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The University has a shortage of about 91,500 square feet of space. This is one of the facts set out in the report to Council on building and site requirements over the next 20 years. The deficiency is equivalent to 37.6% of the required space, or a building bigger than the Easter field.
In 1965 the shortage will be about 28.8 per cent of the required area. The difference, which takes into account the increased student population, will be due to the completion of the Arts and Library building.
There will be a further easing of the situation when an extension to the Kirk building is completed in
The most spectacular change will come in
At no time will there be a shortage of classroom space. Most of the deficit is due to lack of laboratories and associated areas, staff accommodation, the Library, caretaking and maintenance facilities.
Dr. Culliford, who was responsible for much of the planning told Salient the next five years will be very difficult. It has never been New Zealand's policy to have highly selective entry to University. In this respect we resemble Canada, the USA and Australia rather than Britain.
Planning Is based on this policy, but over the next few years it may be difficult to keep to it, especially in some science subjects.
Halls of residence were also mentioned in the report. The University plans to provide 1160 residential places for men, and 760 for women. An extra 60 will also be provided for members of the academic staff.
Two major areas are proposed for these developments. One is adjacent to Weir house, where five acres of land are held by the University. The other is on a further five acres between Adams and Fairlie terraces.
Each is conceived as a complex of halls. Possibly there will be a variety of types within each, but no decision has yet been taken. The University does not necessarily demand that they all be run under its control. Provided they reach the standards laid down by the University Grants Committee, they could be run by other organisations.
No policy on mixed halls of residence yet exists. Culliford said that since there were only two in the country, the University does not know much about them. He stressed that the biggest problem was providing accommodation for women, and any decision about mixed halls would take this into account.
There is no intention of providing residential places for every student whose home is outside Wellington. First year students will be given preference.
"It is fairly easy to estimate requirements in teaching space" Culliford commented. "Halls of residence are more difficult. There are so many intangibles."
The University has long advocated the establishment of a school of Engineering at Victoria. In
By.1985 this University will have 10,000 students. Culliford pointed out that there is no university anywhere of that size that does not have some sort of specialist school
The character of either school has yet to be determined mainly because there are no engineers here. The University has therefore asked for the opportunity to carry out a fairly thorough investigation of possible subjects to be taught.
The report also considers the questions of staff and student amenities, and points out that substantial expansion of the existing facilities of the SUB will be necessary. This will not be achieved by the construction of the third floor. The report says that though the SUB already occupies one acre, by
Expansion on a similar scale will be required for the Gymnasium, and an entire new building will probably be built. There would probably be specialisation, rather than duplication of facilities.
Boyd Wilson field is already inadequate, and by
The requirements for parking space are expected to grow to about 14 acres in.1985 . This is based on 1.10 student; car ratio, and a 1.2 staff; car ratio. The report points out that while these figures are justified at present, they could change. At the University of Minnesota, for example, parking is provided so that every second person can run a car
The amount of land required will be substantial. The report says that 103 acres of fiat land would be needed to expand the University to its planned size. This is just five times the present area.
Craccum, Auckland's student newspaper, has been taken over by their Executive, according to a letter received from former editor Bruce Babbington.
Recently Craccum published an article by Kurt von Meier, Auckland lecturer on the History of Art, in which he criticised the architects' work on the new £26,000,000 building programme in general, and the Elam Fine Arts Building in particular.
Von Meier described the costly new building as "a masquerade of architecture. It is devoid of human warmth, puerile in a design sense, and if only a Joke or a sporting diversion, then expensive enough to make it a very poor joke indeed."
He said: "It is frustrating in the extreme to think of the maximum possibilities that the building could have been with the exciting programme of a school of fine arts, with rich natural resources and with an incomparable site. It makes one angry to think of the minimum that the building should have been, and all that we have is a grim and sterile forbidding of things to come."
The architects, Beatson, Rix-Trott & Carter and Co., retaliated with letters demanding a retraction from von Meier. He refused.
According to Babbington, the AUSA president Rankin intimated that Babbington could publish the next issue of Craccum. Then changed his mind, assumed emergency powers and appointed a new editor. He said he wanted to control every word in Craccum.
Babbington felt the principles involved—that of free informed criticism—was being put to the test.
It is expected the AUSA will soon publish an "abject apology" (Babbington) in Craccum having already done so on their own behalf by letter.
"The freedom of the University Press has been drastically interfered with," said Babbington.
Last minute information from Auckland reveals the apology has been published.
The attitude of the British press towards the Vassall spy case was strongly criticised last week by Professor Keeton of London University.
Speaking to members of the Law Faculty Club he commented on "the alleged press privilege" of refusing to disclose sources of information. To be forced to do so was, he declared, "just an occupational hazard—the security of the state is the ultimate consideration."
The tribunal investigating this case had discovered serious press abuses. Journalists admitted that stories published as being "on the highest authority" were mere rumours picked up in the House of Commons lobby.
This exposure. Keeton said, highlighted a smear campaign by certain newspapers against Admiralty official Thomas Galbraith, forcing his resignation.
" Who is responsible for the mess in the cafe?" asked Karen Clark, Woman's Vice-President. Karen told Salient that the disgusting mess left on the tables was causing Executive some concern.
"Dirty lunch papers, apple cores, cigarette ash, salt and pepper all over the tables, so much that it is embarassing and discouraging for staff and students, and their visitors to eat there."
"Salt and pepper is for your meal: there are ashtrays for cigarettes, and wastepaper baskets for rubbish. Your food is served on plates and the scraps should be left there."
"It is apparent," she said, "that only when students show they appreciate the facilities and pleasant atmosphere the dining-room offers, is the catering staff going to be encouraged to provide all we would like to have. We must appreciate that no other university has as fine a dining-room as we have.
"Using the cafe as a general meeting room and a place in which to eat cut lunches instead of the common rooms was congesting it, especially during lunch-rush time.
"The sight of the lunchtime mess was discouraging prospective customers, on whom Mr. Levanbach relied to make the cafe financially worthwhile for him," said Karen. She wanted students to realise that they had to play their part in keeping the cafe solvent.
Initiative has been shown by the Judo Club. Instead of waiting to be given money, they got out and earned it.
Requiring a Judo mat costing £300, they raised money by selling cappicades (3100) and holding a dance. The advertising for this, done by Pat Reesby and Ivan Cash was about the most notable part of it. They also received about £100 assistance from Executive.
The Athletic Club, which is attempting to send a team to Australia next year, brought Selwyn Toogood with his Soap show to the Little Theatre. They raised about £25.
The golden rule is that there are no golden rules.
Extravaganza '63 has produced many unfavourable reactions. Most agree that it has lost far too much money, and must not do so again. Some go so far as to demand it be abolished.
There appear to be two different assumptions in these attitudes. Some believe that Extravaganza is a public relations effort, and should be run as such. This implies that unless it has a good script, competent performers and a degree of polish it should not be allowed on stage.
The other view is that the purpose of Extravaganza is to give pleasure and satisfaction to those who take part. Other student groups receive encouragement, financial and otherwise, from the Student Association. The question often asked is "Why should those who wish to produce a revue be judged by different rules?"
These ideas are obviously irreconcilable. The first leads to a demand for the abolition, or substantial revision, of Extravaganza. The second leads, at most, to a demand for better financing.
To decide who is right it is necessary to consider the purposes of the Students' Association.
Are good public relations a purpose of the Students' Association? The answer is no. They are a means of fulfilling a purpose, but they are not a purpose in themselves.
The most fundamental purpose of any Students' Association is to foster and protect the interests of students, both individually and as a body. If students wish to form groups or societies to organise ski-ing, debating or chess, the Association rightly helps them do so. And when students ask for assistance in producing a revue, the Association should also help them do so.
It should assist by providing efficient organisation, perhaps by calling a meeting of those interested now. A script needs to be ready early.
There remain the vexing questions of public relations and finance. How important are they?
What, for instance, are the differences between the effects of a badly-produced revue, a badly-organised procesh., a badly-edited Cappicade, a "badly-dressed" or "badly-behaved" student? All these things make us less acceptable in public eyes, and they have all been with us since time immemorial. They are often the result of people being judged by values which they personally do not accept.
Finance should be a little easier to deal with. The financial problem is a result of staging the show on a scale not justified by receipts. Common sense tells us that it should be staged on a much smaller scale in future, probably in our own theatre. We could spend less on rent, less on labour, and less on badly-placed advertising. The revue could still justifiably be run at a small loss, provided it was a student show. This would mean a complete purge of the non-student elements now dominating it.
Obviously all the headaches produced by Extravaganza could be solved by abolishing it. One effective cure for a headache is to kill the patient! In this case it is not in the best interests of the students or the Students' Association.
Reorganisation should be sufficient.
Reporters: George Andrews, Dale Ashenden, Warren Bourne, Lyn de Bres, Susan Cook, Roger Clarke, Stephen Chadwick, Jock Donavan, Anthony Holmes, Arthur Thorns, Murray Gray, Evan Grogan, Diane Farmer, Hugh Mill, Sue Neville, Pat Norris, Murray Rowlands, Ranjit de Silva, Burton Silver, David Taylor, Stephanie Webster, John Llewellyn, Rowan Buist.
Sir,—Your correspondent Mr. Geard spent almost a column of the last Salient trying to convince us that art is divorced from life. Now I can just imagine Mr. Geard throwing up his hands in righteous indignation at the misconstruction I have placed on his words.
Is it really though? Mr. Geard is at pains to divorce art from protest by delivering us again with that huge generalisation, "the beat" to prove that this species consists or all those in whom art and protest are indissolubly linked. Like Mr. RGL., if he advocates this, he is either blinded by extreme conservatism or indulging in an intellectual sophism. Once the initial founding stone of Geard's edifice is knocked away his arguments are as absurd as RGL.'s.
Jane Austin (a more neat and outwardly conformist figure in comparison with our "beat" generation it is hard to imagine) in the space of the restrictive area she was to limit herself to, was still yet able to voice strong protest at the posturing she found in her world. All good art is a type of criticism, we are not interested if it is not. Chekhov lived as a doctor for the larger part of his life yet his works, written in his spare time, are just as damning an indictment on pre-Revolutionary Russia as are Tolstoy's. But Chekhov was at pains to dissociate himself from political activity.
Geard misinterprets my remarks about the "pretty boys" in the university. By pretty, if we must descend into the field of aesthetics, I mean that these people shape themselves after one part of the romantic image and live as much in its shadow as do some of the beats, their American counterparts. This art is art in a vacuum, of Johnson, a minor Georgian poet, shutting himself in a cupboard to achieve just this effect. The result is a shadow of reality, a type of neo-platonic dream.
But the initial posture means nothing, it is the end result we must judge; whether the dissociation from the actual world is successful in producing good art. In Geard's terms Johnson is a crank to a far greater degree than is the beat, but Kermode and other critics are now more or less agreed the influence of Johnson on the greatest poet of the century, Yeats, was fairly profound.
These men, types of pseuds (there I have used it against my will) to our eyes, had a great influence in shaping Yeats' great art. They were in Cary's terms, artists in their own right, even though some members of this group in London at the turn of the century did not right themselves.
Which brings me to Mr. Geard's last remark. "90 per cent of these explosions which are nothing more than effusions of pretentious and effete poseurs." What Mr. Geard says in fact is "I am not big enough to live with you . . . my cosmos is not big enough to accommodate you . . . I have studied you in my own world and your reactions to it are not the type I associate with artists."
I do not deal with a world of intellectual snobbery and journalistic classifications. I would suggest RGL. and Mr. Geard stop doing so.
Sir,—As a publisher's representative (W. Heinemann Ltd.) and a student of Auckland University I am naturally interested in text-book prices. In reference to your article last issue, I can only say that Peter Blizard has grossly exaggerated any profit a bookshop makes on the text-books he quoted. Apart from the fact that his percentages are a "little" inaccurate, the very fact that he "takes no account of shipping, freight, overheads and student discounts of 10 per cent" shows his research was nothing if not cursory. These charges are what takes the profit out of educational books, Ask any bookseller and he will say that only a big firm can handle this type of book as it is only by ordering large quantities any profit can be made at all. Educational books mean a lot of work for little return per copy.
In setting up a university bookshop, which I think personally is a very good idea, be sure you have noted all angles—including the overheads; these are huge.
These are my own opinions and not necessarily those of my company, but I feel they ought to be expressed.
Sir,—In this country we know so little about New Zealand. I suppose the same applies to you folk in New Zealand knowing very little about South Africa.
I would like to correspond with someone who would care to write to me. We could exchange magazines, postcards and views and ideas about the two countries.
I am 28 years of age.
Dear Sir,—I am intending to go on a world trip round about the end of the year and am at present looking for a suitable travelling companion. I wonder if you would know of anybody amongst the students of your university who might be interested in joining me. I am particularly interested in visiting Australia. Japan and the American continent. As far as means of transport is concerned I am thinking of going partly by car, bus boat as well as hitchhiking.
Engineering students at Waterloo University. Canada, alternate study with experience in industry. Students spend four monthly periods in each sphere. In this way the University can provide maximum use of its facilities and efficiently support a sizeable enrolment without sacrificing academic quality.
The student is better prepared for his lifetime career and can pay a large portion of his University costs through his earnings. At the same time, industry can offer a balanced training programme at reasonable costs rather than operate an expensive training course after graduation.
Do not do unto others as you would that they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same.
Well Fm back from a fortnight of debauchery in my home town, filled with a new sense of purpose. For nearly three years I have mucked around, wasted the morning: of my life, but no longer. To understand this fully you would have to explore the dim recesses of my mind, a feat as yet accomplished by no one save myself and I'm not telling you. The holidays for me are a wonderful period of restoration. I eat and sleep and do little else, except on Saturday, when I got a trifle drunk and did a shabby in front of guests to my father's horror. This was the one blemish in a fortnight otherwise spent studying projective geometry and reading "War and Peace," hemmed in by Desargue and Tolstoy.
Sad to say, though, I have missed out on my "no drink" bet after only four days. One glass, one glass, was all had, but that was enough and I am now obliged to make a donation to Alcoholics Anonymous.
I've Just managed to extricate myself from that big bookshop downtown where they're having a sale. Sales affect me in an odd way. I seem to go a trifle berko and rush round buying tomes on pot plants and Zen Buddhism made easy. My favourite trick is to get the second volume without the first. I did this with "Forever Amber" (which I thought was a manual on traffic control). Getting the second volume home I found the heroine already in bed with the Merry Monarch, which is unsettling to one used to a bit of preliminary byplay. It was worse still with "The Brothers Karamazov." Russian novels are damned hard to follow as it is with all their patronymics and what not. Consequently I didn't try, and it sits unread upon my shelves, a monument to impulse, till I locate a Volume I.
Did you see the photo of Sy Carter in the last issue? A doll like that sort of puts me to shame. If my fizzog turned up in Salient I'd get elected president or something and that would be bad.
Next week is National Slobs Week, a special time for those guys who assert their independence by queue jumping, shoving through doorways, taking the lift for one floor, standing for Executive, going in Extravaganza and generally acting in a manner likely to cause a breach of the peace. I will give a series of lectures on how to avoid shouting at the Midland, handling barmaids and other revolting customs.
Talking of revolting customs; the other day a Weir fresher sighted an animal ambling across his dinner. Poor thing. It took one bite of carrot and dropped dead. They breed 'em tough at Weir! Ross Ferguson has taken to collecting and preserving the more exotic specimens, says it helps him look at things philosophically.
Those posters the Judo Club had for their barn dance were wonderful. I really liked the one depicting Beethoven. In fact, poster art is flourishing in this place. Not like that terrible art exhibition last term. Several of the boys wanted to flog it and present it to the latrine attendant at the Railway Station to give his patrons something to look at.
The Bantu people of South Africa are being educated to serve the needs of the "White Man Baas," not their own. Bantu Education is the education of the Negro in South Africa as distinct from the Coloured (mixed blood) and Asian populations of South Africa.
Prior to
An official publication, "Progress of the Bantu People towards Nationhood, No. 2: Self-Development: Education," said:
"The large majority of those societies had their headquarters in foreign countries, thousands of miles away from the soils of South Africa, and this foreign, non-national rooting often resulted in bad environmental education . . . they were not taught the importance of soil and water conservation and related matters."
The writer continued: "It was realised that the Bantu could only be guided towards a higher spiritual and material existence if the anchoring roots of the true and the good and the beautiful in the people's own culture were preserved and fructified in response to the conditions of modern life."
The South African Government therefore passed the "Bantu Education Act" in
Three kinds of school for primary education now exist:
In all these schools religious instruction is compulsory (as it is at secondary levels also) and occupies approximately 1/13 of the total instruction time. This emphasis is clearly designed to promote docility in the Bantu masses. The medium of instruction is the Bantu language which the Bantu in the area happen to speak (there are seven such languages).
Bantu language study is retained for as long as possible in the child's career, it being impossible, however, to convey higher instruction in such an unsophisticated language. English and Afrikaans must therefore he resorted to (both having been taught right through from primary school).
The aim of this practice seems to be to keep the Bantu races linguistically distinct and disunited as far as possible.
Much emphasis is placed from the very beginning of the Bantu child's education (especially if the child is male), on handwork, gardening, etc, and on needlework for the girls. At secondary school there is increasing emphasis on carpentry, gardening and elementary agriculture.
There are 46 industrial schools and/or divisions with a total enrolment of 2000 in the Union. The aim of this bias towards trade education is twofold: (1) To equip the Bantu to serve the white man as a tradesman; and (2) As a means of implementing the Government's Bantustan project.
The latter project is to be realised as a number of "national homelands"—one for each of the seven main linguistic divisions (they are to be left separate). These states are to be "autonomous" and self-supporting—hence the need for tradesmen of all kinds to build and maintain municipalities in these areas. Eventually, it is hoped that the Bantu can all be shifted to these "Homelands"—thus out of the "white man's hair" and divided into seven. They will thus not be a solid force arrayed against the white man.
The white South Africans are much more subtle than were the Dutch in Indonesia in maintaining their dominant position. In their East Indies the Dutch merely prevented any learning from reaching the East Indian. In South Africa the Bantu are being educated in such a way that they can only serve the interests of the white man, and not their own interests. All this is being done at a minimum of expense to the white taxpayer.
The South African Government is using education to keep the Bantu a subject race. It is not being used to elevate him to educational and political parity with the whites.
A candid picture of what Soviet students think about the demands imposed on their time by Komsomol and Party programmes of "social work" was given in a recent issue of Komsomolskaya Pravda (Moscow).
The author of the article, A. Lazarev, Dean of the History-Philosophy Faculty of the Chelyabinsk Pedagogical Institute, said that students at his institute consider their main task is to study and object to the public obligations loaded on them. He cited a young instructress in the Russian-language department who brandishing her fist at a Komsomol meeting, demanded: "Cloakroom duty! Public order squads! Village expeditions! Work in the gymnasium! Cleaning the auditorium! . . . When do we study?"
Many students, Lazarev said, take a dim view of those who readily perform their "social duties," regarding them as "apple polishers" interested only in currying favour. Lazarev also stated that students conspire to protect each other from election to committees. And there was the case of two students who sent applications to a religious seminary: Their comrades said nothing about it, even though it was obligatory to report them so that the Komsomol could arrange to subject them to a special "refresher course" in atheism.
NZUSA will have to adopt "trade union techniques" to get action on Halls of Residence, said NZUSA Secretary W. Falconer to Council.
Falconer advocated a three-stage "pressure programme" to get a policy statement from the Government:
"One man will need to do a lot of work on this," said Falconer. He suggested that a senior student at Victoria might have to devote all his time to the job.
A motion directing an officer of the Association to develop the "pressure programme" was passed by the meeting on the recommendation of the Internal Affairs sub-committee.
James H. Meredith was not the first Negro to seek admission to an all-white, state university in Mississippi. Clyde Kennard, a native of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, had tried earlier to enter the University of Southern Mississippi. Meredith made it and today attends classes in Oxford; Kennard is serving a seven-year sentence at Parchman Penitentiary, 67 miles to the southwest.
Kennard had studied at the University of Chicago for three years, but in
Kennard hoped to continue his education there. He first applied for permission in
Kennard was told that if he withdrew his application he could select any college in America which would accept him and the State of Mississippi would pay his expenses. He refused.
Governor Coleman then asked Kennard to withhold his application until after the elections. He did.
The next fall,
From the interview. Kennard returned to his parked car and was met by two waiting constables and arrested for reckless driving.
Questioned at the police station, Kennard was suddenly confronted with five pints of whiskey, claimed to have been found in a search of his car.
Illegal possession of liquor was added to the charges. A Justice of the Peace found Kennard guilty; he was fined £200 and costs; an appeal was later denied.
After the
On
An illiterate 19-year-old Negro, Johnny Lee Roberts, confessed to the theft. As witness for the state he claimed that the burglary had been instigated and planned by Kennard.
He attributed to Kennard knowledge of the warehouse and the watchman's schedule that Roberts's own testimony showed Kennard never possessed.
Roberts received a five-year probation sentence. But on his testimony Kennard was convicted of being an accessory to burglary and sentenced to seven years.
In a year and a half, James Meredith may receive his degree from the University of Mississippi.
Clyde Kennard however, will never receive a degree from any university in Mississippi, for state law prohibits anyone convicted of a felony from enrolling in a state institution. Kennard's reward will be another five years in Parchman Penitentiary.
A clause in the recent amendment to the Education Act which permits religious instruction in State Primary schools was decisively rejected at the annual meeting of the New Zealand Educational Institute last month, because It elves teachers the right to teach religion in school.
While supporting the legal introduction of religion in the school syllabus, the NZEI reaffirmed a decision taken in
The amendment enables school committees, after consultation with the head teacher, to provide for thirty minutes of religious instruction daily to be given by voluntary instructors approved by the committee.
This was contrary to the expressed views of the NZEI and also the Commission on Education which studied the problem of religion in schools. Parliament followed the recommendations of the Commission in all but this point.
The Minister of Education, Mr. Tennent, explained that this was because many teachers were already teaching religion and pointed out that the amendment specifically stated that no person is to bring pressure to bear on a teacher to induce him to take part in religious instruction or observance.
The problem of religious instruction in New Zealand schools has aroused controversy many times in the past but few people realise just how great are the obstacles to achievement. All who feel the need for a system of Christian education are aware of the sometimes incredible lack of knowledge of the life of Christ and the Bible among many New Zealand children.
From the teachers' point of view, there are two alternatives. They can either take the responsibility of teaching the children of parents whose beliefs differ from their own, from a syllabus with which they themselves may not be in entire agreement: or they can refuse to teach religion on grounds of conscience, and thus decrease their chances when applying for a position where an applicant who is willing to teach religion will be preferred.
Some teachers, understandably, feel unqualified to teach religion and are reluctant to undertake the responsibility. No-one can be expected to teach something in which they sincerely disbelieve but if the alternative will mean jeopardising his career a teacher might submit rather than limit his chances of advancement in his chosen profession.
As for the parents, their dilemma will depend on whether they feel a responsibility to ensure that their children are educated in the doctrine of one sector scriptural passages and ideas acceptable to all Christian faiths. Probably all New Zealanders believe in the right of everyone to follow his conscience in adopting a creed on which to base his life. So some parents may find themselves wondering if they have any right to indoctrinate their children in a belief which they might otherwise reject in later life if left to choose for themselves. Others may believe that they can provide adequate religious education for their children in the home, and fear that their children will be given ideas with which they do not agree. There are those who believe that the religious teacher's aim should be to present but not to impose faith, that the crystallization of principles should be left to the pupil himself.
This suggests an interesting parallel which was drawn by Adam Gowans Whyte in "The Riddle of Religious Education."
"The primary purpose of every syllabus of religious instruction, agreed or otherwise, is to induce belief in Christianity and the more successful the teacher the more the class will present a uniformity of belief. This method of education in fact bears a strong likeness to the Nazi method of impressing a particular ideology on the plastic mind of youth. In both cases one set of principles is inculcated to the exclusion of all others, and the process of bringing unique personalities to a standard pattern is fostered by daily acts of ritual."
One of the major problems of teaching an interdenominational syllabus is the possibility that children will be confused by apparent uniformity of the various sects and disillusioned when they meet ideas which seem incompatible with what they have been taught, This difficulty arises from attempting to teach a belief without reference to a creed. Eventually they will come in contact with beliefs or practices which apparently contradict what they have learnt.
Probably many people hope that religion in schools will mean a decrease in juvenile delinquency but if half a century of religious instruction in Britain failed to decrease the number of non-practising Christians, much less improve teenage morality, it seems unlikely that it will do so in New Zealand—not in the near future, anyway.
The obstacles to a workable system of religious education in New Zealand are many and one can't help feeling that there is wisdom in the words of Dean Inge: "Religion is normally not taught, but caught, like measles, from someone who already has it."
USA: The University of California in San Diego has chartered the 9000-ton German passenger ship Seven Seas for two world cruises as a "floating university" from
The Americans plan two approximately four-month-long cruises for the ship, each with 500 students on board.
During the voyages the students are to be able to continue with their studies.
Korea: Three hundred students met recently at Seoul National University to adopt a declaration attacking the Government as "corrupt and inefficient" and vehemently opposing its proposals to continue military rule four more years.
The students made it a clean sweep by opposing a solution "under duress by outside forces"—a reference to attempts by the United States to find a solution to the South Korean crisis. But the impact of the statement and speeches was plainly meant to fall principally on the military Government. Student leaders said that unless the military men took quick steps to get themselves out of power, students would take "direct action" and organise street demonstrations. Three years ago, the students of South Korea established themselves as a force to be reckoned with by sparking the revolution that overthrew President Syngman Rhee. A year later a military coup destroyed the elected Government of Premier John M. Chang and since then little has been heard from the students because of a ban on political activity imposed by the junta. But lately students have been meeting in small private groups to thrash out their stand. Some of them, in minority, support the military regime and have been receiving encouragement from it. Most of them are filled with contempt or anger towards the politicians, whom they accuse of having made a mess of Korean affairs when they held power.
Maoris are being discriminated against in North Auckland. They are only allowed into the Public Baths on Thursdays—the day before the water is changed.
Father Haley revealed this when speaking to the WAC Camp during the holidays.
He also told of an instance where the head office of a bank refused to employ a Maori. A teacher had told a bank manager he had a bright pupil who wished to go into a good job. The manager declared that he would greet anyone with open arms. When told that the boy was a Maori, the manager had to refer the matter to head office, who would not employ the boy.
Father Haley said Maoris were becoming unfairly regarded as an inferior social group. Of the 90,000 under 16 many were moving to the towns. Bad housing and a high crime rate resulted. This shift and its consequences was a trend throughout South East Asia.
The Pakeha's theoretical ideas about the Maori were not realistic. Important sociological and psychological trends needed to be taken into account.
"The Hunn report was a disaster," he said. "The lack of sociologists had made it one-sided. Its professed policy was integration, its real policy was assimilation.
"New Zealanders give Hindus and Chinese the impression they are here on suffrance," said Father Haley at the WAC Camp.
They were becoming a race apart in New Zealand. The problem they present cannot be solved by ignoring them. Like the Maoris, they found difficulties in putting their talents to use. Graduates worked in greengrocer shops. Father Haley said he knew of one Chinese who worked in a bank serving only Chinese customers. There is probably similar discrimination against them by banks and large businesses.
New Zealand had a very clever White New Zealand policy, concluded Father Haley recently. Whenever there is an emergency overseas, she is always in first with an application for a couple of hundred refugees to care for.
In this way she gains a very good name overseas. But when a non-Britisher wants to come to New Zealand he finds it very difficult. Applications have to be made to the minister, who never publishes how many applications are received and rejected.
Neil Walker resigned as Returning Officer at the end of May. Ian Harland was appointed in his place.
"Money—what else?" sent student Stephen Gooder up the pole for a fortnight. Supplementing prize money with income from advertising, he cleared more than £30 a week at the Trades Fair.
Weather was bad, so most of his first week was spent in the sleeping-bag he was advertising. Another exhibitor's radio was a useful asset. Food was supplied by his father every morning, but hot dogs, waffles, ice-creams etc. were freely available to him.
Gooder said he "got on all right," but would not reveal anything about sanitary arrangements up there. His only comment was "that's a trade secret you can't let out."
It was moved at a meeting of the University Sports Council on May 29 that a levy be exacted from all students to pay for overseas sports teams.
The motion ran: "That this council recommends that the VUW delegates to NZUSA strongly support the motion that a levy from all students be raised for a sports fund at the NZUSA Winter Council." It was passed with the dissent of two delegates.
The amount, about 1/6 per student, would be to aid teams for overseas tours.
If this amount were levied from all students in New Zealand the sum of £900 would be raised—enough to send three students at the most on a good tour.
" Not worth the space" is Armour Mitchell's comment on the proposed University bookshop. He felt that the city bookshops' service could not be bettered, and it distressed him to see so much work being done in what he considered to be the wrong direction.
A Committee investigated the bookshop proposal in
Many difficulties in obtaining books were, he said, directly attributable to VUW staff members who changed their textbooks about a week before the Calendar was printed. Ordering time for textbooks is about three months, so city shops would have anything up to £500 tied up in useless books. They might be able to sell these off at cost in a later sale, but meanwhile the £500 has not earned anything. This sort of business leads to conservative buying by shops.
Agencies had been considered, but both single-agency and consortium arrangements had disadvantages.
A single agency would give no guarantee of reasonable prices, and a consortium would pose problems in allotting quotas where two or more firms had agencies for the same publisher.
A student-organised bookshop at Canterbury was run out of business by the city's principal bookshop, which now has the Canterbury agency.
Mitchell suggested the possibility of supplying the SCM bookstall with new books might be investigated and that in any case they should be consulted.
During a recent lecture, the lecturer used the word "um" a total of 235 times. This is a rate of more than four times a minute.
"Palestine: Between Jews and Arabs" is to be the subject of a talk by Mohammed Juma, B.Sc. (Cairo) on Thursday, June 20. in the Common Common Room.
Juma said: "I notice that New Zealanders know this problem from the point of view of the Jews. I should like to make it clear on an historical and political basis, that the real problem is quite different to the prevailing conceptions in this country."
Under the auspices of Unesco, Juma is studying for a Dip. Ed. at Victoria.
Four law students were marooned on the Desert Road over Queen's Birthday weekend. Hemi Ale, Vaega Simeona, Herbert Clarke and Colin Fairwood were returning from Auckland got bogged in snow at 7.30 pm, and were rescued thirteen hours later by the army. They spent their time snow fighting, sleeping and pushing the car.
Miss "Annie" Abo, the Japanese girl graduate who fell from the stage of the Little Theatre last week, is fully recovered and continuing her tour of New Zealand.
The four graduates, Miss Abo, 23; Miss Kozuko Vujii, 22; Miss Makiko Yamanashi, 22; and Miss Fumiko Adachi, 22, were touring the University under the auspices of the International Club when the accident occurred. They had lunched in the cafeteria, and went on to visit staff and honours students in the English Department. Three of the girls are graduates in English.
The girls are going on to stay in Te Awamutu on a farm for a week and then finish the New Zealand part of their tour in Auckland. They sail home from Sydney and arrive in Japan at the end of July. The tour was partly sponsored by the Graduates' union of Kobe College, where the girls all studied.
Footnote: ex-Sauent staffer Rob Laking, who lost four teeth in his plunge over the edge of the stage, disclaims all heroism. "I didn't step into the concert pit until a full minute after Miss Abo fell," he says.
The £300 bond overseas students are obliged to pay to the New Zealand government may be revoked. At the Easter NZUSA conference a remit was passed asking, that the Minister of Labour abolish this restriction.
Foreign Students should be able' to enter New Zealand without unnecessary restriction after they were admitted to the University, continued the remit. This includes the right to be able to come here without stating living quarters several months before the academic year.
An attempt will be made by Executive to persuade the City Council to allow an all day collection during Procesh next year. It is also hoped that lectures will be cut on the last day of term.
A better Procesh and a bigger] collection would then be possible. Dr. England has indicated than Science Terms may be placed so as to prevent clashing.
The format of VUW degree certificates is to be examined by a Council Committee under J. C. Beaglehole. The Students Association Executive has urged the] committee to place a seal on the certificates. Moriarty felt the criteria was that the degree looked presentable enough to hang on an, office wall.
Bruce Middleton and Robin Bell polled well in the bye-elections. They now hold the respective positions of Social Controller and Public Relations Officer until the General Election. Middleton will then assume the Vice-Presidency of the Students Association (being elected unopposed), but Bell will be facing the voters again. Four students are standing for the position.
Murray Rowlands defeated Jill Shand for Cultural Affairs and Ian Frater narrowly defeated Irvin Hart for Capping.
The first of these two articles outlined the steps that were taken to establish Federation. The assumption underlying it was that the strategic, economic, moral and social grounds for going ahead outweighed the strong African opposition in Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland. This opposition was based on the fear that under Federation, Southern Rhodesian native policies, which were far less liberal than those of the Colonial Office in the other two territories, would be made to prevail throughout. No amount of persuasion was able to shake the Africans in this belief.
The Federal structure was therefore designed so as to make it unlikely that the Africans' fears would be justified. This was done by making such matters as African education, African agriculture and land tenure, and African customary law still the responsibility of the Territorial Governments, and by transferring to the Federal Government such matters as had always been of main concern to Europeans, e.g. finance, defence, external affairs, higher education. In this way native policies as they had been developed over the years in the three territories would not be disturbed.
The Federal Government itself was pledged to a policy of "partnership." Partnership as a concept was never defined, but in practice it was taken to mean the gradual advancement of the African to a position of equality in all spheres with the European. If this ideal had been achieved, or had seemed to Africans to be in process of achievement, the resistance to the Federal structure might have been overcome. In fact it seemed to most African leaders that the ideal would never be achieved—hence the mounting resistance leading to the ultimate break-up.
In fairness it has to be said that a great deal was done, but not enough to invalidate the African Nationalists' cry "Too little, too late." In fairness, too. It has to be said that the problem was exceedingly difficult. African society, even in
If any blame is to be apportioned for this, most of it must fall on the shoulders of the Europeans and their political leaders. They failed to grasp the opportunity which Federation gave them to remove racial discrimination, to break down cultural barriers and above all to institute crash programmes of African training and advancement.
No wonder it seemed to the best disposed Europeans that it would take generations of patient tutelage to make any real impact on this. What they failed to realise was that the change had already begun and was moving apace, but was being frustrated at many sensitive points by European attitudes and assumptions. These sensitive points became the rallying points for the Nationalists and they were not slow to build on them. Nationalist parties had existed in all three territories before Federation. In those days their aim was independence of colonial rule; now their target became the end of Federation and the retention of colonial rule for a while, before the granting of full independence.
In all this, of course, they were much influenced by what was happening elsewhere in Africa. Everywhere there was to be seen the pattern; Colonial dependence;—violent conflict;—full independence. The Pan-Africanist movement, lead by Ghana, gave cohesion and purpose to the efforts of the Nationalist parties, in Rhodesia and Nyasaland no less than elsewhere. The play of these forces is to be seen in the line up of the political parties which have existed under various names since Federation. Parties are basically racial in composition, with the liberal or centre parties tending to be multi-racial.
Mr. Field's party was elected to office by a predominantly European electorate in
African parties are all nationalist, i.e. they wish to overthrow European dominance so as to achieve power themselves, and then move on to independence of colonial rule. Thus there is no important difference in policy between the Malawi Party led by Dr. Hastings Banda (Nyasaland), the United National Independence Party led by Mr. Kaunda (N. Rhodesia), the African National Congress led by Mr. Nkumbula (N. Rhodesia), and the banned Zimbabwe African Peoples Union led by Dr. Nkomo (S. Rhodesia). Differenees, where they exist between these parties, rest almost entirely on tribal affiliations.
European parties hold to the view that African advancement at best must be slow and gradual and that for some years ahead control must be in European hands. This is the basic policy of the United Federal Party (UFP) led at the Federal level by Sir Roy Welensky, and at the territorial level by Sir Edgar Whitehead (S. Rhodesia), Mr. Roberts (N. Rhodesia) and Mr. Blackwood (Nyasaland). A more extreme European party in S. Rhodesia, the Rhodesian Front Party, led by Mr. Winston Field, denies that Africans will ever have full control of government in that territory.
The centre parties believed in a rapid handover of power to Africans, but with full European support, and hence without racial recriminations on either side. Such was the Liberal Party in N. Rhodesia led by Sir John Moffat and the Central African Party in S. Rhodesia led by Mr. Palmer (formerly by the New Zealander, Mr. Garfield Todd). The past tense has to be used in describing these parties since they were both wiped out at the last elections and have now disbanded or in process of doing so.
The background to failure is therefore basically the unwillingness of the European to accept rapid African advance. Because of this African fears of Federation were not allayed and African Nationalist leaders were able to use the fears to build up their strength to the point where the British Government had to accede to their demands.
It must be said, nevertheless, that however culpable European intransigence appears at a distance, it is rooted in long experience of working with a people still very primitive by modern standards. The new states will not have an easy passage. Black government will not necessarily mean good government, nor is it all impossible for the unhappy experience of the former Belgian Congo to be repeated across its borders in the Rhodesias. People in such a situation cannot be blamed too severely for being reluctant to entrust their lives and livelihoods to untrained and untried political leaders whose philosophy up to now has had a large measure of hatred in it-even though the lack of training and some of the hatred is attributable to their own lack of positive action in the past.
The worst that can happen to the three territories is that the Congo experience is repeated in the northern territories and the Algerian experience in S. Rhodesia; the best is that out of the ruins of Federation there may come at last a genuine sense of partnership.
It is not necessary, I hope, to underline which way men of goodwill will wish to see things go.
Etchings and engravings by Kees Hos, a Dutch born graphic artist, will be on show in the Activities Room SUB., 17-22 June.
The New Zealand Communist Party has become as conventional as any other NZ political party. Some recent developments make this obvious.
At the annual meeting in Auckland recently, the party, observed by foreign visitors, resolved to seek political power through elections. It has subsequently been announced that the party intends to nominate 35 candidates in this year's general election and we can assume that this is intended not only to obtain radio broadcasting time or to contribute deposits to government funds. The old concept of a small band of activists has been replaced by that of the conventional political party.
Ron Smith, a member of the Wellington Party Executive, was asked, following an address to the VUW Socialist Club, whether the party was still 'revolutionary'. His answer was in the affirmative but its substance was changed by his definition of 'revolution' as no more than 'a rapid process of change.' He further shrugged off any suggestions of violence, conspiracies etc. as misapprehensions. The 'revolution' occurs after the party obtains political power through the usual channels.
There seems no doubt that this is the official policy of the party. It probably has been so for some time—the chances of a coup by the NZ Communist Party have been zero—but the party is contesting elections with a new vigour.
The conclusion to be drawn from this is that the Communist Party is not a collection of members of a violent sub-species of man but one of several political parties seeking power through elections along with the Labour Party the Social Credit League and the National Party. It should be regarded and treated as such.
But, it may be objected, the CP man is an agent of a foreign power—or as some would put it, of the enemy power.
With reference to the Sino-Soviet dispute, it is not possible to distinguish the origin of direction of the NZCP. At present secretary Wilcox is an honoured guest in Peking (Dominion 27/5/63) while a party of six delegates to visit Moscow has been announced. The somewhat independent stand of the party, principled or not, indicates that it is not rigidly controlled by a foreign power.
No doubt, the CP would like to institute in NZ a social and political system similar to that found in the USSR, but the method which it has chosen to adopt is not 'treasonable', 'seditious', unloyal' or any other word which the Constitutional Society might use. It is a policy to be put before the NZ electors in the same way as that used by the Labour and National Parties.
Some members of the party might be involved in espionage, and as the Wynne case has shown all major powers have their espionage systems, but we cannot condemn the Party for the actions of individual members. And the Party executives, striving to attain respectability, can be relied on to keep far away from this somewhat obnoxious but useful practice.
But it may be further objected, Russia does not allow non-Communist parties, why should NZ allow a Communist Party?
The answer to this lies in the difference between the basic philosophies of NZ and the USSR and actions in NZ should be in accordance with the philosophy of NZ and not that of the USSR.
The NZ political system is so constructed as to allow any candidate to contest its elections, parliamentary or otherwise. While there may be justification in prohibiting an organisation pledged to forcibly overthrow an elected government, there can be none in condemning members of one of several parties contesting elections.
Can we conceive a Communist government? It is a most unlikely occurrence, and to my mind fortunately so. But if a Communist government were elected, its actions could be Judged only by the programme it had offered during the campaign. It would be Illogical to condemn a government for doing what it had been elected to do.
This raises the joint problems of so-called "majority dictatorship" and of one generation dictating the environment of future generations. But these are also involved with the parties that currently form NZ governments and it seems reasonable that the CP should receive the same treatment.
And the wider question of a Communist Government is also hypothetical—non - Communists and anti-Communists can trust to the implicit good sense and to the persistent emotional antagonism of the NZ elector.
But the Communist Party should be recognised as another political party. The actions of the mob in Auckland that led to the headline "Violence Flares in Auckland. Melee In Anti-Red Demonstration" (Dominion 15/4/63) must be condemned. The CP policy must be attacked in political campaigns and discussions, not with violence, and should be met with rational arguments and not emotional smears. The use of "Red" in the above headline has more purpose that the mere conservation of space.
For fear of misunderstanding, I restate explicitly the theme of this article. It is that the CP is one of New Zealand's numerous political parties and that it should be regarded and treated as such. A Communist is a person with certain ideas, not a subversive, lower-order animal. But this is in no way to be read as advocating support for the CP or its policy.
Alexander Lebedev, member of the 1961 Soviet Student Delegation to New Zealand, recently wrote about his Southern Hemisphere experiences in the Communist bloc magazine. World Student News.
Lebedev's remarks make interesting, sometimes amusing, reading.
After a flying visit to Auckland the Delegation flew to the far south. Describing a Dunedin party, Lebedev wrote:
"At last they've come!" cried one fellow happily before we had so much as entered the room.
The expression on his face suggested that he'd been waiting several hours for us. He wore a loud coloured shirt with a bow tie. Prom under a jockey cap a bright face beamed at us.
"Do you have jazz in the SU?"
"Yes, we do," we answered cheerfully as we looked around. In three small rooms where Austin, a post-graduate student and lecturer of Otago University, lived there were over 30 people.
"Hurrah!" cried the fellow joyfully, "they have Jazz."
"And do you play rugby?"
"Hurrah!" he shouted exultantly.
"Colossal chaps!"
It was very difficult for us to push through the crowd, to get from one room to the other. Luckily we moved in the right direction. Though a guitar could be heard in the next room, we made our way to the place where hot dogs and beer—standard student refreshments—were being served. To be honest, some took hip bottles out of their pockets now and then and had a gulp or two. Meanwhile, in the corridor, something slightly resembling dancing began; and we, finishing off our hot dogs, were already deep in a discussion on whether the western powers sincerely wanted to solve the problem of disarmament. We noticed that the fellow who had so cheerfully greeted us on our arrival was trying to push through the crowd with a full glass of beer, to ask another question. But by this time we were too far away—in another corner of the room-singing and dancing. After a few hours our hosts discovered that dawn had broken, so everybody went home.
There was also a serious side to the Russians' Dunedin stay:
On the morning before our departure we were taken to New Zealand's best school of dentistry—one of the best in the world, we were told again and again. There we were welcomed by the director, Sir John Welsh, who greeted us heartily, speaking both as Director and as the President of the New Zealand Association for the United Nations.
We made a brief tour of the school, at the end of which we found ourselves at the Medical Faculty where refreshments were to be served in the anatomy theatre. As the door opened a foul smell exhaled from a large adjoining hall. We stood hesitantly at the open door. At last Otari and I poked our noses into the hall, but went no further. Then Elvira (our only girl delegate) bravely stepped over the threshold into its horrors and odours. She was a picture of imperturbility as she approached the dissecting table around which sat medical students in relaxed poses, calmly smoking cigarettes. Her inspection was a success.
Next day a local sheet—named Truth—ran a short article about the visit of our delegation. The newspaper could find nothing more interesting to report about our 3-day stay in Dunedin than a notice that Elvira Astafeva had fainted on entering the anatomy theatre. We were not surprised.
After visiting Christchurch, Lebedev was taken to Lincoln College.
In the evening 350 students and post graduates, along with about 10 lecturers, gathered in the small assembly hall to meet us.
A curious procedure preceded the gathering. Three boys in raincoats and hats sat in the front row. Each hat bore an inscription "Pravda," "Tass" and "The People's Voice." We thought there would be a performance. Before 10 minutes had passed five boys in raincoats with turned up collars and hats over their eyes entered the hall. They approached the three unfortunate Press representatives, tied their hands behind their backs and drove them from the auditorium. In block letters on the back of the leader of the five were the initials FBI, The audience roared.
After the meeting we saw sheep, pigs, and finally some cows as well. Not being agricultural specialists we appreciated the explanation given us:
"Our agricultural production is very high," said a tall, spectacled, intelligent-looking man. "It's well mechanised. Also we're fortunate. Since the climate on our two islands is varied, we are able to grow a great variety of crops. But cattle breeding takes first place."
"And sheep?"
"Sheep, yes but dairy cattle is most important."
"Our milk, butter and cheese." added a student, "are very cheap." At that moment we were passing a small dairy owned by the college. "That's true." continued our guide, "but the reason is that the dairy industry is subsidised by the government, so dairy prices are below cost. The government is well compensated by export profits. But we don't know what the future will hold. Great Britain plans to enter the Common Market, and most of our export goes there."
"It's not clear yet." added another.
"But if they do decide to join," the tall man continued, "most of our farmers will be ruined."
"Wouldn't it be possible to send some of our wool and dairy products to the Soviet Union?"
"Your government should sign an agreement with ours," we suggested.
"Who? Mr. Holyoake?" the man looked despondent.
Finally the Russians visited Wellington.
The small quaint boat Maori took us through Cook's Gulf to the capital of New Zealand.
Our journey was coming to an end. At Wellington, as it turned out, we still had to do battle with Moral Re-Armament representatives who couldn't resist "honouring" our meeting with Victoria University students by their presence.
Only 300 gathered in the hall, as lectures were on at the time. Most of the people remained silent, but six or seven dispersed among the audience did not even wait to hear the answers to their questions before they shouted others. Tension was relieved when one shy student, after having his hand up for 40 minutes, asked: "What's the price of a pair of shoes in the SU?"
We spent our last two days in Wellington, an impressive city overlooking a harbour—said to be one of the finest, most beautiful harbours in the world. Mr. O'Regan, a well-known doctor and active worker for nuclear disarmament, has a house with a view on to the gulf and the legendary Cook's Estuary. As I looked out I recalled the very many friendly encounters with New Zealand students, staff and members of the NZ-USSR Friendship Society. I also thought of the speech of the venerable "Old Man" of the opposition, Sir Walter Nash, delivered at the last reception given in our honour. Members of the party in office, the National Party, had also been invited: I don't know why they did not attend. Sir Nash spoke of his visit to our country and tried to recollect the surnames of Soviet leaders. At the conclusion he drank a toast to friendship and co-operation.
Next day the rain was so heavy and the wind so strong that it seemed that in a moment all the wooden houses of Wellington would be swept into the ocean. Mr. O'Regan prayed for our safe landing. The radio announced that Britain's ocean liner, the Canberra, had been unable to enter the harbour for two days because of the storm. We felt little hope for our flight, but went to the airport nevertheless. It was raining cats and dogs; despite the weather, the plane was scheduled to leave.
The hour of departure had come. Graham Simpson came over to us and put a small doll into Elvira's pocket: "Remember when you first came I said that in Europe and even in Australia people think us uncivilised and uncultured? Please tell them your opinion."
Dear Graham, the people of Europe and Australia have much to learn from your wonderfully hospitable, pleasant and kind people.
Swami Premananda, distinguished Indian writer and philosopher, recently delivered a brief series of lectures in Wellington.
His ideas, though clearly based on Hinduism, appeared to embrace all major religions; a synthetic approach typical of Indian philosophy. At the lecture I attended, he began by explaining the idea of Atman, or the Self.
Almost all Hindus believe in the existence of God in two aspects, Brahman and Atman. Brahman is the changing universal unity, and Atman is the portion of Brahman present in every individual.
The Swami illustrated this by comparing Brahman to an ocean. The drops of water which are splashed on the shore are like Atman, that is, though not actually part of the ocean, their composition is exactly the same as the ocean's, and through evaporation, rain and rivers they eventually return to their original source.
He continued: "Thus each person has a part of God within him. Christian scripture expresses a similar idea when it says 'God created man in his own image.'
"You need only realise fully your unity with God and you will be freed from internal conflict and doubt.
"If you act completely naturally, without any affectation at all, the divine presence will show itself unhampered in all your actions."
The Swami saw five basic desires which are common to all men of whatever race or state of civilisation; the desire to live, to be happy, to be free, to know, and to be respected.
These are fundamental because they follow naturally from our association with God. We desire to live because God's expression of himself is in life (Atman).
We desire to be happy because happiness is the natural expression of the divine. (The Swami thought that people are incapable of desiring misery.)
We desire to be free because God is competely free, unrestricted by space, time or anything else. We desire to know because the knowedge of God gives knowledge of perfection.
We desire to be respected because the source from which we came is the highest one and most worthy of respect.
"Desires are meant for you, not you for them." the Swami said.
"Those who become enslaved by their desires are caged, and this in turn conflicts with the wish for freedom. Wherever desires are present, conflict ensues. Those who desire something from God will receive nothing, those who seek God alone will recognise him."
The Swami claimed that civilisation is in continual conflict because men are not satisfied with one another.
"How can they be satisfied with their fellow men when their internal doubts mean they are not satisfied with themselves?" he asked.
The Swami continued by attacking the affectation of modem civilised life.
"People think the art of living is to seem, not to be. They paint their faces so thickly that soon the true face disappears leaving only the paint.
"The real way to live is to free yourself from inhibitive desires so that your personal divinity can manifest itself through good actions."
The Swami's address was free of the wearisome solemnity which characterises many Christian sermons. He laughed, joked and conveyed throughout a vivid impression of his own contentment.
The newspaper industry in many Western countries is in a very unhealthy state.
Recently the Manawatu Times, a Palmerston North newspaper, closed down. Certain sections of the Press, particularly the more right wing ones, have been intensely angered by it. But it is not surprising that they should be disturbed. Nor is it surprising that they have not inquired very deeply into the matter.
Newspapers are owned by fewer people today than ever before. They have increasingly assumed the characteristics of big business. The present structure of the Press is a relatively recent event, and its origins worth considering.
Advertising outside the Press developed very rapidly during the nineteenth century in England. Hoardings and posters became so numerous that steps had to be taken to limit them. Sandwich board men had to be confined to the gutters to avoid congestion. This was all part of the development of display advertising, which became very important to industrial England.
Northcliffe and others, such as Newnes and Pearson, saw this new display advertising as the key to a new financial structure of the Press. As an alternative source of revenue, it made a reduction in the price per copy possible, leading to larger circulation, and eventually to larger profits. By about
The profits of the large circulation papers increased, but those of the smaller papers declined. It became easy for the large ones to take over the small ones, and close them down. At the same time, as the growth of literacy created a wider newspaper reading public, the choice of newspapers grew more restricted. London, for instance, had nine evening papers in
Since the last war the process of amalgamation has accelerated. It was held up a little by the rationing of newsprint in England. This meant that lack of space caused larger papers to reject adverts that went to the smaller ones.
Consequently, when rationing was lifted in the late
The introduction of commercial television has made things worse. Some newspapers acquired interests in Television companies, and made large profits. Others saw their advertising disappearing as ITV gained more and more viewers.
The papers that closed did not do so because no one would buy them. Their circulation proves this. They closed because they were not suitable as mass media for advertising.
In New Zealand these trends have not been nearly so pronounced. Many newspapers face little competition.
In many centres there are at most one evening and one morning daily. Advertisers, like readers, have little choice of paper. The process of amalgamation is thus slower, but it still takes place.
The closure of a newspaper in Palmerston North may have little effect on Weilingtonians. But it has a great impact on the people of Palmerston North. It is the smaller centres which are always likely to suffer.
A provincial newspaper has a much more limited circulation than a metropolitan one. It is as a consequence likely to be less secure financially.
Notice, too, that most foreign news comes through the NZPA. The smaller newspaper not serviced by this association is poorly placed to get overseas news. It is therefore not equipped, either editorially or financially, to compete with the larger papers.
It seems unlikely that the range of newspapers available to the New Zealander will Increase. In some cases it will continue to contract, particularly if TV takes a larger share of total advertising revenue in the future, as overseas experience would indicate.
A Southern Student Newspaper Editor, who has advocated integration of his university despite threats and attacks from fellow students, his university, the governor of his state and the Ku Klux Klan, was honoured recently by the national federation of college newspaper editors. Melvln Meyer, editor of the University of Alabama "Crimson and White," was named "outstanding student editor of the year" by the United States Student Press Association for his "courageous and significant contribution to American student journalism." Following the printing of an editorial condemning the politics of Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett in the James Meredith affair which also called for integration in the South on "moral, legal and pragmatic" grounds, Meyer's life was repeatedly threatened in anonymous phone calls, a cross was burned on the lawn of his fraternity house, and the university was forced to hire two bodyguards to protect his life.
There's been a marked fall in the barometric pressure of the Capital's fine arts world: It's pretty dull and overcast at the moment.
Poor showing by Leonard Mitchell and John Loxton, a lowering of tone at the Academy and a singular lack of activity in the Centre and Willeston Galleries have all contributed to an unwelcome lull.
Acting on the assumption that in the kingdom of the colonies the Englishman is king, our erudite and ivory - towered overeign, Herbert Read, arrived on a blaze of glory and departed without trace. Still, we can read his books as well as he can, and those of us with a modicum of common sense hardly view him as that saviour his enamoured adntrers would have him painted.
Although us Colonials may lack Sir Herbert Read's old-world sophistication and veneer, we are less inclined to clamber aboard that author's band-wagon—a band-wagon which, one might add, has conveyed its unwitting English passengers down the garden bath to nowhere. Although Sir Herbert managed to jump off this vehicle of the
In espousing early in his career the cause or modern art, Sir Herbert Read backed some of the right horses; but this year's winners are often next year's "also rans." The shifting sands of public and critical opinion are indeed treacherous, and in the last few years Sir Herbert has become bogged down: no longer does he hold sway over critical opinion in England.
In fairness to Read we must point out that he works in difficult times, and that he is not so much a practising critic as a philosopher and aesthetician: a polymath de nos Jours.
All the same, Sir Herbert Read places an alarming reliance upon the crutches of ratiocinative reasoning and psychology in his work, crutches which, in my opinion, bear about as much relationship to art as logic to the law.
Apart from a patronising nod to Mr. Peter Tomory, Sir Herbert Read was singularly reluctant to comment publicly on the standard of New Zealand painting (apart from an approving salute to that sure-winner Prances Hodgkins).
Moving on to the artists, Leonard Mitchell's exhibition at James Smith's was extremely disappointing; and not unexpectedly so. One cannot but concur with the comments of Russell Bond on this showing. I think that contrary to the suggestions of Mr. Leo Panning, Bond did more than justice to Mitchell.
This artist's work is uniformly flat in its tone; there is little or no feeling for perspective, and Mitchell's colour sense can only be described as "peculiarly enlightened"—but enlightened in a horrible manner. Harsh, incongruous and poorly thought out colour combinations are hardly likely to find favour with the buyers.
On the other hand, Mr. Loxton did find such favour. Unfortunately the publicity build-up describing this man as "one of Australia's leading painters" was complete eye-wash. However, he is a technically competent artist whose water colours are far superior to his oils studies. The latter were really quite trite: they did not hold for me the depth Mr. Bond saw in them.
This year's autumn academy showing was very patchy. Thirty or so works from the exhibition were recently shown in the Centre Gallery which, apparently, has now a new set of people running it. There's been nothing in that Gallery worth noting since we reviewed Sylvia Lovell's work.
One work included in the Academy's showing was Evelyn Page's Lambton Quay study, a work by an artist of considerable competence and originality but not, I felt, a successful painting. The large spreading tree which takes up the great part of the picture does not seem to be a coherent part of the overall design: it obtrudes in an unwelcome manner. However, I gather this work was bought by the Dunedin Art Gallery (or was it already their property?)—G.L.E.
Coal Flat by Bill Pearson, Published by Paul's Book Arcade. 421 pages, 21/-.
The latest local novel has just been published. Already some critics have acclaimed Coal Flat as the Great New Zealand Novel.
This is unlikely, but author Bill Pearson, an Auckland English lecturer, has written an absorbing and technically polished novel about New Zealand's delinquent West Coast.
Coral Flat is essentially the story of Paul Rogers, a young teacher returning to the Coast in
Author Pearson has written a book conforming closely to the modern definition of a novel—the interaction of ordinary people in a community.
He has done so successfully, too. Coal Flat explores in breadth, depth and subtlety the relation of an individual to his community.
Most of the book's characters are convincing and very human. None are whitewashed. Occasionally, though, there is a jarring note. Pearson's description of the old, diehard Labour M.P. Omalley worrying about his substantial brewery share holdings does not ring true.
Few novelists are as equally at ease describing both men and women as Bill Pearson. Two women—Lil Palmer and Miss Dane-are possibly Coal Flat's most convincing characters.
Many of the situations in Coal Flat are ordinary and everyday, but the novel is never humdrum. The West Coast, although part of New Zealand, is in almost every way a little different., This strangeness, perhaps product of the ruggedness of Coast life, makes the book compelling reading, for New Zealanders at least.
Pearson's style, simple and lacking descriptive passages is in perfect keeping with the novel's Coast background.
" Ski With Me," by Ruedi Wyrsch (Whitcombe & Tombs, 6/6).
My first thought on coming to the end of Ruedi Wyrsch's booklet "Ski With Me" was how short it appeared.
Even though it may be short, it certainly covers all the basic skiing techniques essential for beginners. With the use of "Mr. Instinct" it helps those, who can ski, remedy some of those ever present problems.
The booklet is virtually a precis of the teaching methods which have been employed at Mount Ruapehu and in the South Island for the past few years. With the use of diagrams it covers all the rudiments of skiing from walking to the stem christiania without jetting too involved technically. It is the sort of booklet you could put in your parka pocket and refer to while on the mountain.
I would recommend this booklet to anyone wishing to learn to ski, and to those who already can ski, but with a caution to beginners: it isn't always as easy as Wyrsch sometimes indicates.
Miss Florence Jones, lecturer in English at Victoria, has accepted a Fulbright Fellowship to the University of California.
Miss Jones will be doing graduate work towards a Ph.D. at Berkley, California. She represented the NZUSA in an exchange visit to Russia in
She will probably stay at an international hostel in Berkley and plans to write a thesis on Hebrew Language themes in 17th century English literature, following preliminary study in two modern or classical languages. She will join the university for their fall semester in September.
The appearance of a Kurt Weill revival in the recorded music world is salutary: there is a dearth in this man's discography which rapidly needs correcting.
Philips are producing a number of recordings (Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahogany, Happy End) in their Modern Music series, and now from E.M.I, we have a disc of Dreigroschenoper excerpts (33MCX 1814 SAXM 2460) played by the Philharmonia under Otto Klemperer. This is definitive playing—Klemperer was responsible for introducing the original suite in the 20's—of a rumbustious nature: the orchestra being augmented with sax, piano and blocks. Three indecisively phrased Strauss pieces take up the reverse side. Apart from some toppy violin sound the recording is excellent. Surfaces are good and separation in the stereo clean.
Fernando Germani, one of our greatest exponents of Bach, has recorded three Toccatas and Fugues and the G minor Fantasia and Fugue on World Record (TZ 707). I find his playing of the D minor Toccata a little rushed, and a general tendency to overlook certain passages (notably in the Fantasia) and overplay others.
Richter's recording of the Fantasia is in all ways more solid and pleasing. But not to quibble The tone of the great baroque Alkmaar organ is exquisite and as distinctive as is that of Richter's Victoria Hall. The fundamentals and harmonics come through with exceptional clarity: intermodulation distortion is nil.
Representing the cheap series this week, we have a recording of the Beethoven Violin Concerto. It comes to us from the Concert Classics division of H.M.V. (XLPM 20043) and is played by Alfredo Campoli with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by John Pritchard. This is by far and away the most successful concerto disc yet undertaken by Campoli. It holds well in a competitive field (I prefer the dated version of Kulenkampf) and tops all other 'cheap' performances. Campoli's playing is purr and sweet, his technique brilliant, his phrasing clean. The orchestral accompaniment is adequate with the soloist perhaps a little forward—anyway, balance between the two is not the best.
Some little heard works of Bach and Handel have been put onto record (MALP 1804). some for the first time. In an enterprising disc. Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau sings with harpsichord and cello accompaniment the Cantata 'Amore Traditore' by Bach and two Italian Cantatas by Handel. The baritone is in typically fine voice, his execution of lyric and diction stable and clear. The gentle contrast, between voice, cello and harpsichord is well defined, and when in Handel's Trio Sonata in D minor the Instruments are joined with oboe and flute, the result is playing and recording of exceptional taste and calibre. Fischer-Dieskau's singing is in the heroic style. Wholly recommended.
Beware of the man whose God is in the skies. What a man believes may be ascertained, not from his creed, but from the assumptions on which he habitually acts.
The American Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Mr. W. Averell Harriman, gave a press conference in Wellington recently. Salient was fortunate enough to get an invitation and jumped at the opportunity to have a look at what big time journalism is really like.
The result was not comforting—New Zealand journalists cannot handle big time journalism.
What was said at the conference is stale news now, so I will endeavour to give you my subjective impressions. I will give you my comments, not on the news, but the news conference.
At the door of the spacious ambassadorial mansion the ambassador's wife greets me. I am the second to arrive and feel it is rather by accident than design that I meet her. She hurries on before the rest of the press corps arrive leaving them at the mercy of the press secretary (a New Zealanden.
I am shown into a room and introduced to the Australian Broadcasting Commission representative. Helping himself to one of the Embassy's cigarettes. ABC confides to me that they reckon ANZUS is fairly important over the other side of the Tasman so they flew him over to cover it. ABC says he has been to every press conference Harriman has given in Australia and New Zealand. He's a good talker and hard to pin down says ABC. But ABC has some stiff questions lined up because he needs a new lead for the Australian news bulletins.
ABC is busy talking about the time he went to New Guinea when Miss Thames Star is introduced. She relates the difficulties she had getting here, travelling all night through the floods. ABC pricks up his ears. Things are pretty quiet in Aussie right now and he could use a flood story. Pity he didn't bring some TV cameras.
When everyone has arrived, about 25 in all, we are ushered into a more palatial room and told to sit where we like. The NZBC all sit together, one gets the impression they are trying to surround the Press Association which is represented by one solitary figure.
An embassy official introduces Mr. Harriman. He is a tall dignified figure—but you have done your homework you know he was born in
The embassy official says the conference will begin with the photographers "making their pictures." While the cameras flash Harriman tells the photograpers how important they are.
When they have finished, the photographers go out—the official tells them they can. When you look to the door you see half a dozen burly characters in suits looking not the slightest bit interested in proceedings. These, you assume, are security men.
Harriman starts to talk. He is glad to be in New Zealand, he has heard of the fishing. There is no place in the world like it. He knew General Freyberg well during the war. The Ambassador is an old friend and he is glad to have the opportunity to come here for the ANZUS council meeting. ANZUS means a lot to the United States, he says. The treaty put into words the feeling of mutual interest and friendship which is in fact a reality, he says.
Harriman speaks slowly and deliberately. He never stumbles.
Now comes question time..The Dominionin its wisdom asks Harriman what his present job is. Harriman says he is Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs, It takes him a bit longer than that to say it, but in substance that is what he says.The Dominionthanks him gravely
ABC wants to know what the matters of deep mutual concern affecting ANZUS are. Harriman says the aggression of Communist China in South East Asia is one of the principal concerns.
Not to be outdone NZBC pipes up. It wants to know if there are links between defence and trade. Harriman says the United States has a million men abroad and this causes an unfavourable balance of payments. The United States would like to reduce this.
Now it is the NZBC announcer. God bless him. He tells Harriman that Harriman knows a lot about Laos (a fact which Harriman presumably knows and which he later says he knows). NZBC announcer then says the trouble in Laos is that "you have these warring factions." (Another point With which Harriman is likely to be familiar). NZBC announcer then wants to know why the United States supports one of these factions and why aren't they left to fight it out by themselves.
Of several inane questions asked at the conference this is probably the silliest. Anyone with a slight familiarity with United States foreign policy knows that the USA will support neutralists against communists. With a few embroideries, this is the answer Harriman gives NZBC.
The Corporation knows its own business best, but it can hardly expect to improve its news coverage if it admits announcers, untrained in knowing what makes news, to important press conferences with visiting statesmen.
However, if it made a bad blue the NZBC redeemed itself. In the privacy of the ambassadorial study R. J. Harrison of the Victoria University Political Science Department recorded an interview with Harriman which was used on the point of view programme.
Harrison asked in very skilful manner a series of questions, the answers to which revealed a good deal about American foreign policy. Harrison wasn't afraid to ask Harriman about racial strife in the United States, something the newsmen shied away from.
Back to the conference. Auckland Star was a young and earnest journalist, eager to get on. He asked about nuclear tests. Harriman pointed out that the United States was against them, and was negotiating for a ban!
NZPA wanted to know about the handing over of Dutch New Guinea to the Indonesians and the United States attitude to it. Harriman said there was nothing to indicate bad faith on the part of the Indonesians.
NZBC apparently could not understand that answer and asked a further question about Indonesian expansionalism.
Evening Post caught up with things at this stage and asked about nuclear tests again.
The Student Press then asked why the United States did not recognize Red China.
The Taranaki Daily News was interested in the Federation of Malaysia, it wondered If America was. It wasn't.
South Pacific News wanted to hear views on the differences between Moscow and Peking.
When the Embassy official said there would be no more questions Harriman concluded with a well constructed speech on the need for increased interest to combat Communist aggression in the Pacific.
We left the Conference feeling sorry for the New Zealand journalists. They had been outwitted. Harriman has no doubt been through a good many press conferences. The chances are' he never had a tamer one than this. He was never ruffled. One had the impression there was not even a question that made him think. He had covered all this ground before, something the journalists would have known if they followed United States foreign policy.
I was gratified when the The Dominon used the question The Student Press asked about Red China for its lead on the press conference story the next morning.
Bill Dwyer, head of the Anarchist Society, has all but disappeared from the campus.
"I am not attending lectures at the moment," said Dwyer, "I found that with the responsibility of a wife and two young children it was impossible to find time and money for university study. At the moment most of my time is spent earning a living. I have a small business of my own and by next year I hope to have made enough money to resume lectures again."
The Thursday night meeting of the Anarchist Society is still being held, according to Dwyer. They still get a good attendance regularly, although with exams approaching this has dropped slightly. There are almost as many downtown people attending as there are students, said Dwyer. The two groups, one from the university and the other from outside, work closely with each other.
Dwyer should be attending lectures again next year. In the meantime his life seems quite organised, provided there is "no drastic turn of events."
" What does the United States hope to achieve by not recognising Red China?"
That was the question a representative of the New Zealand student press put to the United States Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Mr. Averell Harriman, at a recent Wellington press conference.
Harriman said that recognition of China would only encourage Red Chinese aggression.
China did not conduct herself according to the rules of international behaviour, said Harriman. Her ruthless attacks on India, Korea and other countries were adequate testimony to this. All free members of the United Nations condemned this attitude.
Internally the Government at Peking was incompetent, said Harriman. Their great leap forward had ended in collapse.
Harriman said there were deep differences between Moscow and Peking. But he did not think their alliance would break down completely. There is a fundamental difference between the two in attitude, said Harriman. Moscow was not interested in being involved in an atomic war. China demonstrated a willingness to take much greater risks.
But what was unforgivable, said Harriman, in the eyes of Moscow was the unwillingness of Peking to recognise Moscow as the oracle.
"Peking is offering alternative leadership to International Communism."
Salient comes out late this week in view of the elections being held on Monday. The Constitution of the Students Association requires that Salient does not appear on polling day. This is to prevent voters being influenced unfairly.
As the lack of lecture halls and laboratories at academic institute has become unbearable, the students of Vienna have again demonstrated to remind the public and government of this alarming condition which may lead to a castrophe.
Two years ago they went on strike for the first time, asking for a larger cut of the culture budget. The demonstration was repeated last year. But its result-was nothing more than a complete jam or traffic within the city of Vienna.
Salient's Austrian Correspondent
Though the government was generous in vain promises of quick help, the state budget was over-strained by the demands of farmers, officials and trade unions, so that not enough money could be procured to support culture, and education in an adequate way.
The last demonstrations of May 15 and 16, however, could not find the approval of the public. They led to some serious transgressions and excesses in the course of which a few students were arrested for wanton damage of cars and trams.
Even the Students' Union, which kept its distance from such transgressions, criticising them sharply, is to blame in so far as it left the: guidance of the demonstrations to radical elements which only wanted to make riots.
Dr. Heinrich Drimmel, Education Minister, commented: "We shall demand 63 new professor ships for the coming year. The administration of education will once more demand more rooms, more academic teachers and better conditions of study from the government in the coming budget."
Extravaganza does it again. The balance sheet presented by Finance Controller Dennis O'Connell indicates a probable £762 loss with all bills paid. This will be mitigated by an uncalculated capital expenditure (reusable gear).
Receipts and payments are:
Bills still to be paid will form the deficit. Rent is expected to cost £450, advertising £200, and properties £50.
Printed by Truth (N.Z.) Limited. 23-37 Garrett Street, Wellington, for the Victoria University of Wellington Students' Association.