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Sincethis article was written for Salient, in February, 1948, precisely nothing has been done to put into effect a practical scheme. There was one brief passing mention of the Health Scheme in the Circular to Clubs concerning the requirements of the proposed Student Building, but apart from that the issue has been decently and reverently interred. This month there will be an election of officers of the Association and on June 28 the Annual General Meeting of the Association will be held and students will have the constitutional right to talk their heads off. The medical scheme however must be pushed ahead and something concrete and practical done this year; the time for wind-bagging and wordy protestations is over, Action is Needed Now.
Since its very early days Salient has been interested in health, nutrition, medical examinations and preventive medicine generally. In
On
"The Physical Education Committee of the British Medical Association has made the bold and forceful statement that 'All Universities should make provision for the physical education of undergraduates.' This field of, education which has been sadly neglected in New Zealand was the subject of a report to the New Zealand University Students' Association . . . proposes a minimum policy ... to meet the needs of the New Zealand Universities."
"The most important item to be provided is:
Medical examination for all first year students, with a view to pointing out any defects and indicating a suitable course of physical activities, optional examinations after the first year. The examinations to be of an advisory nature, and a poor report would not debar a student from attendance at University . . ."
"This programme . . . could be put into operation with a minimum outlay on materials and buildings. A second point in its favour is that the Government is interested in this kind of necessary work, and all efforts should be made to bring the New Zealand Universities into line with the rest of the world."
On
"The proposal that a part-time Medical Adviser be appointed to V.U.C. has been put forward. This Medical Adviser would undertake to give a general medical examination to all students enrolling at Victoria University College, to be followed by periodical overhauls in subsequent years."
In 1943 a referendum vote was taken and out of the 900 students then attending V.U.C. 625 recorded a vote on the medical examination proposals. 605 of the 625 voters declared in favour of the scheme for an medical examinations
In
In
An extract from a Salient report of April 23, 1947, in connection with the American and Canadian tour of a party of V.U.C. biology students is of interest here:
"Compulsory Medical Schemes
"Every University visited had a Compulsory Medical Scheme. This was generally financed by a small fee and organised by the university authorities. These schemes have been running successfully for years and are taken for granted by all students."
At a special general meeting in
The facts were, quite simply, that a special general meeting of students had decided, among other things, that it wanted an annual compulsory medical examination for its Association members. This seems to be a simple enough statement and to indicate the use of a certain amount of commonsense on the part of said students. Imagine our surprise when we found that we were headlined in "Truth" and the dally press.
"Truth" with a typical disregard for fact and an almost religious belief in emotive journalese, really let itself go. The fact that the students had the temerity to request a compulsory medical examination was sufficient proof that V.U.C. was once more in the grip of the Red menace. We were, in the same sentence, " fasicm, communism socialist, totalitarian"—rather a difficult feat I should imagine.
A reply signed by nearly 300 students (within a day and a half—time was short and the reply had to be in
The daily press on the whole gave us a slightly better hearing and in some cases they actually asked us (V.U.C.) for our comments on the matter. It may come as a surprise to some who have not thought on the matter that the much vaunted freedom of the press is a rather un tamed animal, e.g., the press is "free" to print pretty much what it likes about the doings of students but we are not necessarily "free" to see our replies in print.
As long as students act the silly goat and behave generally in a reasonably childish fashion, as at Capping Time, we are treated by the press with paternal indulgence and it is allowed that one "is only young once" and other such rot. But, let the students get a serious thought in their heads, e.g., when they thought that it was a good thing to be medically examined or to think that it was a bad thing for the Dutch to shoot the Indonesians, and there is a very different tale to be told. Distortions become the order of the day in all reports of meetings, etc., the University becomes once more filled not with childlike youth but with dangerous Reds; the pleasant punsters of Capping become dangerous half-baked theorists of Marx and there is hell to pay. It is a little difficult for us to see just how
One astonishing feature of the Medical Scheme at this stage is the wording of a reply received by the Health Scheme Committee here, from the B.M.A. The Committee had written asking the B.M.A. for their assistance and advice in the drawing up of a workable scheme for this College and you can imagine their surprise when they received a reply couched in terms unpleasantly reminiscent of "Truth's" hysterical ravings. This is rather interesting when you look back to the Salient Editorial of
It becomes more obvious as time passes that it is essential for students to have a compulsory annual medical examination as a step in the direction of effective preventive medicine. Every year some students fall prey to T.B. and other communicable diseases of which they could have been cured much more rapidly and easily if they had been discovered at an earlier stage. The Committee envisages a scheme which will eventually not only give an annual examination but provide a health service for the students throughout their student life. Salient believed in the efficacy of preventive medicine in
All funds raised to go to International Students Belief Details at the Executive room. You should support....
Maybe Universities are the last and final refuge of lost causes, from classical education to the Shakespeare-Bacon row. And maybe we, being but a college paper, are little better than the rest.
But as this is the silly season when every one is working too hard to think out any new ideas, and when the stir of the election on the horizon causes some students to take their own welfare seriously, maybe we are justified in raking over our own pet lost cause—the medical scheme.
The article we print in this issue will not be new to some of you. Those with memories stretching back as far as
In no way better than this could we show just what has happened of note since
One of the first priorities for the new Exec, must be the medical scheme. Students who opposed compulsion for the sake of war will have no argument with compulsion for the sake of health.
If nothing happens, then perhaps the editor in
Salient in not intended to be an organ for reporting every or indeed any club activity in this college. The mere reporting of club affairs is the least of the jobs which Salient is concerned with.
We pretend to be nothing more than an opportunity for you and your friends or enemies to hack out your verbal battles; and for ideas to be placed before the students of VUC; ideas which should be before them in more than one sense.
So unless reports of club activities are of direct concern on some point of opinion at issue, or unless they deal directly with actual opinions, we don't intend to spend a great deal of space in printing. This will mean that sports reports will have to be concise and, if possible, critical, rather than mere repetition of what any interested body could have seen in the paper a week before.
Copies of the programme section of the 1950 Cappicade are available free at the Exec. Office.
Those who wanted extra Cappicades and were disappointed are urged to get these programmes while they last.
They're Free.
Next Meeting Sunday 11th St Patrick's College 7 p.m.
Dr. Duggan ("Evolution and Philosophy") will be speaking at the College July 17th on the subject "The Present Philosophy Syllabus at Victoria."
Sir.—I support the submissions of the manageress of the Cafeteria in her statement in the last article about the Caf you printed!.
There is little doubt that she is working under extreme difficulties in the place, and this is made no better by the number of students who don't co-operate in the slightest to make her job easier. There are seldom any number of volunteers to work behind the counter. There are often a large number of students who are prepared to talk after the Caf had been closed until they are reminded by her that she has to clean up. These sort of petty things must make life hell for one who is trying to make the thing work without decent facilities.
We are to blame as much as anyone if the Caf doesn't suit our tastes. A little more willingness to work and a lot less bitching might turn the Caf into something worthwhile.
Sir.—Copies of this year's issue of Cappicade have only just reached me here.
I am appalled to think that my spiritual home can have cast me off so lightly, and even more appalled to think that the editor has attempted euthanasia on my unwilling self. Like those on Rita Hayworth and Queen Anne, the reports are premature. I am not dead.
Isn't it about time "Salient" folded up? It exists for the purpose of allowing students to express their opinions, you say hopefully. I haven't seen the slightest sign that there is any general desire around VUC to express any opinions at all.
There are a few good articles now and again, but these are so obviously written by the interested few.
Why should we even try to pretend that there is a need for an organ of student opinion when students prefer to have none.
For God's sake give us gossip.
Since I first came to this place,
I have been amazed at the indecent anonymity of the "culture" clubs around here. I am given to understand that there exists a club for the discussion of historical subjects, another for the discussion of philosophical subjects, a club for the specific purpose of studying socialism, one for the specific purpose of studying the club which studies socialism—and there may be more, for all I know.
There are other clubs, like the Glee Club for instance.
But what in the world is going on, to quote this year's variety show at the Opera Hous? Where are these clubs? Do they advertise their meetings? Do they ever publish reports of their findings? I seem to remember one report for the Socialist Club and a couple for the Debating Society. Otherwise one would gather that the only reason people come up here at all was to play games.
Can we have some low down on the highbrows?
(Our staff is busy, we must regret, and it is seldom possible to get reporters to these meetings unless one of the staff happens to be interested in the particular club. It may be that those dubs have such pleasant little social gatherings that they keep quiet to avoid any strangers butting in on their cosy agreement. We couldn't sey. But he would certainly welcome, some signs of life therefrom.—Ed.)
Your last issue reminded me of King Alfred's cakes—Cooked to Ashtons.
(That came out Pat, didn't it?)
We will not bring out the usual issue next week, as the selling days for Salient coincide with the days for elections.
Instead we hope to have the special election sheet out on Tuesday or Wednesday of next, week—that is, about two days before the elections. We have had to drop the usual issue largely because we couldn't handle two at the printers in one week.
The next normal issue will be on the Tuesday of the following week.
50 Devon Street has long housed University students—it is handy to University and that is a dominant motive for any student wanting to live there. Despite the fact that its construction and state made it not the most desirable place to live in, it has been very useful. No-one would try to count the number of times people have wound up that way after one bash or another. But the bashing days are over.
About noon on Monday, and only the stoutest efforts of the brigade saved the bottom flats. Volumes of smoke and water, though, made the state almost as bad. That the Fire Brigade was successful in stopping the flames was commendable: that they saved it even in part considering the state of the building made it miraculous.
Four families lived there—two of them, the Mellings and the Gawns, are well known enough at VUC. "Salient" and the Tramping Club and the Exec, have seen their presence. They saved some of their possessions from extinction in the shambles of the bottom flats. They had a common entrance.
The people on the top floor have one common entrance, reached by a drawbridge-like porch which, if damaged, could easily have been a fire trap.
There were no fire escapes.
As it was they were lucky they saved themselves and their baby, even if they lost all their personal possessions.
There are many such old buildings in Wellington, most of them good fire traps. Though four families lost their homes, and two of them nearly everything they had, we can be thankful that the Providence which failed to provide fire escapes at least got them out before this neglect took toll.
Our Free Press has given its customary one-eyed story of the Communist Party Dissolution Bill recently introduced in the Australian parliament by the Menzies Government. The side they do not publicise is the mass protest against the Bill from student, trade union, religious and other circles. We reprint these statements from copies of Australian university and union papers over the last few weeks:
Rev. Frank Hartley (Methodist, one of the five Victoria clergymen who accompanied the protest delegation to Canberra on April 27):
"I know there are people of all shades of opinion alive to the fact that it is the Communists today, and after they are suppressed, tomorrow it is the Jews, and then the trade unions will be split in two and then it will be the Church—and then war." Freethought Society, Melbourne University:
"We protest emphatically against the threatened ban on the Australian Communist Party. Such action is an infringement of the basic liberties which are essential to the development and progress of society..."—(Farrago,
Professor Wright (Physiology, Melbourne) :
Referring to the clause in the Bill which makes a branded "Communist" responsible for proving his innocence) :
"When you abolish an organisation and accuse a person of being a member of it, how on earth can anyone prove that one is not a member? The only person who can show the accused to be innocent is the recording officer of that organisation. But the organisation having been abolished, the accused's only way of proving his innocence is abolished."—(To the M.U. Political Science Society,
Professor Maxwell (English, Melbourne) :
"The only way to combat an ideogy you don't like is to practise its best ideals. The bad ones will fade away."—(Ibid.)—(The Labour, Labour Party and Liberal Clubs of M.U. have come out in opposition.)
Mrs. Jessie Street (graduate of Sydney University, wife of the Chief Justice and Lieut-Governor of New South Wales, former Labour Parliamentary candidate, president of N.S.W. Peace Council):
"I have been asked to comment on the Bill
"I wish to recall the great bravery and self-sacrifice displayed by the men and women of all races in World War II, waged by the United Nations against the Axis Powers of the Anti-Comintern Pact.
"I also recall the democratic enthusiasm aroused among all peoples of the United Nations by the promise that after the war they would enjoy liberty, equality, independence, selfgovernment and rising standards of living.
"How many lives were gladly given that these great liberties should be enjoyed by all peoples! When the U.N. was formed, these promises—all of them—were included in the U.N. Charter.
"What happened? Those who claim equality for men and women, or equal treatment for white and coloured races are called Communists! Those who support Independence and equality for the peoples of all countries are called Communists!
"Those who work for rising living standards for the people are called Communists! Those who seek to guard our precious heritage of democratic rights and civil liberties are called Communists!
" ... Is the U.N. Charter a Communist document?
"A Bill is before the Commonwealth Partliament which aims to deprive Australians of the democratic liberties and civil rights which have been won in countless bloody struggles since the time of Magna Carta.
"Furthermore the foundation principle of British justice, that a person is innocent till he is proved guilty, is to be sacrificed."—(Tribune,
Mrs. E. Madeleine Wood, B.A. (widow of the late Professor G. Arnold Wood, History, Sydney; her son is well-known to many V.U.C. students):
"I wish to support the statements of Mrs. Jessie Street about the Anti-Communist Bill. . . .
"The Bill violates not only the individual clauses, but the whole spirit of the United Nations Charter which all members of Parliament are pledged to support. . . .
"How can any man or women have freedom from fear' when, 'on information received,' he may at any time, with no reason being given, be denounced as a Communist?
"Some of us have worked actively for peace. . . . Are we to be denounced and jailed for subversive activity if we venture to criticise our leaders for not strenuously seeking the greatest common measure of agreement with the leaders of other nations, rather than exaggerating differences of opinion, and thus stirring up suspicion and hatred?"—(Tribune,
Mr. A. E. Monk (president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions):
"It is obvious that this Bill is designed to pave the way for attacks on the whole trade union movement.
. . . It is the first step to fascism."—(Tribune,
Mr. J. Healy (secretary, Australian Waterside Workers' Federation):
"Whatever one's opinions of the Communist Party or of Communists, this Bill provides no boundaries; its boundaries of action depend entirely upon the whims of the administrators."—(Circular to his unions,
These parts of the Bill have not yet hit the pages of the New Zealand press:
By an emergency decree of
The story from there on is well-known. . . . Pogroms of Jews, Liberals, Christians, everyone with decent ideals. . . .—(See "The Hitler Terror," Gollancz,
In view of this excursion into not very ancient history, the following quotations may be of interest:
"If you and I were Germans . . . we would not be critical of the leadership (Hitler's) that has produced such results."
R. G. Menzies, 19/9/1938 .
"Democracies cannot maintain their place in the world unless they are provided with leadership as inspiring as that of the dictator countries."
—R G. Menzies, 24/10/1938 .
Hitler . . . Belsen . . . Gestapo terror . . . Lidice . . . inspiring?? Menzies . . . ????
This is all those things which Extrav 1950 was not: all those things without which no Extrav will ever be popular. From start to finish, Passport to Pimlico is a rollcking, ribald ribbing of everything in recent British affairs from rationing and currency restrictions to the Berlin airlift.
Just as in Gulliver's Travels, Swift managed to make man look silly by reducing him to midget size, so the heated matters of principle with which we puff ourselves up when we want an excuse to have a fight look absurd when reduced to the scale of Passport to Pimlico.
The satire is very neat, particularly in the "newsreel"—which was worthy of the best Extrav traditions. This sort of thing doesn't come our way very often: in 10 years maybe no one will be able to see much more than the humour in it; the keen edge of its satire is pretty much localised in time. But for the moment, it's a fresh and delightful sally.
The story doesn't matter in this comment; and it would spoil it if you see the show. There are many cracks which come up to the standard of the "Their pleasures are few, but simple" from "Whisky Galore": the most obvious is the "It's because we're British that we fight for the right to be Burgundians." But from the airlift to the road blocks, from the "I have no comment to make" to the "Wix Aid Plan" which caps it, the film is worth remembering. We suppose there had to be a love interest in it; the scenes of that kind, even humourously interrupted, caused the only dull moments in this thing.
Passport to Pimlico is a healthy sign: even when the nations in the self created hours of perils are taking themselves and their "defence" with all the self righteous seriousness of a parson playing bridge, something like this can be produced to cast a little gentle derision at all the most fervent of causes.
This is part two of an article setting out a point of view on Lysenko. "Salient" printed an article on this subject in
"One would expect therefore, Lysenko's claim to be supported by exhaustive and convincing experiments, carried out with pedigree plants free from disease. In actual fact, the experiments were carried out with plants of no certain pedigree, some of which carried the virus disease spotted wilt, which produces a red yellow mottling of the fruit. Furthermore the numbers of plants used was far too small to establish such a striking claim."
This is only one of the many examples which Lysenko and his school cite as evidence for their beliefs. There has been built up a large amount of data from similar experiments, all of which are claimed to prove the inheritance of acquired characteristics. Several experimentors have attempted to repeat these experiments to prove their validity, notably M. B. Crane, an American geneticist who tested a large number but was unable even in a single case to produce anything which might have been called a vegetative hybrid. Lysenko attributes such failures to the fact that the experimentors had not produced the "right conditions" but he neglects to say what the right conditions might be.
A certain amount of the evidence of vegetative hybridisation can be attributed to the occurence of chimeras, i.e.. plants which, as a result of grafting have fused their tissues although the individual tissues retain their individuality to the extent that they are recognisable cytologically as coming from their respective parents. Such plants can only be reproduced by cuttings or further graftings as any seeds which may be produced will be formed from one tissue or the other and will show only those characteristics of the parent from which the tissue came.
As was noted in the tomato experiment, Lysenko and his associates work with very small numbers of plants and no "control" plants, i.e., plants in normal conditions for use as checks on his other plants, are used. The latter he considers unnecessary although regarded by scientists as standard practice throughout the scientific world. Usually large numbers of plants are used for experiment so that the results can be statistically analysed but this practise Lysenko deplores as "abiological." When the results of one of Lysenko's students were found to be incapable of standing up to the test of statistical analysis, Lysenko replied "we biologists do not want to submit to blind chance .... we maintain that biological regularities do not resemble mathematical laws."
Lysenko condemns formal genetics practically from the point of view of a layman. All his criticisms are levelled at subjects which were under discussion, controversial, and in the earlier stages of the science. The science of genetics is only fifty years old. Probably two-thirds of our present knowledge of heredity has been accumulated in the last 25 years but Lysenko ignores this latter period almost entirely. His comments on this period are confined to answering specific questions and these he answers from the point of view of the man in the street. Recently much success has been achieved in producing high-yielding crop varieties by treatment with colchicine and X-rays. According to Ashby, Lysenko's comment was "Mendelian geneticists who maim plants by application of poisons and other extreme treatments maintain that they are working out a method for producing fertility in sterile distant hybrids (i.e. hybrids between distantly related plants). The crossing of distant species and the production from the crosses of fertile offspring, should be studied in the works of I. V. Michurin."
Much of the justification Lysenko employs for his theory is obtained by appeal to authority. Several authorities are cited, but for the present only those concerned with the scientific aspect will be considered. The main "scientific" authorities are Darwin, Timiryazev, Michurin and Burbank.
Darwin's theory of evolution by a continual series of small changes really forms the fundamental basis for Lysenko's "new genetics." Darwin however, is not accepted in entirety. "Malthus' preposterous reactionary ideas on population" are rejected along with certain other "bourgeois" elements. The rest, the "materialistic" basts is accepted as true, final and unquestionable.
The second authority, Timiryazev, was a Russian scientist with a world-wide reputation. In the early
The other two, Michurin and Burbank are in a separate class. Both were exceptionally competent horticulturists and very successful. Both, through their products, became famous and the subjects of popular acclaim. Their success tended to give them a false authority on biological subjects in everwidening fields in which they had no background other than their own specialised experience. Michurin went further than Burbank and developed several subjects which now form the practical basis for Lysenko's "new Genetics" along with the theoretical background gleamed from Darwin.
This then, rather sketchily outlines the background of the genetics picture. There is, however, a much more prominent foreground which is the situation as usually considered by the layman when referring to the "Lysenko controversy." This latter aspect wil be elaborated in a later article.
There must be a number of freshers—and non-freshers too, for that matter—around the place who say "What is the Executive? Who are these people?"
In just over a week, the Association will be able to decide the latter question for itself: we'd like, for the benefit of those who haven't much idea, to outline the executive set-up.
Every year about this time—at the end of June—the Association gets the chance to select a new executive. Obviously, with over 2000 students here, it wouldn't be possible to run the affairs of the Association without some sort of permanent body.
This consists of 13 people. Five of these are officers of the Association; that is, they are chosen directly for the offices they hold. These are the president, the men's and women's vice-presidents, the secretary and the (new office of) treasurer. Apart from those officers, there are four men and four women committee members. Once they are selected, these executive members meet at odd intervals, seldom less than once a fortnight, to get through the business of the Association. And there is a fair bit of that, ranging from the control of all the finances of the Association, to the indirect control over all student activities and behaviour. Extravaganza and Procession are their responsibility, so are the occasional staff student affairs. And then there is, of course, the Cafeteria.
That 32/6 of yours is administered by these 13 people, and from a purely mercenary point of view, it is as well to know how the money you pay in is spent.
The voting for all Executive positions is by a preferential system. When the student goes into the main hall to vote next week, he will be given a paper with the list of candidates on it. These are to be numbered in order of preference, starting at one and working down to seven or eight or whatever the number of candidates is. From the time the voting closes, the Returning Officer and his assistants take over—and it is no mean feat to get the 700 or more votes counted by the time the results are to be announced at the AGM two nights later.
So that's the story. You know what you are voting for and how you vote. We can only hope now that you will be among those who do vote. Out of 2300 and more students last year, less them one-third of the possible number actuallly used their votes.
We hope that, you will be one of the people who will see that the number is higher this year.
Published for the Victoria University Students Association and printed by the Standard Press, 25a Marion St, Wellington.