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Salient: Victoria University Students' Paper. Vol. 28, No. 12. 1965.

New Plans for NZUSA Seminar

New Plans for NZUSA Seminar

Plans for the major NZUSA Seminar on the South Pacific are now being revised, to allow for a small pilot-seminar next year, and a major internation seminar in 1967.

In reporting to NZUSA Council the International Vice President, Miss Helen Sutch, admitted that NZUSA had done some soul searching over the original concept of the seminars.

In planning for a major seminar by next June, provision was not made for the massive organisation and financial effort required to carry it through effectively. Sources of finance had proved intractable, and skilled help for arrangements had not been forthcoming.

Otago and Victoria delegates expressed dismay at the present state of the budget and organisation. The idea of conducting at short notice a major seminar with a minimum cost of some £10,000 seemed to require more effort than NZUSA could possibly afford at this time.

An item of £4000 for study tours in the proposed budget caused some comment. At a rough cost of £150 per student, a quick estimate shows that upwards of 20 students would be travelling around the Pacific before the Seminar.

A Past-President of NZUSA, Mr. Michael Moriarty, in outlining what he considered the ideal scheme, said that a small seminar next year, of 20 or 30 delegates billeted out and supplied with little more than coffee and biscuits, would constitute an adequate pilot project.

To this seminar would be invited experts on aspects of the Pacific, and NZUSA's study tour participants. A three-man team is at present conducting a comparative study of education in American and Western Samoa, and further tours are planned this summer for Fiji, New Caledonia and Indonesia. A two-man specialist team from Lincoln will, if finance allows, study agricultural production and marketing in Samoa and Fiji.

Miss Sutch is to compile a report on the financing and administration of the major project now envisaged for May, 1967. After ratification by each University, the scheme will be submitted "in toto" to UNESCO for a consideration as one of their regional projects.

Should the Pacific Seminar be accepted for sponsorship by UNESCO, experts would be invited from around the world to participate. NZSPA.