this finds you as it leaves me, bloated and bitchy."
Ripley: A tale of woe told to me recently by two girls—J. and M. recently tried their luck in a well-known quiz programme. J. is now busy turning out the attic for a new carpet (after all, it should hardly be made public that a history student could misplace the Wars of the Roses by three centuries . . .). And who could have expected them to know the editors of the New Zealand Rugby Almanac? Worse still, M., who never was much good at cards, baffled the compere by describing clubs as "the curly ones." The parting shot —101bs. of tea. and they never touch the stuff ... A friend of mine on Exec, (you didn't think I had any, did you?) admits of being a transvestite—quoth he: "I wore . . . my sister's skirts" . . . There is a person on the Salient staff who doesn't know the difference between constipation, conception, and consumption . . .
And Oi Sez, Sez Oi: Bill Dwyer: "There's nothing dogmatic about me" . . . M.A.S.—, discussing his marks in a terms exam., declared that all he wanted from any lecturer or student was a nought . . . "Are you off?" "More or less"... Heard in a coffee bar. "What do Lesbians do?" "Let's flat together next year" . . . Irate fan at a Record Club meeting: "O'Regan, Dwyer, and Stone leave their mouths permanently open waiting for whoever's speaking to come to the first punctuation mark " . . .
Subversion: Two girls soliciting recently (!) for members for the new Record Club: "Actually you can just look at the covers all night' if you don't like music" incidentally, what a model for how to get signatures by fair means or foul (mainly foul. T feel)—were you coerced? (Probably, since the main protagonists were prepared to go to almost any lengths) . . . When are we going to see the Extrav. accounts? . . . E.S.— says that it's not fair on the underdog, and that we should fight for our rights—what? . . .
Ramblings: Thoughts during a debate: a worker is a person who attended a spiritualist seance in
For Better or Verse: Following the joyous news of the disappearance of our Chief Reporter (he has since been found, fishing in Lake Wanaka), a member of Salient staff was moved to commit the following atrocity:
"Who killed Ed. Daniel?
Not I, said the Editor.
Not I, said l he Dean of the Faculty.
Not I. said the President of Stud. Ass.
Not I, said the Publications Officer.
Not I, said the Vice-Chancellor.
Not I, said the Prime Minister.
Not I, said the S.U.B. Custodian.
Not I, said the Captain of the Esmeralda.
Not I, said the Senior Lecturer.
Not. I, said the Common Room Crowd.
I did it, said kinsey."
I have every intention of suing for libel, on the strength of the last line . . .
Hie Humour: Being an account, albeit somewhat disjointed, from one of our better-known social brethren: "After leaving party at Lower Hutt—ended up on a Petone beach—remembered reading somewhere that if you burrow into snow it will keep you warm— thought sand would do the same— dug hole in beach and climbed in— woke up in the early morning to find myself in the middle of the ruddy tide"—what some people will do for alcohol . . .
As is the case with most unorthodox groups, the V.U.W. Social Credit Club comes in for its share of mudslinging, this time in the form of Mr Martin ("S.C.: Unsound Economic Principles") and the anonymous Mil ("Protest").
As chairman of the meetings Mr Martin attended, I can distinctly recall his asking me for some literature on Social Credit, at which I proferred an 80-page booklet "It's Time They Knew," but, as he refused this, I then offered the two-page pamphlet "Tenets of Social Credit," to which he refers in his article. At the time he voiced no dissatisfaction to me. Rather, he wrote an article completely misrepresenting both the Social Credit Club and myself, an act which I consider in extremely poor taste.
Further he states that he was interested in Social Credit, yet states "I'm Still sure their organisation has no sound principles of economic policy that could ever benefit New Zealand" (my emphasis), implying that his mind was made up beforehand. This gives substance to J. S. Mill when he said "Conservatives are by nature the most stupid of people." It is obvious that critic Martin has not attended the Thursday evening study groups where Social Credit proposals are discussed more fully. Perhaps he and other detractors would consider attending?
As Mr Martin is thirsting for knowledge on Social, Credit, I would respectfully suggest that he acquires "Use of Money" or "Social Credit" by C. H. Douglas and "Introduction to Social Credit" by B. W. Monahan. I can assure him that he will find all he wants to know in these books.
In reply to our anonymous critic Mil, all the posters advertising the meeting displayed the words "Social Credit Club" and the speaker found it necessary to the point of his talk on the World Bank to outline the Social Credit principles on which our objection to the Bank is based. In branding other people irrational, Mil would do well not to throw around emotive terms, such as "dirty" and "propaganda." As Winston Churchill once said, "Any fool can grumble, criticise and complain—) and most fools do."
Emmeline Pankhurst has at last turned in her grave; according to your issue of July 24. The position of women in this country is an exceedingly strange one; as it is born of the universal New Zealand attitude, I am not, unlike Miss Pankhurst, surprised to find it in our universities. I would agree that much of the problem stems from our foolish clinging to the single-sex education system, but I feel that the root causes lie even deeper than this.
The emotional climate of New Zealand is exclusively a homosexual one, not an uncommon situation in a strong patriarchal society aware of its position in the inevitable transitional change to a matriarchal dominance. We have the example of America before us, a nation founded in a similar pattern to our own, from strong pioneering male stock, building their lives in a community where women were at best a liability justifying their existence solely by providing sexual recreation and additional human material, preferably male. A society formed from such attitudes forms from its earliest stages a romantic conception of male "mateship." In the bush this attitude is that of a band of men fighting the elements together, who return at night to their human egg-producing machines, who may have been killed and eaten in the meantime by Maoris or Indians. In modern civilisation, the female, who no longer requires protection from this sort of thing, begins to assume a frightening role to this band of men. They retain their little band, speak of "the old woman." tip-toe home at night from an innate fear of her, and "go out with the boys" to escape her. Europe laughs at this escape, and continues sanely in its respect and adoration of the female, becoming alarmed in their travels to discover that here they are even expected to ignore their women at parties.
So anxious to escape has our New Zealander been, that he has left his children in the home with the monster.
As with the Greeks, so the female is an object of derision, to state love for her is unmanly. Yet, unlike these Athenians, our women are no longer helpless, totally unintelligent beings.
The patriarch sees his inevitable doom, he vainly attempts to protect himself, and in his anxious battle, unwittingly hastens his ultimate death.
A society which proclaims an emotional male "mateship," and which uses its women solely as sexual toys and domestic slaves can be nothing other than homosexual in basis.
The stern intolerance of the actual physical homosexual bears this out most amusingly for the "womanizing" of the male individual weakens the band of "mates" in their combat against the alien female specie.
It will be interesting; to watch our fear develop in this direction as the transition takes place. Which it inevitably must—hastened by "my mate"; by solely physical contact with the female, unhampered by emotion; by attitudes toward women devoid of any deep love, and by the refusal of the male to assume equal status with his wife in the home. (Oh, ask your Mother, children, ask your Mother!)
Love your brother, university men of New Zealand. And think closely next time you race off to the boozer with your Male mates, leaving your woman alone till the darker hours of dawn, to then caress her and forget her; next time you talk on an "intellectual" subject in the Caf., to leave such subject abruptly for a derisive "only in fun" flirting session as soon as a woman joins the table. (It is, after all, more comfortable to have her body and body-mind in operation than to hear her male status—what a presumption—mind in operation. And after all, one can always resume serious discussions when she leaves, one may even be lucky enough not to have to put up with her again until one's next woo session with her.)
Yes, Love Your Brother, Zealand men, and let your giant, inspiring Mom rule your country; the preserver of your race; the looming psychological force in your homosexual minds; ultimate Queen and victor over your nation.
Passing the love of women . . .
Women are increasingly playing a more active role in political, scientific and cultural affairs in the East than in the West. The present U.S.S.R. Supreme Soviet has 366 women members—a figure well above the total for the parliaments of all the capitalist" countries put together. The United States 86th Congress, for example, had only 17 women in it. In China, women make up 12.23% of the deputies to the National People's Congress, and were 20% of the deputies at the third session of the local congresses held in 1958; one of the vice-chairmen of the People's Republic of China is a woman; one of the vice-chairmen of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and four of its members are women; seven Ministers and vice-Ministers (an expression peculiar to China) in the government are women.
How does this compare with New Zealand? Our present Parliament has only Miss Howard (Sydenham), Mesdames McMillan (Nth. Dunedin), Ratana (Western Maori), and Tombleson (Gisborne) to represent the fair sex, a total of "four out of the 80 scats, five per cent, representation. This is disturbing, to say the least; women deserve a better fate than social extinction.
The number of women scientists also. is rapidly increasing in the Soviet Union. In , which included 4,600 holders of the higher scientific degrees. More than half the university and secondary school graduates are women. From , and over one-third of the total professional health workers; 20.2 per cent, of university lecturers and 18.2 per cent, of secondary school teachers; 22.6 per cent, of university students and 31.2 per cent, of those in secondary schools; between 40 and 45 per cent, of the young and middle-aged adults who had successfully completed literacy courses by the end of
Statistics can be misleading, agreed, but the main abuse of statistics is in their interpretation, not their method or form. The most interesting point, though, is whether or not the large-scale female participation in Communist countries, taken proportionately of course, is a direct result of that Communist system. It is my belief that it is because female equality is an integral part of Communist doctrine, that women have obtained and advanced their status in the Communist State to such an extent. However, a complete swing to the Left by Western democracies would not necessarily carry in its wake the immediate social emancipation of women. On the other hand, there is a strong tendency to suppress the advance of women in our "democracies." One only has to observe the struggle New Zealand women are having to obtain equal pay for equal work. And do not believe the "we musn't have our family life disrupted" argument; much as I hate to admit It, the inferiority complex of men toward women is the true explanation.
What a lot of people do not realise is that the Communists are the only pressure group fighting continually for women's rights, because the success of Socialism must depend on the support of working women. This is a very necessary part of their World Communism plan which should not be overlooked. Realising this, Lenin, at the Seventh Congress for International Communism in
Ignoring the grossly commercialised "Mother's Day" of the West, what have we got to compare with Communism's "International Women's Day?" In
But these women have a definite goal for their fight, they have something worthwhile attaining, and they are not content to sit back complacently in their hire-purchase furnishings with the majority of apathetic females. With the added power of Trade Union organisation supporting them, questions of rising prices, rents and even maternity problems can be brought forward.
In all fairness, there do exist in New Zealand the Housewives' Associations and, more recently, Consumer Associations. Culturally. we have the Women Writers' Association and many other commendably active and progressive groups. But the fact remains that in political and educational fields, Western women are far behind the Chinese and the Soviets, the fault lying not so much in the failure of our women and our system but rather in the remarkable success of their system.
Would our women be better off under Communism? In most respects, my answer would be a definite "yes," provided, of course, they were prepared to sacrifice such things as freedom of worship, the right to be idle, and the Western conception of democracy.
And no politics could ever deny a woman's freedom of speech.
[Which is Mr Parkyn plugging? Feminine emancipation or Communism?—Sub. Ed.]
Christmas Capping: At a Student Council meeting in Dunedin the motion that capping be transferred to Christmas was defeated after a spirited discussion. "Let's combine Capping and Christmas— get all the binges out of the way at once," was successfully opposed, by "Capping is our tradition—let's ensure that Capping remains in May."
Auckland anti-apartheid: In a burst of anti-apartheid fervour Auckland University executive passed a motion by the majority of five to four banning Pall Mall cigarettes from the cigarette machine in the cafeteria. Rothman's Pall Mall cigarettes have South African interests, and as one supporter of the motion stated "It's putting money into the pockets of people who are oppressing the blacks." On the other hand of course there was the unsympathetic opposition who said that the whole thing was rather childish—well, wasn't it?
In this address to the Chemical Society Professor Slater introduced speakers.
Dr. Dixon, Deputy Director of the Soil Bureau, described opportunities in Government Departments for chemists. Allowing for 25 per cent, wastage and 5 per cent, natural expansion about 15 new chemists are needed yearly. The minimum qualification is M.Sc. (2nd class honours) with starting salary at about £900 increasing to £1120. Salary then depends on ability as assessed by the directors, i.e. your position on what is popularly called the "Tennis Ladder." Jobs available in Agriculture, the D.S.I.R. and the Patent Office 'were described. On research, a large degree of freedom to work on any project was allowed, provided results were produced. The idea that opportunities to do research in government departments is circumscribed was wrong. He asserted that there was less tyranny here than at a University.
Mr Butchers (teacher from H.V.H.S.) and Mr Nelson (Recruitment Officer for Dept. of Education) spoke of opportunities in teaching. Mr Butchers stated that in dealing with people, teaching involved a large variety of situations, activities and responses.
Contrary to general belief, the standard at science teaching is uniform throughout New Zealand.
Mr Addis-Smith, Manager of a Consulting Chemists firm, spoke of the chemist in industry. Half New Zealand's chemists are employed in industry concerned with native products (the meat and dairy industries, agriculture in general, breweries, forest products, fuel, drugs and metallurgy). Branches of Overseas firms had established laboratories here comparable to those overseas but little basic research was done in New Zealand. Most New Zealand laboratories were small—one or two chemists and four or five technicians—but, said Mr Addis-Smith, the experience of small laboratories should not be sneered at—personal relations count very much. For a scientist going into industry it is more important to keep a clear mind than to be cluttered up with a lot of book knowledge.
Mr Addis-Smith concluded: "A chemist who proves a technique, is worth his weight in lead; one who makes the technique work, is worth his weight in silver; one who proves the technique is unnecessary, is worth his weight in gold."
With the advent of an Anarchist Association in the University, let us examine the anarchist theory. At the outset, let me say that, in theory, Anarchy is Arguable.. But in Practice it is Unworkable. As Thomas says in his book "Spanish Civil War"—in his total pacifism and goodwill to all, the anarchist becomes the murderer; politics being the art of the possible, politics is impossible to the quixotic impossibilists and madmen of the anarchist left.
Ignoring their sparse numbers, let us examine their theory. They say that the government is unnecessary — that mutual aid and human goodwill will automatically ensure a stable society. A non-money economy has as its condition full production (on anarchist terms) so that this immediately raises an objection. We will need to have some form of governing body to equate money to production, which is sensible in itself but, the anarchist will have nothing to do with a ruling body and it would appear that a socialist stage is necessary We have seen that the socialist stage in the shabby "people's democracies" has resulted in State capitalism. Even disregarding the possibility of a repetition of the story of the Soviet Union, the anarchist finds himself in a predicament.
The anarchist would have us believe that the nation state, its administrative bodies and free enterprises constitute a threat to the integrity and morals of the human race; that freed from these, man will live in perfect harmony with his neighbour. Pacifism is a sane attitude, but it is a tenable position at present (it is only a matter of time before it is respected by the majority) and that it is not necessary to discard our society and adopt some airy-fairy notion of the extreme left.
In formulating this perfect state in his mental and intellectual wanderings, the anarchist neglects to consider the inherent weaknesses of man — jealousy, greed, meglomania — or if he does consider them in his plan of better things to come, by some strange reasoning comes to the conclusion that suddenly, on the advent of a true anarchist society, man will realise that there are greater things above materialism and greed and that we will be justified in calling our neighbours "comrade." Another objection: How is this pacifist society going to deter any group trying to assert its power over the others?
It will be interesting to hear from the promoters of this scheme of madmen and dreamers, slogans and double-think of a moral gymnasium, convert us over to their common front.
The Editor of "Canta" makes a statement that could apply to Victoria: "This university suffers from moral turpitude, bourgeois conformity, and a shrinking from controversy all coalescing into one general symptom—apathy." There is the minority however the students that express their opinions and take an active interest in student affairs at every aspect as can be seen in the latest reports from the other universities of New Zealand.
Student Buildings: In Dunedin the new executive has begun to dream hopefully of a Little Theatre. An architect has at the request of the Executive prepared sketches for a modern and extremely versatile theatre. It has been decided to start raising funds as soon as possible. The Building Committee of Auckland University has drawn up a questionnaire which they intend to send overseas to other universities so that they can ensure the best Student Union building possible—and at Canterbury the students are beginning an intensive appeal so that they may carry out their aim of having a new Student Union building by
Capping Book and Procession: Auckland Executive is also planning to improve the general standard of Procesh, while this year's Capping Book is being severely criticised because of the large amount of material in it "lifted" from authors other than students.
Student Dress: In Canterbury a controversy is raging about the dress of students. It began when the Faculty of Law issued a statement ordering all students to wear ties at lectures. This was followed by the Executives' deploring the "sluttishness" of student dress and the start of a campaign for the improvement of the appearance of the students. A competition has been organised for the design of a new Canterbury University tie and blazer. Executive also congratulated Cannon Hall for procuring under-graduate gowns for its students. Not only the students but the staff also were criticised for their "scruffy appearance." There have been the usual criticisms and outcries against these suggestions on the grounds of "enslavement to conformity" and "encroachment of liberty, etc.," but on the whole Exec's attitude seems to be on the whole, supported. As a contributor to "Canta" states "If you want to live in a society then you must be prepared to make some concessions, and if that society sets a standard of dress—then you must conform or go elsewhere."
Chastity: A recent article in " Canta " on the subject of Chastity has sparked off a spirited and heated argument. The writer expressed the view that chastity was no longer necessary in our present society. He argued on four main points—that a "Back to Chastity" movement would only widen the already serious rift in our society between the young and older generations; that a modern husband's objection to the new virginity of his wife is purely the result of upbringing and education, and as it is not a basic fundamental feeling it has no logical strength; that the risk of pregnancy cannot be used as a valid argument for chastity as this risk is not at all accurately known —and finally that the "element of irrationality and hysteria" surrounding the restraint expected from couples in love certainly does not form the ideal basis for a successful marriage. Naturally the article provoked immediate and heated opposition defending chastity on the usual moral and religious grounds as well as the grounds of unwanted pregnancy and the break-up of stable family units so necessary in today's society. Whatever conclusion the writers reach they seem to be unanimous on one point; that the attitude "Sex is shameful, and must not be talked about" is rightly disappearing.
Jolted from apathy to sympathy and the desire to agree fervently with "E. Pankhurst," I'm going to commit myself. E.P. has been reasonable and objective. I am not known for my reasonable qualities and I am going to be subjective.
I demand the right to stick my elbows inelegantly on a caf table and expound my views — in mixed company! I refuse to deny that I am capable of thinking of anything but looking decorative or men on a non-platonic basis, just because a person I am talking to happens to be male and expects me to build up his little ego by being dumbly and admiringly impressed by his views. I demand the right to disagree if I want to, or agree without his thinking I am making a pass at him. I'm willing and eager to increase my own intellect by listening — platonically — to other people, male or otherwise. As it is, the only men I can talk to without having to either act feminine or give up the relationship are those who are firmly fixed to my girl-friends, and even that isn't 100 per cent, satisfactory, men are so naturally unfaithful. All right, so I can't avoid admitting the difference between the sexes; I've had it conditioned into me from the minute I was born. It has given me a different point of view from the male section of society. Well, why can't we exchange views? Does the female view necessarily have to be inferior? Let us all broaden our minds in platonic understanding between individuals.
If I am carrying a lot of things, I am grateful to anyone for opening a door for me. I would do the same for a man, any day. The question of liking being admired does not arise, because I am not admired. Neither do I consider it my duty to always try to look attractive to men. I would far rather be respected for my thinking than chased for my figure.
I'll admit women are often to blame for this situation of non-platonism, too. "Do you 'Go with anyone'?" ask my friends hopefully, when they haven't seen me for a while. When I say no, if I want to go to anything I go, and if I don't, I don't have to, they get worried about me and start matchmaking. Don't I want to get married? Possibly, sometime. But if I have to submit my whole mind to some pig-headed male, no thanks! I will start saving up for a parrot and grow my hair for a bun. It upsets me to see independent, intelligent women letting themselves become indoctrinated in their boy-friends', finances' and husbands' ideas on the way to live or think. Some men even use Kinsey as an excuse, thus twisting their girl-friends' intelligence to their own advantage. "Men are different from women, dear, so " As E.P. says, to hold any other view is just too, too naive. I cannot spell the noise which is the only possible answer to that view.
I like men, of course I do, I'm normal. But I am a serious student, and am not here merely to mark time and find a husband. I'm sure there are many other girls who prefer not to recognise men only on social occasions, but to meet them on equal, platonie terms in intellectual growth, too.
Recent exhibitions range' from a singularly "tatty" showing entitled "The School of Paris" at the centre gallery, to the superlative collection of Picasso reproductions in the Willeston Galleries. In addition the Wellington Art Club is at present holding its annual exhibition in James Smith's Gallery.
The Art Club's exhibition this year presents a wide variety of styles and skill ranging from some very good work of "learners" to work of such advanced scope as R.B. Watson's "The New Model"— a charming, a delightful study, infused with warmth and light, and Kenneth Turner's "Two Begonias and Evans Bay." R. B. Watson's "The Laundress" is another particularly fine portrait.
A dog study, "Trixie," by Lorna McArtney seemed to catch the true pathos of the animal world and was finely executed. There were also, tucked away but why I do not know, two delightful child studies "Sandra" and "Chery," by Noel Goodger which were at the ridiculous low price of two guineas.
As usual there were plenty of landscapes and still lifes. Two particularly fine studies were "Old Homestead Pahuatanui," a watercolour by Gwen Cash more, and Sydney Higg's "Deserted, Perhaps Haunted." The latter perhaps contained a greater depth of insight than any other canvas at the show. It is the sort of picture which is retained in the mind of show. It is the sort of picture which is retained in the mind of the viewer. Tui McLaughan represented by "Old Tree, Island Bay" and "Rural Scene, Judgeford," is a gifted artist in many ways and shows a sensitive inquiring mind in these seemingly fragile, frail studies finely delineated. Valerie Beere's "Morning Practice" fails in my opinion but her "Apre's Dejeuner" is infused with greater life and strength. A study by A. H. Maund entitled "Tewkesbury Abbey" really was first class, showing a masterly handling of depth and light. The only nude study "Nude" by Graham Smith did not really come off at all. Of the still lifes "Orchids" by Olive Hamilton. "Black Mantilla" by Edith Boyes, and Florence Luxford's "Red Roses" were representative. Altogether this exhibition is a very satisfying one and one well worth seeing.
The Picasso showing at the Willeston Gallery, representative of. his work from
The centre gallery's " French School" was an aesthetic insult to anyone who visited it, shabbily got up and vulgarly displayed. Black back drops to motley collections of cheap prints both stultify what quality a print may capture, if any, of the original, and stupefy the receptive organs of the viewer.
Printed by A. B. D. Clark. Ltd., 10a Luxford street, Wellington, for the Victoria University of Wellington Students' Association, Wellington.