Other formats

    Adobe Portable Document Format file (facsimile images)   TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

Salient. The Newspaper of Victoria University College. Vol. 20, No. 3. April 12, 1956

NZU Drinking Horn and the future

NZU Drinking Horn and the future

It is unfortunate that the NZU Drinking Horn contest should have been the subject of so much unfavourable publicity in the daily press recently The event has now become a tradition of University Tournaments and is not likely to disappear in the near future.

The perturbing fact is, however, that much of the criticism of the manner in which the contest is conducted is entirely justified. The Drinking Horn this year was a disgusting shambles, and it was little worse than others in past years. It took place in a popular public bar and was witnessed by scores of Wellington citizens, who presumably went away with a very poor impressin of our University.

We do not wish to have the contest banned, as has been suggested by one of the daily newspapers. But if it is to be conducted in a public bar there must be considerably more order and organization than was in evidence this Easter. And a certain amount of decency should be maintained in what is not in itself a very civilized sort of competition.

This college and the University as a whole have not been highly regarded by the citizens of Wellington in the past, but there have recently been indications that relations between the city and VUC have been improving. As students of the college we should endeavour to encourage this trend. Nothing but harm, however, can be done by a public display such as the Drinking Horn contest ten days ago.

The amount drunk by many competitors and spectators at the Drinking Horn is quite excessive. The end of Tournament is naturally a time for celebration and a certain amount of imbibing; but it should be remembered that the girl who enjoys being taken to the Tournament Ball by an escort who is recovering from a long afternoon's heavy drinking is the exception. At a rather liberal estimate it would not seem necessary to drink more than a dozen glasses of beer, provided the contest and trials are properly organized.

Nor should it be necessary to strip to the waist to drink. We are aware that some spillage is allowable and inevitable, but if the contestants must be shirtless let them drink elsewhere than in a public bar.

Much of the disorganization this year was due to the incredible amount of noise made by competitors and fellow-drinkers; despite his walking around on the bar counter and almost screaming directions, the "Controller" (sic) was only able to increase the bedlam.

At future Tournaments it is to be hoped that a minimum of publicity be given the Drinking Horn contest. We can scarcely wonder that the press turned up in force for the event when it figured prominently in an advertisement on the outside of the Tournament programme as well as on inside pages. The darker the event be kept in future, the brighter will be its prospects of remaining a hallowed tradition in the University. The only alternative is a complete official ban on the competition.