[unclear: n] Open Clique

I would like to try and reply to the letters and [unclear: cles] that there have been recently critcising [unclear: lient] and the 'Salient clique'.

Now, at least up until recently, and perhaps [unclear: en] now, I had little difficulty accepting that [unclear: re] was such a clique, and it was because of this [unclear: at] I did not support the motion of no [unclear: fidence] in Mr Tees at a recent meeting. [unclear: wever], I also believe in putting my money, as were, where my mouth is, so decided to [unclear: ually] come and work on Salient in order to [unclear: d] out the truth for myself.

Perhaps at this stage I should also clarify my [unclear: n] political position. I am not, firstly, a [unclear: munist] or a socialist: the genocide commited [unclear: ring] the invasion of Tibet and other [unclear: munist] atrocities have decided me on this [unclear: int]. However, neither am I right-wing. I think [unclear: m] a conservatist Buddhist, which includes a [unclear: ge] of opinions, some of which would be [unclear: sidered] extreme right-wing and others as [unclear: eme] left-wing in terms of current western [unclear: ught].

Having gone into Salient and 'blown up' [unclear: grily] at some communist articles printed this [unclear: r], I thought that I would have some difficulty [unclear: ng] accepted. Instead, I found that my [unclear: ons] and willingness to help were accepted [unclear: d] even welcomed. I found no evidence of [unclear: munist] 'blackballing'.

So, I would like to make one thing clear: I find [unclear: bturd] that a letter or article says that Salient is willing to tolerate or encourage alternative [unclear: wpoints], when I am spending hours helping [unclear: t], proof-read, lay out and so forth such [unclear: cles]. Getting Salient out may involve me, with [unclear: ers], staying up till one a.m. or over in the [unclear: rning] and spending a lot of time laying out [unclear: cles] criticising Salient in very objectionable [unclear: ms]. But I do it, and think that the others here too (and there are people of all political [unclear: des] here), because I strongly believe that each [unclear: son] should be allowed and encouraged to [unclear: we] his (or her) say. I would very much like to [unclear: e] those who criticise putting effort into the [unclear: gazine].

[unclear: Corporal] Punishment Defended

In Salient July 30, Kaye McLaren criticised [unclear: iris] Conway's defence of the moderate use of [unclear: poral] punishment. She seems to be one of [unclear: ese] confused liberals who are always eager to [unclear: rade] their exaggerated concern so everyone [unclear: n] see what nice people they are. In doing this [unclear: ver], she resorts to misrepresenting the [unclear: uation]. To take just one example, she says the [unclear: posed] legislation is to prevent the situation [unclear: here] adults reponsible for the care of children [unclear: ve] carte blanche to hit them brutally, and as [unclear: quently] as they wish to." She's implying the [unclear: esent] law allows this to happen but it doesn't, least by any commonly accepted definition of brutally."

The last paragraph was the most objectionable [unclear: n] of her letter. She says, "it would do Mr [unclear: nway] well to remember that the child and [unclear: fe-beaters] of our society are usually those who [unclear: ve] been brutally beaten in childhood [unclear: emselves]." This standard piece of liberal cant dangerous because it would create a climate of [unclear: leration] if it was widely accepted. The majority [unclear: n't] accept it but there is a small middle-class [unclear: ment] in departments like justice and social [unclear: fare] who seem to. They do their best to courage leniency and thereby help to generate [unclear: ore] crime which, by a lucky coincidence, [unclear: arantees] they won't become redundant. The [unclear: ponsibility] for crime doesn't only rest with the [unclear: minal] but also with the middle-class liberal [unclear: no] stands behind him and finds excuses for his [unclear: haviour].

The main reason for wanting to stop crime [unclear: ouldn't] be a conviction that in some way it's morally wrong". The reason should be its cost everyone who pays taxes, and that it means [unclear: u] have to take steps to protect yourself and [unclear: ur] property which involves inconvenience and [unclear: pense]. The better off you are the better you [unclear: n] insulate yourself.

Chris Conway's article was a pleasant change [unclear: om] the views of the minority represented by [unclear: dividuals] like McLaren.

A Question of Honour

What kind of a cad and a scoundrel is this B.G. Kelly? I am shocked... he actually expects a gentleman such as myself to mention a lady's name in this affair of honour? You bounder, B.G. Although my young lady no longer has eyes for me I will not stain her honour by making her name public.

Alas, though, I admit I have been defeated. Take her Sir, and treat her well. But be warned! If all you have to offer her is your nose, well, I'm sure she'll realize her mistake and return to me.

If I cannot have my lady-love I can only hope that she will not suffer. My poor sweet lady is she of the soft hair, the gentle hands (no snide comments from any of the morons out there please) and the warm heart. Look after her B.G. or I'll ruin that Picasso nose you're so proud of.

Gays Condemned

I have a confession to make. I'm angry at the fact that certain trendies think that homosexuality is Ok. I want you to know that they are absolutely in error. Why?

Consider the average man and the average woman (whoever they may be). Even a superficial examination of their biological structure will reveal that they are so composed that sexually, male-female relations are meant to be. Even if you can put aside procreation (and who can put that aside it mankind is going to survive), males and females are obviously equipped to function complementarily in the sexual act. If God had wanted anal intercourse, he would have put a vagina in the rear end of a man!

Where is our dignity men? Are we going to abdicate our role of looking after the fairer sex? I am angry because the so-called natural function is being twisted into depravity in the name of liberty. Who on earth said gays have the right to create an upside down society. Imagine being brought up by two dads. You wouldn't know whether you were coming or going. You can't stop homosexuality, but my suggestion is to let those who are so motivated do it, but may they keep it to themselves.

A Variety of Gripes

I object in the strongest possible terms to the use of the heading Get in while you can in the Salient of 6 August 1979. This heading is a derogatory insult to Holy Islam and its marriage vows. Your caption thinker-upper is obviously a person of small brain and even tinier wit.

In future I suggest correspondents supply their own captions, rendering aforementioned wit unemployed.

While on the subject may I suggest your proofreaders be hung by the thumbs and stripped naked and lashed and beaten and whipped and kicked and left to lie broken boned in their own excrement while turkey-vultures hover overhead and squawk raucously and . . . .ahem, excuse me, I got rather carried away.

May I also point out to those of your readers intelligent enough to follow my regular column that Kathy D. has found polygamy a bit too much for her and has rejoined the Convent. (May I wish her luck?).

The only Interesting Part of Salient

In reply to the cretin with the ego too big for his brain (that's the one that signs himself God), it is only the efforts of I. B. Flapworth which make Salient readable.

Apologies and sympathy to hedgehog, gumboot maniac, his holiness The Pope and other regular contributors.

Too Sensitive about an Heritage

As last week was Maori Language Week, I propose that this week be Tahitian Language Week, here after known as TLW (or Total Loss of a week). I'm not being racist, just practical. I understand some people are very sensitive about their culture and ancestry, my Grandfather was a Frog, and I'm very sensitive about it. It's not easy being quarter-cast Tahitian tadpole.

Bored with VUWSA

I am bored. Throughout this year, I have observed and taken part in (on the extreme periphery) an incredible amount of political in-fighting in the Students' Association, mainly between the left and right wings.

Today I heard that Andrew Tees has resigned as the President. My initial reaction was one of surprise, then I felt bored. If Tees resigns - so what? What effect will that have on me? Will my life be radically changed? No! As far as I'm concerned Tees' resignation is just another episode in this petty, childish, boring, boring, boring saga. No doubt the Politicos will be discussing this intrigue and its ramifications for weeks to come.

Don't you, on both the right and the left, understand, that there is a large majority of students who just don't care? All they want is someone to do the work of the association and to do it well. No wonder apathy is rife. Why should I concern myself in an association with leaders that, on the surface at least, seem bound up in their own little political world.

Okay, so they represent me. So I should get involved and change things. I would like to take part. I would like to get involved. But this continual in-fighting about things that, to me, seem irrelevant to the business of the Association, is so off-putting. I just can't be bothered. There are so many things happening in the world that are important, that we could be doing something about. The Education Fightback campaign is ample evidence that students are more than willing to get involved in things that effect them, or that they feel strongly about.

Instead, we have to wallow in such irrelevant issues as the reforms to the Constitution, the threat from the left (Salient Marxism?), the threat from the right (Saxby — who is that man anyway?). It's boring, boring, boring. I'd rather go watch Days of Our Lives.

A Word from the Computer

The following will make sense to INFO students of IQ70 and above, and is in reply to the Smart Arses in the Corner of Salient 6 August.

Unsure about Economics

As a beleagured ECON 101 student I would like to make a few informed comments on his Reverence, the Professor (cough) Sheppard.

Talking about coughing, this guy is the only bloke I know who can lecture for an hour on coughs and ahems (approx. 5 a minute actually).

He is the only person I know who is in some doubt as to whether a cow is a cow or hedgehog, wombat or gumboot even. And to make matters worse he even makes Bertram look good.

Next on the agenda is, when will some cunt make some F. it (effort) on the mud slide that could be called an access to Salamanca Road. As with many others who frequent this last bastion of the outback I am sick of risking my neck and body when a minimal amount of upgrading would stop the risk of slipping under the wheels of one of the mental woman drivers in the area.

And CAM, I would like to say that women are only useful as sex objects, but don't worry dear as I somehow don't think you'd fit into that category ever. I have finally deduced that CAM stands for CAMel, as that is the amount of integrity and intelligence you have. Also you have malformed humps.

Who's Aliterate?

I must admit to a certain degree of alarm at T. Scotney's assumption that I am one of the female gender so I must now inform her that her assumption was not completely correct, lest any future confusion should arise on such a vital matter.

May I also assure her that I can (and will) happily withstand the strain of writing to her every fortnight for the next 3.5 years, as there is every likelihood that I shall be attending this wonderful institution of Higher Learning after that period of time has elapsed. Thus, as I see it, the only remaining variable which could put a stop to our regular correspondence is the patience of the Salient staff, and neither of us can speak for their attitude over such an extended period of time.

I feverently hope that "letteracy" is yet another "accidental mistake" on your part, for it is unworthy of a generous, kind-hearted person such as yourself to continue to suspect the proofreader of perpetrating the errors which seem to appear so constantly in your letters. Thank-you for the apology, and I am fully aware that the world will not stop turning. I do not wish to correspond with Mr Wellington, thank-you.

Silly Letters are Great

May the curse of a thousand Wombles shit infest Average Varsity Student's arse, ie. his or her backside, for the comments made in a recent Salient. Silly letters add to this highly respected rag. So there.

Hermann Attacked

Heymann's contradictions are threatening to become legendary in Salient's letters columns. On the one hand he ridicules the Salient review's assertion of the uniquely massive scale of Hitler's death camps and then says they were "the most horrifying event in the history of mankind."

He pretends that the original Zionists never intended to drive out the Palestinians from their country, and then contradicts himself by upholding a racist right for Jews to constitute a majority in one country.

Team-mate Hochberg's reference to this rather than them living in the "graveyards of Europe" is just as much a travesty of logic. It is only Zionists who claim rights of citizenship for a country neither they nor their families have ever seen. Jewish nationalism is fascism simply because of this "racial" exclusiveness. Non-fascist nationalism is based on the people within a geographical area fighting against external control — not importing foreigners or expelling indigenous inhabitants.

Making the excuse that Zionism is a subjective reaction is no defence either. Just as the subjective response by Germany to the harsh conditions imposed upon it after World War I was Nazism, so too is Zionism an unjustifiable reaction to anti-semitism. Two wrongs don't make a right and La Heymann's appeal to the senses do not make the crimes of the Israelis any more acceptible.

Holocaust Re-Reviewed

Taking up a point discussed in an earlier Salient on the message of the Holocaust programme.

That programme must be seen as a reminder of the European Holocaust, and from that messages drawn and related to our present world, as well as a presentation of an important part of history that we must not forget.

One can think of many examples in recent history; Biafra, Pakistan, Ethopia (Horn of Africa) and Amin's Uganda etc. Today that message is relevant to Vietnam.

Vietnam is (in effect) expelling the Chinese, partly because they are the merchant (capitalist) class. Part of Hitler's anti-semitic racism involved a similar labelling of the Jews. Both Vietnam and the Nazis tried to get rid of those they could not tolerate; except Vietnam is doing it by expelling the Chinese, and the Nazis did it first by total separation from their community (physical and social) and then by extermination of the Jews and other minority groups such as the gypsies.

The international community reacted in its usual constructive and sympathetic (?) way — by calling a conference.

Vietnam is discussed at Geneva. The conclusion: Vietnam is misbehaving; it should reform its ways, it is up to Vietnam to solve the problem in the first place (until it does we will punish it by withdrawing aid etc.). Until then, nations in the rest of the world will take quotas of refugees, thus N.Z. will take 2000 over 2 years—is that sympathetic; or generous, or humane? I'm sure the Chinese Vietnamese refugees are lumping for joy that they will spend 2 years in overcrowded, disease ridden, unsanitary camps.

Germany's treatment of the Jews was discussed at the Evian conference in 1938. Their conclusion-Hitler is misbehaving, he must reform his treatment of Jews, and treat them reasonably. In the meantime other nations in the rest of the world will take limited quotas of German Jewish refugees over a defined period of time. (New Zealand in its generosity and humanity look only a few.)

Even more concrete rejection of German Jewish refugees can be seen in the Hamburg liner "Saint Loais" with a 1000 Jews on board which was denied landing rights in Cuba, in the US, in England, and also by the rest of the world.

But let's not be deluded into thinking that this sort of racism takes place only in places distant from our shores. There are people and groups who are just as racist here in New Zealand. I know of a Liberal Studies teacher at a liberal Wellington High School who believes that the problems with Maori kids is not just social but also because of a biological inferiority! Similarly, let's consider the anti Malaysian sentiments expressing themselves at Massey University in the last few weeks. I have heard similar racist sentiments on this campus too!

The messages of the holocaust programme apply to all of us. The potential for such horrific excesses of racism exists here, now, in the modern world, including New Zealand. It exists in the personality of many people in our society; and this does not even take account of the political elements which could so easily be perverted, developed into fascism and used to attack, on racial grounds, minority groups in our own society, whether they are Jews, or Samoans, or Maoris.

The potential for the expression of such racist sentiments exists just below the surface in, not a few nutters, but in many people in New Zealand. I believe it only needs a focus, an incident, or a situation, for that sentiment to be drawn out. Note some of the racist fire that the reading of the television programme summary in Maori drew. Or some sentiments one hears about gangs. All it needs is a skilled political group to turn it into a powerful force in society.

The holocaust ought not to just serve as a reminder of a historical tragedy, but it demands us to be aware of those things, which set (hat event into motion within our own world, and own society.

Selective Censorship in the Library

As someone who has been on the receiving end of a very sudden enforcement of library rules regarding printed publicity material, I would like to comment on the notice by J.P. Sage printed in the Notices Column of Salient Vol 42. No. 19.

J.P. Sage states that "The library has been the last bastion of uncluttered peace on the campus." This is patent nonsense. I have attended this University for 2 years and in that time have both distributed and received leaflets in the Library on countless occasions. As a member of several clubs I had never encountered any opposition from any staff member until a couple of weeks ago. This was when I distributed a leaflet advertising a forum and containing statements which questioned the necessity of abortion.

This is the first time since I've been at this university that a leaflet containing such views has been distributed-it is also the first time to my knowledge that the strict library policy has been enforced. The conclusion is obvious: the leaflets were promptly gathered up and disposed of merely because the Head of Circulation had no sympathy with the views expressed in them! Most would call it bigotry.

Moreover, the hypocrisy of "J.P. Sage for Library Staff" is obvious: both before and after the publishing of the notice on library policy in Salient there has been publicity material distributed throughout the reading rooms and several times, these materials have not been identifiable as belonging to any particular group within the Association.

I do not wish to criticise the library policy, but I question its selective enforcement. If it's good for some-it's good for all.

Okay you guys, the jig is up. I'm finally a fully qualified trainee reporter at the Journalism Course at Polytech with a licence to distort, so when I noticed the article entitled "How the Real Journo's do it" I immediately gagged on my genuine 400 year old Big Ben pie and whipped my patented "Supercool" mirrored sunglasses off my face (slashing my check open in the process). Wiping up the blood, I looked more closely at the article.

A copy of a Dominion story about the Education Fightback march was printed above an Evening Post article on the same event. Some paragraphs of the Post article were almost word for word the same as the Dominion's. The caption that Salient put with the two articles read something like "Compare the two articles and see what you think of the Evening Post's journalistic integrity". The inference (yes, they teach us big words like that at Polytech) was clearly that the Evening Post somehow lacked ethics in taking phrases word for word from the Dominion.

Now you university-academic-ivory-tower types may not know much about the way a daily newspaper functions, so I shall enlighten you as to the probable circumstances surrounding the appearance of the Post article. Some poor, put upon reporter would have been rudely awoken by his Editor hurling a piece of paper at him that came from the desk of Simon Wilson. It would have had phrases in it like "Cuts", "Protest", and "Mass demonstration", all words clearly beyond the intellectual capacity of your normal journalist. The reporter would have shut the window to avoid being distracted by the noise of some unruly students marching in the street and sat down at his typewriter to knock out a story.

Not being able to decipher the typing, he would have looked at the Dominion to see if they had said anything on the matter. Mercifully it had printed a full report of the march and so our reporter would have happily set to and spliced the Dominion copy in with the Press Association reports of events in other centres. Then he would have tossed the completed story in the general direction of a copy box and gone back to sleep. The entire process might have taken about ten minutes at the most. The use of the material from another paper is called "recovery" in the trade, and is standard journalistic practice. You can't expect a busy reporter (busy sleeping that is) to spend precious minutes rewriting the same story that another paper has printed and that says all that needs to be said with economy of language and proper journalistic style.

Anyway, those two small bits of space are all march could have expected, I mean no windows were broken, no eggs were thrown, not one violent incident — how can you expect a reporter to write an exciting story about a peaceful demonstration? If the march had turned into an ugly riot, with Simon Wilson and his pals Police, then the Fightback campaign would have received all the publicity it could have dreamed of. All you need to do for front page headlines on New Zealand papers is to spread a little blood and gore around the place. Next time you have a march, issue everyone with axe-handles and petrol bombs to guarantee worldwide coverage and space in the editorial columns of every paper in the country. It's your choice........

A Real Blast!

Ve haf ways of making you print our letters you know. So buck up your printing press and get to it!

Racist Attacked

This letter is directed to "The People's Voice" in a recent Salient.

You dirty little racist bastard who is analogous to the unidentified racist bastard to stirred up the AWOC polemical issue in Massey University. You are a stupid rat trying to show your white superiority complex by degrading the good and charming Asian students at this university. By all means, as another white Kiwi, I am shamed by your stupidity and infantile behaviour towards our Asian brothers and sisters. If I find out who you are, I am sure going to chop off your two nasty balls and cook them with Maggi sauce to serve as a decent meal for my hungry pussy cat. You better watch up for someone who is going to carry a sharp scalpel from now on around the campus.

Real Racism

Over the last few weeks I have been accused of being a racist due to my comments about the race-conscious attitudes of what I called the immigrant races of Malaysia.

Racism is a term which I generally dislike because it has been subjected to such a degree of abuse that it has been rendered ambiguous. On the one hand, a small group of label-happy foreign student-radicals might term the legitimate protectionist measures of the New Zealand Government, racist. On the other hand an unsociable minority of Maori gangsters might decide that a satirical show performed in good humour is racist. In fact, however, racism is a very different thing. It is the theory that human ability is determined by race and hence a belief that one race is superior to another.

Let me relate to you a very startling incident that I recently witnessed which I am reluctantly inclined to term as an expression of blatant racism.

At a certain dining hall used by students of variety of nationalities, person A (who was an ethnic Chinese -not from the People's Republic) was having lunch. Person B, a Negro, came and sat on the other side of the table, a couple of seats away from that opposite A. Suddenly A got up and moved to the next table with her plate of lunch, bowl of soup, and cup of coffee.

I know the attitudes of A well enough to be able to tell you that the only reason she moved was because of racial prejudice. I thought this was absolutely disgusting and find A's action very immature and low; infact lower than what she would have certainly termed as he the uncivilised table manners of filthy native B'. Mind you, the only outstanding qualities in B in terms of either appearance or manners were his dark skin-colour, negroid facial contours and pepper-corn hair.

It is customary to accuse Europeans of racism, nazism, apartheid and their associated evils. But during my five years of contact with people of various national, cultural, ethnic and religious backgrounds I have found out that Europeans are not the worst offenders in this regard. Infact, the subtle racism that some people so often accuse the average European New Zealander of is very moderate compared to certain non-Europeans, both foreign and local that I have come across in this country. Racism was a new concept to me before I came to New Zealand as I come from a fundamentally non-racial Islamic nation.

Another Grizzle about Unpublished Letters

I was relieved to see that mine are not the only letters being left unpublished over the last month or so although I was surprised to see that the letter you published this week (Issue 19) was one I wrote four weeks ago. That's what I call stale news. What happened to the one I wrote on 31.7.79? (Actually, who cares?)

B.G. Kelly—you didn't mention your baby-blue eyes.

7244046699231—I didn't know you cared. I'll miss ya (I might, that is.)

Pity about Andrew Tees. Caroline's legs just don't match his.

Re P. O'Donoghue's letter 6th Aug Salient:

Paul is really fun!—So much fun in fact that I wish to make it public knowledge that I accept his offer. It is not his gallantry, charm, wit or lack of height that have led me to this decision. But it's his baby too!

[unclear: ger]! This one Slipped Through!

[unclear: eeseech] ye oh guider of our destinies to print [unclear: etter] in the glorious and hallowed pages of fine newspaper so that I might publically [unclear: e] the Hell into you for the grow injustice has been done to my person by one of your [unclear: ons]. I refer of course to the fact that my last letters have not received the recognition that more than deserve i.e. been printed!

[unclear: greeted] the demise of Mr Grope with delight to note that during my enforced absence he [unclear: eared] his ugly head once more. I still exist as be proven by consulting line I, Psalm 44, 497, holy bible (Revised Standard Version) [unclear: ed]1881. 1901 and 1952 being the version [unclear: rth] in AD1611.

[unclear: Donoghue] Correspondence Ended

Sheikh P. O'Donoghue's announcement,

[unclear: s], Salient Vol 42. No. 19. p22 August 6. I [unclear: d] like to disassociate myself from the views opinions expressed by the afore mentioned [unclear: on](?).

[unclear: urther] correspondence will be entered into the said P. O'Donoghue.

National Front

[unclear: e] history of the National Front (Salient, 23 was given in an interesting and [unclear: comprehenarticle], article. However there were a couple of [unclear: inaccies]. The British National Front began in when the British National Party, the League [unclear: mpire] Loyalists and the Racial Preservation [unclear: ty] (not the Anglo-Rhodesian Society) [unclear: gamated]. But it was not until late 1967 when [unclear: all] and the Greater Britain Movement [unclear: d] that the NF had any organisational [unclear: gth].

[unclear: e] other point is that the New Zealand [unclear: Nat-] Front began in 1977, not in 1978 as [unclear: d]. The organisation collapsed in mid 1978[unclear: a] the chairman resigned and nobody could [unclear: und] to run the NF.

A Helpful Suggestion

Re W. S. Lowe's letter in the last issue-try Karori or Khandallah.

Small is Good

I was pleased to see the Salient go back to its normal size after that extra large issue. I mean it was hard eating it without getting paper all over your clothes (mum was mad).

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all those involved in making banners for the education march. They not only looked good but tasted good.

A Travel Guide

How were your summer holidays? Not too much rain I hope. I worked all through my holidays; so, accuarately speaking, I did not have any holidays, apart from a Christmas at home watching my Uncle from Wainuiomata eat two turkeys, a leg of ham, and approximately two dozen mincemeat pies, which my mother had spent a week painstakingly cooking. Of course, there was the four days (culminating in New Year's Day). I spent with five others on Waiteriri beach. We stayed in a little paddock, dotted with cowshit, called Peter's Motor Camp. Peter himself was a good sort, who made it his business to put all stray guests, making fools of themselves, to bed at 3 am every morning. He only caught me once, on the other three nights I hid in the trees.

Waiteriri is a spiffing place. There are two motor camps and a shop. Until I visited the place I thought every New Zealand town had several pubs (hell, even Tikokino has one). So after arriving we travelled twenty miles back to Levin and stocked up. Three days, half a gallon of bourbon a quart of run, a dozen beers and a crate of coke later (not forgetting the coffee in the morning) it was New Year's Eve. Peter came to warn us not to rough his camp up (I had noticed that he had stuck us and our two tents approximately three hundred metres from the other guests, over in the far corner of the paddock). To be fair, we only terrorised the good looking girls and stole a soccer ball off some little kids. That was the night Peter caught me and my friends. He reckoned we were creating a nuisance. We left it to the only Scotsman amongst us to explain we were out First Footing, but all the clod could say was, 'Give me back me Juice'.

If you think that this letter is too irrelevant to print; you could always print it as a travelogue to Waiteriri. In a few weeks I'll send you a similar letter about my holiday in Motueka, two years ago.

By the way, what the fuck happened to the table-cloths at Victoria Club? They were good value, we are still using the last one as toilet paper, we have only washed it twice.

More Silliness

J.C. Grope has not been clear on one point, that being, that Jesus was a sheep, and presumably God is too, but many of his genuine followers are, in fact, gazelles. While sheep are undeniably worthy of demi-god status, it is the gazelle which is the epitome of grace, meekness and physical perfection and is therefore more likely to attain a prominent position in the Heavenly hierarchy.

A Democratic Election Required

I am pleased to note that both my brother and my sister feature in your letters pages from last issue, this is of course most gratifying to me as Ian has been remarkably reticent about letter writing in recent months and I am pleased to see him reviving. VUNCC an institution which he participated in avidly while at Varsity. As for my sister Jillian, I only wish that my dear sister would not exaggerate our few domestic tiffs and retire to a suitable distance to let us get on with the business of running the world.

I must mention my disappointment with Mr O'Donoghue however with regards to his latest letter as it fills me with sorrow at his incipient demise. How many times must I tell you? One doesn't ask a woman to become one's lifetime slave one orders them to. I trust that I will have no need to repeat this advice Paul.

Although Margaret is apparently a woman (I suspect differently) I cannot help but agree with her comments with regard to the farcical SRC (the "R" stands for representative you know Exec) of August I and oh so respectfully suggest that a full election might be democratic at this point considering the unrest prevalent in "our" executive.

Rising Price of Essentials

The purpose of this letter is to register a protest to, and develop awareness of, the threat posed to the essence of our lives, particularly our social and mental development. Please fall not into the trap of treating our words non seriously.

The aforementioned threat has taken the form of increased costs of ales and liquors. The last budget seemed like a bad dream when it was announced and its effects were ignored at first by our number. Our tolerance has reached its limits and we have a dire need for resusitation. Unless relief, perhaps in the form of a subsidy on University related social activities, is close at hand the risk is run of student involvement and concern ebbing away, of cultural richness vanishing and our soundness of mind sliding away.

Think about it if you will.