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The Spike or Victoria University College Review 1943

Non-Sport Clubs-a Post Mortem — Debating Society

Non-Sport Clubs-a Post Mortem

Debating Society.

Debates included such subjects as "The U.S.S.R. is the Spearhead of Modern Civilisation," "That Weir House is a Good Thing," "British Government's Policy in India is Bankrupt," and "Swing ha? no Place in the Cultural Life of College." This year the Debating Society was affiliated with the Wellington Union of Public Speaking Societies and a debate was organised with the Hutt Valley Debating Society on "N.Z. Workers are Pulling their Weight in the War Effort," in which V.U.C. took the negative side, and needless to say Hutt Valley won.

In general, however, the debating was of a low standard, and the conduct of the somewhat meagre audiences showed an almost complete lack of decorum on occasions, due mainly to a mild epidemic of rather loud but ill-informed freshers, with an even louder and somewhat demagoguic leader. Their presence unfortunately rendered it at times almost impossible to treat the discussions seriously, as most of the speakers with whom they disagreed were rendered almost inaudible, whilst if a speaker had the temerity to as much as mention such subjects as the Soviet Union, the War, or Fascism, he was usually greeted with such a torrent of contumely that the premises rather resembled a Billingsgate fish market page 39 on a Friday. The cure for this distressing complaint seems to be an immediate transfusion of mature healthy blood, before the canker completely chokes the dying body.