Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 7, No. 1 March 28, 1944
The President Speaks
The President Speaks
On behalf of the executive and members of the Students' Association, may I extend a warm welcome to those in their first year at Victoria College.
Many of you will no doubt find the Varsity atmosphere a little strange at first. Some of you may perhaps be disappointed. Things are not as imagined—our activities not as exciting as you supposed.
My reply is an obvious one: there has been a war on now for nearly five years. Student activity has necessarily been subordinated to the needs of New Zealand's war effort. The men and women of former years who might have given a lead in College affairs have tackled a sterner task. Hundreds of our students are with the armed forces. For the home front it has been the duty of this College to train men and women for key posts in research and production.
But the tide of fascism is on the ebb and our soldiers, sailors and airmen will be returning to Victoria. As students we have a duty to those who will come back. We must be able to hand over to them a Students' Association which is vigorously alive. While it is our primary duty as students to study, we nevertheless owe it to ourselves and to the community to extend our interests beyond the limits of the University curriculum. The Students' Association provides you with a means to that end. In all our activities there is a place that only you can fill.
And above all, remember that you are the guardians of a tradition for which our men are fighting—a free University.
In conclusion may I, in the words of Kipling to the graduates of the Middlesex Hospital many years ago, "wish you in your future what all men desire—enough work to do and strength enough to do the work."
O. J. Creed,
President, V.U.C.S.A. •