New Zealand students are far too prone to merge themselves entirely into the New Zealand community, which already suffers from being one large undifferentiated mass.

This is the opinion of Mr. N. W. Kingsbury, who spoke recently in the Memorial Theatre on "Students in Society." Mr. Kingsbury spent three years as the chief organiser of the activities undertaken by COSEC, the permanent secretariat of the International Student Conference, which has its headquarters in the Netherlands. He is now Assistant Registrar (Academic) at VUW.

In the course of his work with COSEC, Kingsbury visited national unions of students in many parts of the world. He now considers that students in New Zealand influence public opinion far less than students in most other countries. This is mainly because New Zealand students do not feel any special responsibility as students to their society. They do not feel they are being fitted for any special role of leadership. They do not take action on things in society which they feel should be changed. This is not to say that students in New Zealand should be organising political revolutions or stoning embassies. This sort of revolution is not what is needed in New Zealand. But New Zealand does need strong voices to make our community more critical—in town planning in mental health, in our attitudes to the Pacific (he commended V.U.W.S.A.'s work in promoting awareness of the problems of the Cook Islands), in our international politics, in our race relations, in our architecture. Students are almost silent on national issues.

He contrasted this with many of the newly emergent countries where students played important roles in struggles for national independence or against dictatorial regimes. He illustrated this by discussing situations in Angola. Algeria, Spain, Paraguay, Hungary, East Germany, the Dominican Republic, Iraq, Turkey, and Korea, where students believed so strongly in their ideals that they were prepared to sacrifice their lives for them.

European and North American national unions of students also seemed much more conscious of the responsibility of students to their societies than was the case in New Zealand and Australia. It is expected that the universities will produce leaders of the community, not just in narrow specialised fields, but leaders of thought, of public taste, critics of public bodies, innovators and reformers, upholders of freedom—people who are not afraid to slick their necks out. As well as aiming at a high level of student welfare, national unions in North America and Europe interested themselves in the situation of students in other countries. They are more conscious than we are of the problems in Angola, South Africa, and Paraguay. Kingsbury described how the Norwegian National Union of Students pressed their Foreign Ministry to take up the cause of Southwest Africa in the United Nations.

Challenge

New Zealand students appear not to feel the responsibility to give any kind of leadership or to make their voices heard on national issues. Only in an atmosphere of challenging ideas will we get the good leadership we so badly need. We need better people writing editorials, planning housing schemes, organising fisheries, and training our teachers. We need better informed and better educated people running our local bodies and sitting in our Parliament. A society needs leaders: the leaders of tomorrow in New Zealand are more likely to be the Young Farmers and the Jaycecs of today than the students. Of course not all New Zealand's leaders should come from the universities; but students abdicate their responsibility to the New Zealand community if they do not offer some leadership. If students do not feel this responsibility now how much less will they feel it as graduates busy with their jobs, preoccupied with their house mortgages, and using their leisure to wield a concrete mixer. In all aspects of public life—social, cultural, educational, political, economic—this country badly needs strong informed voices. The newspapers show how few of these voices there are.

It is common to hear people cite as a reason for their apathy the low level of New Zealand's politics—as if. Kingsbury said, they can contract out of New Zealand politics! The only political clubs which in the universities seem to be acceptable are those associated with parties unlikely to be successful at the polls. Mast students will vote either Labour or National—but will they try to influence the policies of those parties? A National Club or a Labour Club could hammer out bright ideas for acceptance by the Parly caucus.

It is generally recognised that because of our isolation we very much need the stimulation of other people's ideas and the help of other people. In the past, this outside influence has been supplied largely by the United Kingdom and the "old' Commonwealth. This is valuable and must be maintained, but not to the extent of slavish dependence. New Zealanders must also look at other patterns and other ideas. Our young people should not think only of going to London for overseas experience, but should also think of work in Asia (perhaps with Volunteer Service Abroad); or study at an Asian university, or at a university in Germany, Switzerland, France. Italy, or the Netherlands. Especially, perhaps. New Zealanders should look to the Scandinavian countries. We largely share their social ideals and their economic and political problems, and there is much that we could learn from their achievements.

Great Possibilities

Kingsbury stressed that he did not intend to be only critical of things in New Zealand. There was much that he valued greatly; for instance, the fact that our universities are open to people of every economic and social background. He considered that a great deal of nonsense is talked about the welfare slate—what was wrong with New Zealand society had little to do with free and universal education or social responsibility of the members of the community for one another. There is much freedom in New Zealand. Students enjoy a great deal of freedom—they can themselves choose their course and their university; They can say what they like, go where they like, and live how they like. It was precisely because New Zealand had such great possibilities that Kingsbury fell it to be of the greatest importance that university people should oiler leadership in the New Zealand community at large.

Since New Zealand is so affected by its isolation, since its people are such an indifferentiated mass, and since every country needs the stimulus of challenging ideas in all fields and at all levels, university people because of their opportunities have a responsibility to keep New Zealand alive with ideas, to provide a challenge to stodginess and mediocrity, to provide, as it were, a window on the world.