Opinion

Have patience with me and I will pay thee all...

Roger Lawrence

— Matthew 23:26

The recent decision of the Publications Board to pay the Editor of "Cappicade 1969" an editor's fee of $100 on top of his writing fees and expenses caused hardly a ripple in the student millpond, yet it is symptomatic of a most disturbing trend in the association, and this is the "I've done the job now gimme" attitude of many of those students who perform services to the association.

I propose first to deal with the narrow issue of whether the "Cappicade" Editor should have received a fee at all; and secondly to examine the broad issue of payment to students in general. I was not at the Publications Board meeting at which the approval for paying Dave Smith was given, having been invited by Turns to join him on his hamburger bar crawl; but I rather fancy the Publications Board is distorting its priorities and not giving due consideration to the precedents it is setting.

I grant that "Cappicade" this year was good. And it made a lot of money. But all the contributors are paid very well for their efforts, and it is a known fact that the Editor always contributes most of the material. Dave Smith was no exception to this fact; he received an amount in the vicinity of $100 for his writing. Editing a "Cappicade" is fun, and for a person experienced in offset printing there is precious little work to be done in the way of layout. As I have stated, the Editor writes most of the copy, for which he is paid, so I am at a loss to understand for what work the $100 editor's fee is claimed; and, more important, how it is arrived at.

Is this sum an arbitrary figure plucked out of the air?

Is it what Dave Smith thought he could get out of Publications Board? How does it compare with what the Salient Editor gets? How many hours does the Salient Editor put into his job for his $500, compared with the hours put into "Cappicade"? Apparently none of these points were raised.

The worst feature of the payment is the fact that no notice of the claim was given until after "Cappicade" was sold and all tied up. What would have happened if it had been a bad "Cappicade"? Or made a loss? Who is to judge the standard of the magazine? The amounts paid for producing such a magazine should be laid down in the budget, so as to give the appointed Editor freedom to produce his magazine as he sees fit, subject to a very general supervision by Publications Board. The claiming of a large sum of money merely because a profit was made is repugnant, especially as the making of a profit is most often dependant on the Distribution Manager.

I come now to the broader issue. With talk of raising the Students' Association fee being bandied about the Corridors of Power, I begin to wonder where the payment of students is going to stop. Helen McGrath did an excellent job organising Little Congress this year. Why not pay her $100 for all the trouble she went to? I am producing a report on capital expenditure on sports facilities in New Zealand Universities. Shall I claim $100 for the work? How about appearance fees for speaking at Forum?

Students, when you lose the attitude of doing things for interest, and succumb to this craven money-grubbing, the absorption of Muldoonism will be complete. New Zealand will be God's own country all right—the God being money.