"You and Salient"

In the final issue last year, readers mourned the shocking absence of student opinion in Victoria University. The complaint was that Salient is no longer what it is purported to be—"an organ of student opinion in Victoria University." Nineteen-sixty was not the only year when Salient experienced criticism, however. Earlier SalientS have been subjected to attack also—sometimes in rather vile terms. And Salient 1961 will probably be no exception.

But it must be realised that criticism is always appreciated. For the student body of Victoria must understand this: Salient is your newspaper. You, and you alone, can make it, or destroy it. "Student opinion" refers to your opinion, and not that of someone else. This includes the opinion of freshers. First-year students must, from the very beginning, learn to cultivate the desire for self-expression in writing. Do not wait until you are a second, or third year student. Refrain from following the footsteps of some of your inglorious predecessors—pathetic beings too timid to reveal their thoughts. (Perhaps these characters had no brains to think with.) As for the older students, those who have in the past allowed their brains to become inactive, wake up! Let us cry, "Awake! Awake!" Tell us those bad, bad thoughts. Announce to the world your opinions of executive, sex, religion, sin, science, alcohol, anything

Readers! We must all learn to live, and not remain insensitive to stimulation. We must learn to meditate, to perceive the world around us. Furthermore, we must remove that inhibition, that ghastly fear of being ridiculed for being different from our fellow beings. If we endeavour to do all these things, we will have a better Salient.

B.T.M.