Rise Promised

About the middle of 1964 he had been notified by the External Affairs Department that he would be paid the minimum wage in future. He was still waiting, despite continued reminders to the department of its promise.

At that time he was granted three weeks annual holiday and two weeks study leave.

All the talk and arguing over the last 21 years had created "nothing but bitterness and hatred on both sides," he said.

Pressure on students to live above the level of their Plan allowances were cited by one student.

He told of an Auckland student who found this pressure so intense that he became a freezing worker to supplement his income. Because he took absence without leave from his departmental job, this student was forced to stay a further year in New Zealand.