Sept. 23, 1966

Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of VUWSA.

Illegitimacy — from morality to meaning ?

It Is Well-Known to New Zealanders that every tenth baby in this country is born outside marriage—illegitimate in the common sense of the term.

But the so-called modern morality problem is posed much more sharply by less well-known statistics.

In New Zealand, in 1964:—

• over 27 per cent of first confinements of women took place outside marriage.

• approximately one bride in four was pregnant at the time of marriage.

• for brides under 21, approximately 40 per cent were pregnant at the time of marriage.

These figures, from Department of Statistics figures, show unequivocally that those who still base their ideas of immorality on ex-marital sexual intercourse are lost in a dream world of words.

Their arguments may well be valid and indeed probably represent a desirable standard —but they are irrelevant to the conduct of modern society.

They offer no solution to the needs of the children—and only add to the agony of many of the mothers.

The demands of the illegitimate child and the unstability of the "shotgun" marriage are challenges to New Zealand society. Each year, the proportion of marriages which break up grows slightly—at present, one in every 11 New Zealand marriages ends in divorce.

Alienated from current morality, threatened by a shifting society which places security at a discount, young New Zealand is ever more living today as if there were no tomorrow.

It may yet be possible to create a society which judges human relationships on values more meaningful than a statistical analysis of reproductive habits.

But the will to do so is not apparent.—H.B.R.

Verwoerd's death: wrong but just

By Paul Johnson of the New Statesman

The Conventional Tributes paid to Verwoerd's "honesty," "sincerity," etc., strike me as nauseating. One might have said the same about Hitler (whom the Doctor greatly admired), who was certainly sincere in his attempt to exterminate the Jews. We should remember that Verwoerd was the chief architect of a fundamentally evil system. All that can be said on his behalf was that he was more anxious to apply the system logically than most of his followers; his failure to do so infinitely increased the suffering of his victims. But he must be held responsible for Sharpeville. His regime inflicted unspeakable cruelties on thousands of South Africans, white, black, and coloured;

It kept them in prison without trial while their families starved; it condoned tortures, beatings, and judicial murder; it did its best to wreck South Africa's free press and the rule of law; and covered all these activities with a repulsive veneer of humbug, derived from the debased form of Christianity in which Verwoerd believed. That he was knifed to death in the parliament he had debauched seems entirely appropriate. Violence is wrong, even when inflicted on those who rule by it. But too many tyrants die in their beds; and many of us, if we are honest, will admit some satisfaction that, for once, natural justice has been done.