For Freshers Only

Freshers, we bid you welcome to Salamanca, the place where some of you will continue your education and others will begin it. For it is safe to say that on account of the requirements of the University Entrance Examination, the school life of many has been given a hopelessly academic bias, when it should have been concerned with developing in the widest possible fashion, their interests in non-academic things. In your 5th and 6th form years when you should have been learning how to paint, to write verse, you have been learning Latin verbs. When your emotional development urged that you should spend considerable time listening, say. to the "New World" symphony, you found it necessary to listen to "geometrical illustrations of algebraical identities"—about which no one really cares—————or to the subtle intricacies of "sine a" or "tan theta."

But good people, the point is this. You now have the chance to restore the balance. You will find up here activities which go far beyond the process of learning and which provide for your full development. Those who played all the usual games—Rugby, Hockey, Basketball, Cricket, Tennis, Swimming, Athletics and so on—who are interested in the physical side of their education, will find clubs to cater for their needs.

For those who incline more to the outdoor life, the Tramping Club (which at the present time, thanks to efficient management, is enjoying a successful period) offers an excellent form of activity. The Dramatic and Debating Societies should receive your patronage: and you should lose no opportunity of using the latter to air your grievances and voice your contents.

Thanks to Mr. Andrew Carnegie and Dr. J. C. Beaglehole. you will be able to listen to some excellent music on the College audiphones.

Last, and we are afraid least upon the scale of educational media, comes the lecture system—that is. the inculcating device used within these walls, A lecture has been defined as "The name for a fifty-minute process whereby the notes of the professor become the notes of the student without passing through the minds of either." Whether that is true or not. you will soon be able to judge.

In the meantime, we would point out the difficulty of making a pre-arranged division of your time. Experience alone will enable you to discover what attention you can afford to pay to other activities beside "swot."

One thing, however, is certain, and that is that if you are to resist successfully the fossilizing effect of your studies you will for your own sake, need to take part, in as many different activities, and to lead as full a life, as is possible.

If you need information, or to talk over unofficially with an older student who might help you. questions related to your life at V.U.C.—anything from lectures to "digs," call over to the "Salient" room and ask for the Editor. He'll be only too glad to help if possible.

Now that you are here. "Wikitoria" bids you welcome. Its resources are at your disposal. Go to it freshers!