Procesh—1954 . . .

There's Much to be Said

Procession of 1954 will go down in the annals of the Students' Association among the list of Significant Events. The true importance for Victoria was not the outcome of the incident—that was due primarily to the commonsense of the Wellington City Council—but that we really learned what the city thinks of the student body.

We had never been so foolish as to imagine that the fundamental cordiality of the entente between the civic and student communities in Christchurch and Dunedin would be found in Wellington, but it was surprising to find such a depth of misunderstanding.

Granted that to the hordes of sober, industrious office workers in Wellington a display of noisy and unconventional conviviality is abhorrent; and granted that too many of the participants in past processions have been so mentally immature as to be a pain in the neck to all and sundry—the fact still remains that a leading article in the "Dominion" quite seriously put forward the suggestion that the sinister interests of the undergraduate body were undermining the City Council, and that this suggestion was taken up by a large number of correspondents to the paper.

The suggestion is of the type which is too ludicrous for rational discussion. Unfortunately, however, that does not prevent people with no knowledge of the University treating it with the seriousness usually extended to statements from such a Source.

The suggestion, and that contained in a letter to one of the dailies here, that Victoria is "a hotbed of Communism" (that is a quotation) could do more harm than 2000 students hell-bent on mischief, because they are a perversion of the truth.

To a part-timer who has only one lecture a fortnight it is palpably obvious that pressure groups of this sort could not possibly exist at the College; and it is equally obvious that the people who so lightly made these damaging statements did not have the faintest idea of what they were talking about. There was of course, no concrete example of how the sinister interests or Communist cells worked; and it can only be hoped that the more intelligent readers look for some confirmation before they accept statements as fact.

It was perhaps as well that the statements were not denied officially and that the only reference printed was the satirical one the president made at Undergrads' Supper, because there is no real defence against such statements. You can't prove a negative, and the most sensible course was the Association's ignoring of them.

It was significant that of the many letters sent to the Wellington dailies, about 50 per cent, were mildly deprecating about the themes of undergraduate iniquity, and the remainder, took up the themes and enlarged on them. Belief in such absurdities was rather startling.

On the more pleasant side, there were several bouquets to be handed round.

Primarily, to Mr. Macalister and the Council for taking a stand on a business unimportant in itself, which had developed into a matter of principle. A light touch and sense of humour were required chiefly, and that was Mr. Macalister's strength and Mr. Hardy's weakness.

Secondly, to the Exec., for dignity in a situation where it would have been unsurprising and excusable if they had lost 'their temper. The statements of the president and Denis McLean were the best possible.

Thirdly, to the decorous participants in the procession.

Councillor Hardy is reported as having said that procession was funnier in his day. Allowing for the march of time and the thinning of the Hardy blood, the councillor did have a point there which was echoed by dozens of less senior graduates. Procesh, itself was quite a good display chiefly because more work than usual had been put into the floats. And the main reason for the dullness of the gap between the arrival of Prof. Fadiman and the beginning of Procesh. Itself was chiefly the lack of preparation on the part of the bods who put on individual performances round town. As usual, they relied too heavily on noise; and grass skirts and football jorseys were practically a uniform.

Couldn't we have a little more originality? The year before, one of the biggest successes of Capping Day was the lanky individual who wandered round in a top hot, helping the Traffic Cops; and his success was due largely to the fact that he was more witty than noisy. The citizens who expect something funnier than whitewash and hakas are paying us the compliment of recognising that there is such a thing as academic humour.

There remain two more [unclear: points] First, it was a singularly happy [unclear: circumstance] that Cr. Hardy is called Hardy, which is a fine sort of name, with plenty of atmosphere and/lots of well-recognised connotations. How much more dull if he had been called Smith!

The last point comes under the heading of Incidental Information. It is reported that the Bachelors' and Spinsters' Clubs have lodged an official stake to next year's float demonstrating Victoria College the Hotbed of Communism, and that they have requested the Procesh, controller to request Mr. Kevin O'Brien to to acton another float the salient points of the 1948 "purge."