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Salient. Victoria University Students' Paper. Vol. 26, No. 5. Monday, April 29, 1963

"No More Students" Wails Landlady

"No More Students" Wails Landlady

While student accommodation in Wellington is at a premium, Salient has been investigating a case of students who find flats too easy to get.

Students living in a flat in Central Wellington recently left the premises under pressure from landlady, police and neighbours.

Neighbours allege that students held wild parties regularly over a period of six months, that they made excessive and deliberate noise at all hours of the night.

The landlady said that when she let the flat to two young men the wallpaper, carpets and linoleum were in reasonable condition.

She claims that when the occupants moved out they left ruined wallpaper, filthy lino broken windows and torn carpets.

One room may have to be re-decorated, and the kitchen gas stove presents a formidable cleaning problem.

According to an elderly neighbour, much of the mess was due to "the parties the students held."

"There were about thirty or forty of them in quite regularly. I could see them from my bedroom window." she said.

The students deny this.

One said during the six months they were there only two rowdy parties were held.

Another put the number at four.

They agreed there were visitors in many nights, but claimed the neighbours didn't know the difference between party noise and a few gramophone records.

Local residents allege that when a party was on, it was not unusual to see students "defiling the yard."

Students admit this happened, but claim only on isolated occasions.

"We put notices up all round the house telling people where to go, and we left the light on in the lavatory," said one.

The landlady told Salient when a complaint had been made about a rowdy party, students apologised and promised it would not happen again.

One person, not a student, claims "That is a matter of opinion."

He also claims that other neighbours were much noisier.

"You ought to see what the area is like," commented another.

"They told such lies you couldn't swallow them," said the landlady.

"And the language was so terrible you could cut the atmosphere with a knife." One tenant of the flat admits that bad language was used to an elderly neighbour, but claims provocation.

Not all those involved were students of Victoria. Some were from Training College, and at least one was from Otago. The remainder were, according to one student, "Just a group of bohemian people who don't fit in anywhere. What conservatives call the idiot fringe."

When they left, they left broken down furniture (their own), empty bottles, cigarette butts over the floors, and a remarkable 3-D diagram on one wall. Said the landlady: "I thought there was a shortage of accommodation for students. After all this trouble I won't have students again."