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Salient. Victoria University Newspaper. Volume 38, Number 14. June 20, 1975

New Argot Frolics

page 16

New Argot Frolics

When Bruce Kirkland told NZUSA Council that they didn't realize the implications of their actions in stopping New Argot, little notice was taken of him. However, time has shown that he was right. A well-co-cordinateed campaign to discredit the NZUSA decision and for the reinstatement of New Argot went into operation within days of the desision made at the May Council.

Salient has already commented on the motions brought forward to Stanz Council the next weekend condemning the NZUSA decision and the fact that they were already shelved. We should also have mentioned that the person responsible for these motions reaching Stanz Council was a certain Roger King; one of the three constituent reps on the Arts Council Executive Board (which runs the day to day affairs of the Arts Council). The motions that reached Stanz Council were not the result of spontaneous student disgust but the result of the actions of a member of the Arts Council Executive Board.

The next vociferous opposition also came from Auckland (Roger King is from Auckland Primary Teachers' College) as letters from various literati and academics flooded into NZUSA condemning the decision made at Council. People were at a loss to explain this phenomenon until one person made the mistake of forwarding the form letter he received from the ex-editor Kaye Turner with just the scraw led comment that he agreed with the sentiments (see letter opposite). Apparently Kaye Turner, who had taken on the job under the assumption that it was to last at least a year, has been writing to various people in Auckland asking them to complain [unclear: so] NZUSA. The notable thing about her letter is that it mentions only one side of the argument. Don Stedman told me that, in fact, Kaye Turner was not aware of the negative feedback from New Argot. It seems all she heard was praise. This is unfortunate because no report of the NZUSA Council was ever published in Craccum (the student newspaper in Auckland) and few of the people who received Kaye Turner's letter would have any idea of what really went on at Council. On its own, of course, Kaye's letter seems quite reasonable.

Finally, (if there ever is a finally) down in Wellington Bruce Kirkland produced a report on the 'implications' of the demise of New Argot.

The report is a collection of emotional half-truths designed to discredit both NZUSA and those who desire to see a national student newspaper. In a later article I will attempt to counter the arguments contained in this report and give some positive suggestions as to the feasibility of a national student publication. The major good point of the report is that Kirkland accepts that the NZUSA decision to stop New Argot is constitutionally binding.

Dear Mr Ardley, Please find enclosed the latest New Argot. You will note that the editorial has been prominently placed, and outlines a political threat to the paper. I must inform you that this threat has now been realized, and the New Zealand Students' Arts Council has been ordered by its parent body, the New Zealand University Students' Association, to cease publication. This order came without consideration for the employment of the editor and her expectations for at least one year's work, the interests of teacher training colleges and technical institutes who received the paper, the expectations and interest of leading New Zealand writers and photographers who had worked without remuneration to establish the paper, the appreciation of the paper's wide reading public. The order came in spite of clear progress towards the financial stability and self-sufficiency of the paper, and the lack of major management problems. The order came without any clear alternative publications being suggested, let close endorsed. The order, made largely from political pettiness, shortsightedness, and an arrogant belief in censorship, has curtailed a publication that could have become a leading and necessary light for New Zealand literature and arts. It ends the tradition of literature begun by Argot, New Argot's predecessor - for years counted among this country's important magazines. A move is being made, by those associated with the production of New Argot, to protest the NZUSA order - hopefully, to have that order reversed. Please help by writing to the President of NZUSA, outlining your disappointment over this senseless action: Mr Alick Shaw, President, N.Z.U.S.A, P.O. Box 6368, Te Aro, WELLINGTON KT:MA Yours sincerely, Kaye Turner, EDITOR NEW ARGOT