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A party and bus ride for orphans was held on Saturday as part of capping.
Mr. F. Levenbach, the Student Union's caterer, provided catering and services free and Newmans Coach Services a bus at reduced rate.
The event was organised by Diana White.
The children from Sisters of Compassion and Salvation Army homes were driven around Wellington Harbour.
They were entertained by a Thai-Philipino group,
"Organised protests about the Vietnam war have been relatively unsuccessful in changing public opinion," said Mr. Alister Taylor, former NZBC current affairs producer and chairman of the Peace, Power and Politics Conference held last month.
Mr. Taylor said protest demonstrations were becoming a public testimony for those involved.
"This is very bad for the movement. It is not expanding but regressing.
"The public must be reached by other means," he said.
"It was thought that when the Committee on Vietnam was formed, it might penetrate the wall erected about independent pressure groups.
"It has not done so," he said. "Initially it had good relations with the press," Mr. Taylor said, "but the statements were modified to become acceptable to the press."
Mr. Taylor said the only statements made were pragmatic and occasionally opportunistic.
"The Ppp Conference was the way to demonstrate." he said. "Dissenters have to become sophisticated.
"The Cov was 'irresponsible' in that it hasn't gathered information, expertise and has had 'internal failures.
"In the past the leadership was involved with egoism, which was possible unconscious," Mr. Taylor said.
He said the protest movement has no charismatic leaders as in the USA.
"There is little continuity of leadership," he said.
"This is due to a lack of total commitment and willingness to co-operate completely within the organisation."
Mr. Taylor said a student demonstration at Victoria in 1965 had shown the potentialities of student power.
Masters' bursaries, amongst others, were increased by 66% after the incident.
"The action of the Government was not a direct result of the demonstration, which was supported by a welldocumented case.
"Other pressure on the government including public support proved successful."
Referring to broadcasting, Mr. Taylor said that three years ago there were three current affairs programmes.
"Now there are none," he said, "but two will begin later this year."
Mr. Taylor said. "There are many areas of personal and political censorship in the N.Z.B.C.
"On many occasions this had led to the exclusion of prominent authorities, and no programmes on matters of great importance.
"The N.Z.B.C. is 'completely irresponsible' in allowing six months to pass without a current affairs programme on television."
Mr. Taylor referred to the Labour MP who had remarked that when his party came to power it would use the news media "just like the National Party."
"This is no good for the people of New Zealand," he said.
Mr. Taylor gave several examples of attempts at political censorship which, he said, "is the most obnoxious form."
They included a Minister of the Crown denying a true statement which had been recorded by the N.Z.B.C and attempting to pressure a senior staff member. Luckily, the N.Z.B.C. withstood the pressure.
The refusal of Government spokesmen to appear on TV, thereby denying the N.Z.B.C. the representative balance it declared was essential, was "frequent", said Mr. Taylor.
Other bodies such as "R.S.A. and Tourist Association" were also responsible.
Mr. Taylor gave examples of distinguished academics and others, who were denied access to television and radio because of their views.
Two speakers at the Peace Power and Politics Conference recorded TV interviews while in New Zealand.
At least two were not shown because there was no balancing opinion and because "questionable statements" had been made.
• Continued on page 2.
The Foxton Borough Council has refused permission for Cappicade to be sold in the district, the distribution manager was informed last week.
"Who has power?" asked Professor J. Roberts in the opening address at VUW Students' Association Little Congress on Friday evening.
"It confuses and amazes me that anyone can believe that Parliament has the power," he told the audience of about 35.
"It doesn't, it never had and it isn't going to."
Professor Roberts said that cabinet had the power and it also had the most effectiveveil of secrecy drawn over it.
"This secrecy is extended to caucus, it covers the whole extent of the Public Service, in fact the whole complex discussion of policy.
"This excessive, almost obsessive secrecy about the public records must be eliminated." he said.
"The public range of discussions must and can be extended without diminishing executive control."
The Professor mentioned Sweden as a country where any interested citizen could inspect the public records, providing the material was not damaging to essential state interests.
"And if they are refused, an Ombudsman can enforce their right," he said.
"All general issues should be open to the public to allow them to get complete information."
Professor Roberts said it was an "inherent advantage" to the government in keeping the level of public controversy down.
The professor named three "vows" a public servant was expected to fulfil.
"They are obedience, poverty and anonymity", he said.
"They never took a vow of chastity."
Dealing with anonymity, the professor said the public servant was "anything but anonymous to those dealing with him.
"They know the public servant very well and know what he stands for."
"Anonymity is a myth to allow the minister into the forefront to take the credit and, very occasionally, the blame," he said.
Questioning obedience in a public servant, the professor said, "it demands a pallid response, which is not what it should be.
"Just as the Minister answers in Parliament, the public servant responsible should be forced to answer in public.
"If this was the case," he said," there wouldn't be so many party hacks clamouring for jobs through the National Party cancus.'
The professor's first recommendation was to improve Parliament.
How can Mps do a good job when they are standing on top of one another in asking for a typist a week on Friday" he asked.
"And how often is a bill properly surveyed?
"Not very often."
The professor said New Zealand's parliamentary system should be more bipartisan, as in America.
"Standing committees should be set up with a team of experts to collect and assimilate documents."
The press and public should be allowed access to any information.
Professor Roberts said that the only independent public commentators on the economy came from the Monetary and Economic Council.
"This is not enough," he said.
"The shocking, desperate apathy in the case of the mental hospitals was hidden by departmental secrecy.
"Information should be revealed to any dissenters for they are often appallingly misinformed.
"What democratic rights would be in jeopardy if the records were made available?"
•Continued from page 1.
At least one very prominent professor had been so mistreated by the N.Z.B.C. he now refused to co-operate at all.
"This is a minor tragedy for the people of New Zealand," Mr. Taylor said.
"Press censorship may be due in part to inadequate people," said Mr. Taylor.
"I could possibly count the number of competent journalists on both hands.
"There is insufficient continuity in the work the journalists do," he said.
"They don't stay with the same subject long enough.
"Editorial censorship mirrors ownership," Mr. Taylor said.
"The sub-editors protect the management, who in turn protect the Ministers."
Mr. Taylor said: "There is no need for a secret service.
"There is a Joint Intelligence Service (under Prime Ministerial control) and security forces in the Defence Department, the three armed forces and the police.
"Security Service costs were formerly included under 'Prison Officers' Overtime'," he said.
"The $200,000 mentioned was not for wages; it was 'pin' money."
The C.I.A.'s financial support of the U.S. National Students' Association and the International Students' Conference was deplored by Mr. Taylor.
"I am extremely disappointed that N.Z.U.S.A. has not withdrawn from the organisation.
"They are tying New Zealand to an outmoded cold war, pro-American policy."
Massey University's Dramatic Society will play a two-night season of "Magnificence", a morality play by John Skelton, in the Union Theatre in the first week of next term.
The play will travel to Wellington after a five-night season in Palmerston North.
Written about 1515, "Magnificence" differs from most morality plays in that its theme is strongly political, concerning a prince whose state is subverted through the destruction of his own moral standards.
The Wellington season has the backing of the Victoria University Drama Club and the English Department, and the dates are May 22 and 23.
(By The Editor)
The Treasurer of the Cultural Club's Council, Don Grilling, resigned on Friday.
He said he did not have sufficient time to get the accounts of clubs fit for audit.
Accounts of the previous year must be audited before grants will be given to clubs by the Students' Association.
His resignation may mean a further delay in the approval of grants.
He said club accounts were often incomplete because treasurers were seldom Accountancy students.
"Accountants are mainly part-time and do not belong to cultural clubs," he said.
"Treasurers do their best, but its not sufficient."
Don is doing honours in Accounting, and has found that his academic load was too great to allow him to put the necessary work into the job.
He was first elected in the middle of last year.
He says he now rather regrets standing for re-election at the Cultural Clubs Council's Annual Meeting in March.
After his re-election it was revealed that certain club accounts had been in his hands since his election in June, but had remained unaudited.
A motion of no confidence in him was lost by 17 votes to 10.
Pip Davys, the Cultural Affairs Officer, and Niel Wright, a member of the Cultural Affairs Committee, agreed that treasurers are not able to get their clubs' accounts in order.
Niel Wright said he saw two possible solutions. The Students' Association could hire professional help, or it could make its regulations more flexible.
To withhold funds would mean they were collected under false pretences, he said.
Capping activities began on a bright note with a fashion parade in the Sub last Friday lunchtime.
Students modelled an attractive selection of day and evening wear.
Men's mod fashions provoked comment from the large (predominantly male) crowd. Most of the clothes were eyecatching, with their streamlined designs.
Steve Whitehouse's witty compering was a welcome change from the inane palter that usually accompanies fa-fashion shows.
He kept his comments and cracks well in pace with the models, even ahead at time.
The show's aim was to inspire students to smarten up on and off campus.
The lunchtime audience certainly seemed impressed.
Rumour has it that a former Publications Officer is to become engaged to a hotel keeper's daughter. Congratulations, Neil and Erin.
Another motion at the A.G.M. was that balloons filled with helium should be floated, by means of aluminium foil, 3.5 metres above the heads of persons passing down Willis Street, advertising the next A.G.M. of the Studass was lost.
The Atheist Society postponed its A.G.M. the Wednesday before Easter. The reason: An Act of God.
A remit on homosexual reform for Nzusa Easter Council was moved in Executive recently by Dave MacGregor, seconded by Rod Trott.
Cried Murray Radford: "Should we accept this from two guys who are flatting together?"
What kind of a hole is Masey? Reporters, particularly female reporters, at Easter Tournament had difficulty in connecting on news items because of the ice in Massey's Refectory Common Room. No doubt these mich will move into the new Union Building which will open in July.
A certain class is having difficulty in deciding what to do about their lecturer in Psychology. Why the difficulty —because lectures consist of a series of hotch-potch quotations read at a breakneck speed. The term exam is at 10 a.m. today. It is hoped to hold a protest meeting along similar lines to those of the V.U.W. Peace Committee. Its past president, Mr. R. Boshier, is not expected to preside
"What is the cost of examination failures by university students?" asked Mr. Muldoon at Victoria University last week.
He was expanding on previous remarks which had attracted criticism from Professors K. Sinclair and I. A. McDougall.
"It is impossible to estimate" he said.
Before reiterating information which had been provided by civil servants, he said: "I am not very happy with the theory behind it".
"A full-time student failing three units costs the country $3000 or $100 per unit."
"Last year", said Mr. Muldoon, "the country lost $10 million on this basis, give or take $5 million or so."
"I am not suggesting this is accurate." he said, "All I am saying is that the cost is high."
"In
"Allowing for a 2½% increase per annum it will reach $77½ million."
"It will not be my job to find the money," he said, "but some Minister of Finance will.
"This will be a major problem."
"I suggest we focus our attention on ensuring our resources are going in the right direction.
"Should we continue to carry on as present and multiply expenditure up to the estimated figure, or should we investigate as to whether some change in resources is necessary?"
Mr. Muldoon said: "Some of our university students would be better off at technical institutions."
"I believe that in terms of a man's career he is far better as a successful technician than as an unsuccessful graduate."
He mentioned the field of computers as important for technical institutions, "not programming or how to work computers but how to apply them to every field of activity."
Mr. Muldoon said: "N.Z. has no future in the construction of computers but technicians could train every graduate to appreciate the power of the computer in his own field."
In mentioning the National Development Conference (N.D.C), to be held later in the year. Mr. Muldoon said: "the press, although they are very good people, will not print anything that has been used before".
He said any reference to N.D.C. had been wiped from reports of his speeches although he had always mentioned the conference.
"One sector will be on education." he said.
"Anything deserving that emerges will be followed up with committees or whatever is necesary, on a permanent basis, to Work for its logical end."
"The net brain drain is a gain." said the Minister of Finance, Mr. Muldoon, at Victoria University last week.
Mr. Muldoon said he had made "fairly provocative statements on University education, in the hope of projecting some thought on the subject by those whose job it is to do so."
He said that an article by Professor Sinclair on the brain drain showed a "lack of regard for accuracy".
Mr. Muldoon said Professor Sinclair's figures only included those occupational groups with a high proportion of graduates leaving for overseas.
Mr. Muldoon quoted groups such as botanists and agriculturists which were more specifically orientated to the demands of the New Zealand economy.
These groups had a much lower proportion of graduates going overseas
He refuted Professor Sinclair's claim that the graduates remaining were less able and said that simply to raise staff salaries to combat this would be quite insufficient.
Mr. Muldoon said there were other factors involved, possibly more important than the salary question.
The university orchestra has sprung back to life again, marking a renewed emphasis on practical work for music at Victoria.
At the request of Professor Page of the Music Department, Mr. Dobbs Franks is conducting the new student orchestra, and he is pleased at the response already made by interested players.
Mr. Franks feels that a university orchestra should be integrated with student life, and composition students, singers, choirs and aspiring concerto soloists within the university can look forward to being able to work with the orchestra.
We should be hearing the orchestra in concert well before the end of the year; as well, it will accompany the University Choir when they perform, with soloists, the Vivaldi "Gloria" in Wellington and at the Auckland Arts Festival in August.
A chamber music rather than fully symphony orchestra, it consists at the moment of 35-40 members, whose enthusiasm doesn't even seem to waver at the thought of the eight-o'clock start on Tuesday morning practices!
Although Mozart and Beethoven are at present being worked on (not unkindly meant), Mr. Franks is very interested in having contemporary music performed, and this year's concert programme will probably include a composition of New Zealand's Jenny McLeod.
In case you just don't believe that students can sound energetic and musical first thing in the morning (few lecturers ever do), go along to a practice yourself, and be impressed.
"Indonesians have a far more co-operative attitude to government than the South Vietnamese." Nicholas Turner told students last Wednesday.
He was speaking at Victoria for the Political Science Society, on "the problems of government in Indonesia and South Vietnam".
Mr. Turner has been a Reuters corespondent in South Vietnam, and is at the moment a free-lance journalist in South-East Asia.
He said that the South Vietnamese tended to unite against rather than for the government.
He said that both the Buddhists and the Viet Cong had destroyed civilian administration in the countryside, and the peasant did not think in terms of the Saigon government.
The central government was now beginning to realise that they were too far away from the people, he said.
He said that the Americans are trying to influence Saigon to reform, but that although the American principles are very noble, they are often not well advised.
Mr. Turner mentioned the selective assasination policy of the Vietcong.
"They kill both the good and the bad civil servants," he said. "The good ones to create disruption, and the bad ones to make themselves popular. They leave only the mediocre."
The military presence in government was not highly regarded, he said, because it was not sanctioned by recent or traditional experience.
'Students' fees should not be poured down the throats of a few', says the International Affairs Officer, Gerard Guthrie.
He said this after an Executive meeting on 8 April, had appproved a social budget for Extravaganza of $50.
Attempts had been made by Dan Bradshaw, Malcolm Grover, and Owen Gager to have the sum raised to $100 or $150.
Executive also granted funds for the graduates' dinners in Capping Week and for expenses connected with the Capping Drinking Horn.
Gerard, who opposed all three grants, later told Salient that, while he thought official entertaining was wise policy on rare occasions, students had the right to expect their money to show longterm results.
"No part at all of Students' Association fees should go on giving a handful of people a good time".
Asked to comment on Gerard's views, the Students' Association President, Doug White, emphasised that
"In principle I object to the spending of student subs on grog," Doug said, although he did not oppose the Extrav. grant.
"As for the drinking horn expenses, the money is only for costs not connected with liquor," Doug said.
The Social Officer, Malcolm Grover, said that the
"Participants in Extrav, are not altruistic; we have to provide them with some rewards," said Malcolm.
"The drinking horn I view as an integral part of student activities: anyway we will ensure that the cost of alcohol is covered by the purchase of tickets," he said.
Both religion and science are connected with truth and with the practical consequences following directly from the truth. Hence, as truths cannot be mutually contradictory, religion and science cannot be antagonistic. This does not mean that there cannot be an apparent antagonism between religion and science, for obviously there has been for many years. The controversy which followed the publication of Darwin's scientific works. The Origin of the Species (1859), and The Descent of Man (1871), could scarcely be surpassed for the violence and acrimony of both sides.
Perhaps the most serious fault committed by both sides was to take the Bible as a literal historical record and force a choice between science and religion, between this new scientific theory and the truth of the account of creation as given in the Book of Genesis. To many it seemed that one could not be both a scientist favouring evolution and a Christian.
Christian leaders clinging to a literal interpretation of Genesis were lead in some cases to such absurb conclusions as that of Bishop Ussher who declared that creation began on the night preceding Sunday 23 October 4004 B.C.! At the same time many defenders of volution often made sweeping claims and hypotheses that went far beyond the evidence then (or now) available. It was a case of much bad science meeting much had philosophy and bad theology.
Although today scientists are nearly unanimous in accepting evolution, there are still dissenters and still many difficulties, e.g. the very serious gaps in fossil evidence; the difficulties in the formation of complex organs and systems of organs; and because the theory demands such long time periods, there is a lack of direct evidence. The points can be discussed and argued, but no matter what said, the important point here is that the theory of evolution explains the known facts better than any other that has so far been put forward.
For the moment, assuming evolution to be a proven scientific fact, are there any apparent contradictions with Christianity?
Firstly, does evolution contradict the Bible? The Bible, and especially the Book of Genesis has nothing at all to do with the theory of evolution. As Professor J. L. McKenzie in his '"Dictionary of the Bible" says: "This account is neither a scientific explanation of the origin of man. nor a history of the beginning of the race in the proper sense of the word." The first eleven chapters of Genesis (which contain the creation account) do not properly conform to the rules of historical composition used by the great Greek and Latin historians or by the historians of our own lime. Rather they are (pictorial—symbolistic) representations of factual historical events which truly occurred at the beginning of our humanity. Or as Cardinal Suhard says: "The chapters contain, in simple and metaphorical language adapted to the mentality of a people of simple culture . . , a popular description of the origin of the human race."
Genesis 2:7 says "God fashioned man of dust from the soil. Then he breathed a living being." Here as in much of Genesis, the author is obviously speaking anthropomorphicaly. (representing God acting in a human way), picturing God in a popular manner as working with clay, like a potter, and breathing as man would into the face of his modelled product.
Such anthropomorphisms are part of the author's popular style and need not be taken literally. This interpretation is confirmed by the similar popular way of describing the creation of man in an old Babylonian text in which "Mami". the mother-goddess, says: "Let him be formed out of clay, be animated with blood." A similar description is given in the Babylonian epic. Enuma Elish, where man is said to have been created out of the blood of the conquered god, Kingu: "Out of his blood they fashioned mankind."
With regard to the formation of the woman described in Genesis 2.20-24 the author's popular form of expression is obvious. From his anthropomorphic description of God leading the animals before "Adam" for "Adam" to impose names on them, the author passes to an equally anthropomorphic description of God taking a rib from "Adam" and "making" it into a woman.
Thus the Bible, and especially Genesis, does not clash with the theory of evolution. Genesis is a religious account, it is concerned with religious truths and nothing else.
A second field of apparent conflict has also appeared. What does the Christian think of polygenism (i.e. that 'Adam' was not the only ancestor of the human race), and monogenism (i.e. that 'Adam' was the only ancestor of man)? When the best modern scriptural and theological scholarship is summed up it seems that scripture and traditional theology do not decide either way. Many scholars have shown how the traditional Christian concept of the Original Fall can be reconciled with polygenism. (e.g. Renckens "Israel's concept of the Beginning"; or Alszeghy & Flick in "Gregorianum XLVII. 2"). With monogenism there is no problem. Theology, like science, is a subject which is always developing and on this particular subject of polygenism and the origin of man we need further thought, both as Scientists and as Christians.
Thirdly, there are some beliefs based on evolutionary theory that Christians must reject, not because of the scientific truth that may be beneath them but because of the philosophical and theological conclusions some scientists have reached. At this stage I do not wish to enter a discussion of the distinction between the material and spiritual. between Man's body and what has traditionally been called Man's "soul". They are both elements of the one thing, the human person. With regard to the evolution of man's body the Christian accepts or rejects theories according to the evidence, while not denying man's spirituality. No Christian can hold any completely materialist view of evolution. for this view makes man nothing but a complete and total material animal body who has sprung completely from an animal level.
Fothergill in Evolution and Christians says: "It is not a necessary unavoidable conclusion to draw, either from comparative anatomy, morphology and physiology, or from evolutionary evidence, that the mind of man is only a highly developed animal mind, or that it evolved from an animal mind. There is no evolutionary evidence of the gradual transition of an animal mind into a human mind, and no serious biologist would contend that there is. Although a great deal is known about the structure of the brain through which the soul works, and the normal and pathological status of many men has been studied. in effect there is still a very great deal about the human mind which we do not know. To prove that man's mind or soul has evolved it would be necesary to prove that this human immaterial soul is not different in kind from the sentient material mind of an animal. As this involves a contradiction, it could only be attempted either by proving that the mind is not distinct from the brain and thus solving the problem of mind and matter (N.B. a denial of the distinction, or of the existence of a problem, is not proof), or by denying and disproving the existence of what the theologian calls spirituality and intellectuality in man. Only a materialist would attempt to do this because a non-materialist realizes the futility of it."
The brain is the material vehicle through which the soul acts intelligently during life Thus one can hold that the human brain has evolved from a lower animal or whatever you like, but the spiritual element of man is individually created by God. The materialist evolutionist would here consider that if he shows the human brain has evolved then he has shown the mind or soul to have evolved too. But this position is forced on him by his initial postulate that only matter exists.
In this short article there has been no attempt to discuss all the problems or make the many distinctions that should be made. I have merely a tempted to indicate the lines along which it can be shown that there is no necessary incompatibility between the Christian and the Evolutionist—if the principles of theological and scientific opinion are correctly understood. On the contrary the Christian rejoices in the greater understanding of man given to him by all the modern sciences.
If sufficient funds are ever to be made available for education, the voting age must be lowered.
Democratic theory has it that because a man's best interests will be served by giving him some sanction against the government, the best interests of the greatest number are served by giving everyone a sanction—the vote.
In democratic practice, however, the interests of a large group—those under twenty-one—is not cared for in this way.
There are practical difficulties in giving children a vote, and, indeed it can be claimed that their interests are best cared for by their "virtual representation", by the fact that a very large group of voters have their interests at heart.
But Edmund Burke would hardly claim that his concept of virtual representation applied to young people who have left school. There is much open antipathy to teenagers, and to university students. And, far more dangerous, there is little interest in them, and much ignorance.
The uses to which people of, say, eighteen, would put their votes are limited because in many respects their interests are identical to those of the present electorate. There would, however, be obvious and significant changes in government attitudes to education if the voting age were lowered.
This is useful. A campaign to lower the voting age will be able to draw support not only from the people who would be enfranchised and the liberal democrats, but also from the people who recognize the extreme economic, social, and personal importance of education.
People who think more money should be spent on education are mostly perceptive enough to realize that they are too few to, on their own, ensure greater spending.
There are enough of them to be of great value to a campaign for a lower voting age. And in the long term this is obviously the best way of achieving their end.
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Boston is a city of over 40 Universities They vary from the world famous Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology to many lesser known colleges. One of the latter group which has the reputation of being among the top ten academic colleges in the United Stales is 20 year old Brandeis University where our group spent a week's campus stay in February.
This liberal Jewish College has some 2,500 students who inhabit more than 200 acres of campus. There are over 50 separate buildings all showing the influence of modern architecture and attractively spread out over the campus. Every building and many rooms are individually named after those who have made financial contributions. The names vary from the Bernstein-Marcus Administration Centre to the Goldman-Schwartz Fine Arts Centre and the Wolfson-Rosenweig Biochemistry Building.
Brandeis has been called the "bedroom college" partly because so many of its students actually live on campus in dormitories which would be called hostels in New Zealand Several of these dormitories are designed on the corridor principle which is not conducive to any sort or peaceful existence as, I am told, anyone who has lived in Weir House will know.
It has been interesting to observe at each University we have visited the number of students who attend a college away from their home-town even though there is an equally good college near their home. In most cases there has been a desire to leave the "tensions" of the family and to make it on one's own, but a Brandeis there is the additional factor of parental pressure to attend a Jewish college.
Established as a private Jewish supported, non-sectarian institution, Brandeis today has an enrolment of 70% Jewish students Several told us that politically Brandeis students begin on the left and then move further left. Part of this assertion is based on the conclusion that opposition to the Vietnam war. which is strong, automatically puts a student on the left of the political spectrum. Some evidence for this may be deduced from the fact that one of the reasons for their student government's recent withdrawal from membership of the U.S. National Students Association was that the latter was not voicing sufficient opposition to the war.
The structure of student government at Brandeis, following other colleges we visited is modelled on the U.S. Constitution with the establishment and separation of executive legislative and judical organs. The court with elected student judges who have certain powers or discipline over students came as something of a surprise During our stay I took the opportunity to attend the "trial" of a student who was accused of sitting-in at the 1967 Dow Chemical protest.
This article was written by the president of the Student*' Association, Doug White, who has recently returned from a student leader study trip In America.
This protest took place in the Administration Building when a representative from Dow Chemical Company, the napalm manufacturer, arrived to interview prospective employees. The prosecutor at the trill was a member of the University Administration who was also the chief witness for his":side". The student called a considerable number of witnesses in defence who swore on oath that at no stage did he in fact sit-in In the end the five member student jury had no trouble in pronouncing the accused "not quilty" to the sound of much applause from the assembled onlookers. The prosecutor told me afterwards that while still believing the student guilty he thought justice had been done!
Lyndon Baines Johnson appears to be cast as a "might have been" President. To many of his enemies, even that is too much praise.
The revolting spectacle provided by of his critics, heaping abuse on him in a manner that recalls that McCarthy witch-hunts of the 1950's, has sickened many erstwhile opponents. It also appears to have focused the resentment and harnessed the mob-fury of the American left. The liberals who suffered under McCerthyism are showing that they can be no less cruel, no less unreasoning, and just as unforgiving.
It would have been amusing, had it not been so unpleasant an exhibition of malignity, to have analysed the attitudes of such people as Dr. Conor Cruise O'Brien and Mr. Felix Greene. O'Brien and Greene, two of Johnson's most incessant critics, were in New Zealand for the recent Peace, Power and Politics in Asia Conference, which they followed by a lecture tour in other main cities.
When the news came through, that ''I shall not seek—and will not accept—the nomination of my party as your President", many were stunned. Not so the critics.
In unison, they brayed their hymn of hate. "Liar" and "rat" were among the least of the epithets hurled at the President. Was it because he had cheated them of their prey?
L.B.J. was often heard to refer to "a consensus of opinion". How he must have Wished that he could have marshalled that consensus as swiftly as did the left. Once the leading critics had laid down the line to be followed, the rest added their shrill cries to the tumult.
Three years ago Lyndon Johnson was elected President of all Americans—not just "hawks", and certainly not just "Democrats",
He was also elected by the largest popular majority ever accorded to a candidate in American history.
As President after the assassination of John Kennedy, it was obvious that Johnson was heir to the wills of others. When he took office in his own right, rather than as former Vice-President, it became easy to forget that the inherited policies and attitudes of former administrations were still in force.
A new President does not mean a complete realignment. Even in a fully totalitarian dictatorship—Russia during the war years— Stalin was to some extent restricted in power by history itself. The patterns of history are even less subject to speedy change in a democracy as much influenced by public opinion as the U.S.A.
It is easy to speak to the "New Frontier" days of the Kennedy brothers: it is equally easy to forget Eisenhower at Little Rock, Arkansas. Fans of Bobby Kennedy would do well to remember that J.F.K., now receding into sainthood, never claimed of the civil rights legislation, "Alone I did it!"
So did Johnson inherit Vietnam.
Unlike Kennedy, Johnson has been reluctant to follow in the Dulles tradition of "brinkmanship". In all his actions as President, it has been clear that a heightening of tension to the Bay of Pigs level has not been his chosen means of diplomacy.
Johnston's determination has not been to take the easy way out. No shameful withdrawal to fortified enclaves, leaving the villagers and farmers of South Vietnam to the butchery of the Viet Cong, and equally no escalation to the nuclear limit—the avoidance of both these alternatives has always been his policy.
As a policy, it has been moderate. Not, the policy of a brilliant commander, gambling to win or lose all in one throw. But possibly, considering just how much there was to lose, the policy of a stateman.
The most humiliating failure for Johnson Seems to have been the way implementation of his foreign policy has hindered the Creative social legislation that he so much depends upon. "Burn, baby, burn" may be the chant of a Rap Brown or a Stokely Carmichael as Newark smoulders: it has never been Johnson's vision of America.
Eugene McCarthy, the crusader Senator, is following in the path of the "America Firsters" who opposed Roosevelt at the start of World War II. The same people fought to keep Wilson out of Europe, and destroyed the League of Nations after World War I.
As a concept, "Fortress America—and to hell with the world", has attraction. But it is the attraction of the attitudes within the man who watches a policeman being assaulted, and refuses to help. Such a man is Eugene McCarthy.
If Johnson has really lost to McCarthy, the free world may have lost its defence. How many Czechoslovakias will in future be allowed to feel their way to gradual freedom? A Hungary-type repression is not so far back in history that it should be forgotten.
As a "might have been", Lyndon Johnson, the man from Texas, may go down in history. He will be remembered because he tried, and failed, to better his country, but not at the expense of South-East Asia. Perhaps it is better to be remembered as an honest man who has tried, rather than as a dubious intellectual justifying his moral cowardice on the grounds of self-interest?
Niue has just suffered one of its periodic hurricanes, the last severe hurricane being in 1959. The hurricane has resulted in a severe set back to crops on the island and to the various development schemes the New Zealand Government has established to achieve some degree of economic viability. It has also resulted in some reappraisal of the extent and nature of the aid this country extends to the island.
In Government circles there appears to be two current points of view about how Niue Island, our last inhabited island possession, should and can progress. The first is that the absence of private enterprise on the island is to be deplored and that everything possible should be done to create a private sector in the island's economy. There are of course private traders on the island, the largest of whom is Mr. Robert Rex who is also Leader of Government Business in the Island's Assembly.
Murray Rowlands, author of this article, is at present Advisory Officer, the New Zealand Public Service Association.
Mr. Rex must have inherited his business sense from the Australian side of his ancestry (he is half Niuean and half Australian), for most Niueans are profoundly uninterested in the prospect of owning private businesses. This is not because the social moves of the island community operate against individualism—the Niuean seems to have a more individualistic idea of himself than the Cook Islander or Samoan—but rather that the concept of the accumulation of large private profits is alien to him.
There never has been any system of kingship in Niuean society and leaders must be prepared to distribute the increased possessions resulting from productivity. Where the theory of the need for private enterprise held by the Resident Commissioner and members of the State Services Commission breaks down is that if any Niuean were to establish himself" in business, his relatives, friends and acquaintances would expect to pay for his goods and services by barter (a barrow load of taro), rather than money. Indeed there is strong evidence to suggest that the money economy may be irrelevant to Niue for everything imported comes from the few local traders and is usually put on account and local goods exchanged.
The other solution is for Niue to be run by as many skilled technicians in agronomy as the New Zealand Government can possibly afford. Large scale incorporations of land should proceed at pace, so that the success of the Samoan Reparalion Estate can he repeated. Every encouragement should be given for Niueans to migrate to New Zealand and the island's standard of living substantially raised.
The State Services Commission maintains that the numbers in the Public Service should not be increased further and see the six hundred odd public servants on the island as an organic monster that threatens to devour the island's economy. Actually the island's public service is a mixture of Niueans and expatriate New Zealand officers, administer the island very effectively and, blessed with a larger expenditure on the development of agriculture and communications, could probably improve the island's economy considerably.
The problem of communications is at the centre of the island's overall economic stagnation. If the Government's passionfruit scheme for instance is to succeed, there will have to be a large improvement in transport services to the island and the Government will have to come to light with the airstrip they have been promising for the past six years. Migration from Niue is restricted by there being only one beat per month and paradoxically it is probably the time-lapse of a month between boats that causes many Niueans to leave in an effort to seek opportunities overseas.
Many of the migrants are leaving Niue still possessing land rights, which makes the task of incorporation for economic utilisation of land extremely difficult. The Island Assembly's decision to place a time limit on the amount of time Niueans could be absent from Niue and still retain rights to land has caused an outcry among the 5000 Niueans living in New Zealand. But the problem of the correct economic utilisation of land must be solved before Niue can begin to make real progress.
Recently the Government have substantially altered the terms of service for public servants employed on the island. Teachers for instance are now not to receive an automatic two step increment for taking up positions on Niue. House rents are to be increased and some allowances disappear. The question therefore arises as to whether Niue will continue to get a good quality of public servants to work on the island considering the overwhelming prospect of isolation which a New Zealand officer must face.
The question also applies to Niuean members of the Niue Public Service. These men and women are paid considerably less than their New Zealand counterparts. A further complication is that younger Niuean public servants are better educated and in many cases more proficient in their jobs, than older Niueans who occupy many of the senior positions in the island's public service. There is a very pronounced clash of generations on Niue. The younger Niueans are not as prepared to follow the dictates of the London Missionary Society as were their parents and cracks in the island's social structure may be developing.
One also detects an impatience with the legislative set upon the island. The Island Assembly consists of one representative from each of the thirteen villages on the island. The framers of the island's constitution, Professor Davidson from A.N.U. and Professor Aikman, formerly of V.U.W., were careful not to repeat the mistakes made in the Cook Islands of allowing public servants to become members of the legislature.
In the Cook Islands there were proven charges of corruption in high places soon after self government. However in Niue, by depriving the senior public servants of the right to continue as public servants and Still be in the Assembly, the constitution has in fact disenfranchisedf some of the Niueans, most able leaders. A further unfortunate side effect has been that the quality of members in the Island Asembly is not as high as it might be. One feels these men can be too easily manipulated by the Leader of Government Business and the Resident Commissioner. Those disenfranchised quietly disbelieve that many of the Resident Commissioner's polices are in the island's interests. They scoff at the Commissioner's claim to understand what the Niuean people want.
The character of Government on Niue too closely resembles the character of its Resident Commissioner. Because the Niueans are still not vocal enough in the Assembly, too much business is merely managed and not adequately discussed by the local Assembly. More will have to be done by the Niueans to promote regional cooperation with Samoa, Tonga and the Cook Islands. There must be positive incentives offered to bright Niuean school leavers to remain on the island and break the cycle of leaving the island at 18 and returning at 55 and placing an intolerable strain on educational and social services of Niue.
The prospect of Niue ever achieving or even wanting independence from New Zealand does not exist. It therefore follows that a great deal more realistic thinking in government quarters must be done to ensure continued development for the island.
two official points of view
Educating the Body by Kevin Ireland (Caxton Press, Christchurch, 1967, $1.50) reviewed by Jan Walker.
This latest collection of Kevin Ireland's poetry for the most part consists of short narrow poems simple in their content and terse in their arrangement. They are in fact often too tight in their style and give only the bones of an idea uncovered by surrounding meat.
They are rather preludes to something longer and are too concerned with achieving a technical perfection in their slight form. Ireland in these poems is playing with the compression of ideas and often in his desire for conciseness subordinates the expression of his ideas as shown in Striking a Pose and After-Thought.
Where he is not overworking the hidebound rhymes and cleverness his short poems have a delicacy and freshness as seen in the tide poem Educating the Body and in Violence.
In his longer poems however, where he seems less concerned with technical manipulation, he demonstrates a power of combining skilful construction with very clear observation. This is especially notable in A Hard Country, The Poor Go Fishing, and his very moving Holiday—the last I will quote in full as an example of the poet's best use of the natural rhythms of the ebbing tide and sleepy swelling motions of feeling—
Kevin Ireland has widened and broadened the boundaries of feeling and phenomena around him and has shown himself to be a poet whose eyes are wide open and who is capable of expressing these things through writing.
Has
Rhys S. Pasley.
The Evolution of Dialectical Materialism by Z. A. Jordan (Macmillan, London, $8.50) Reviewed by Owen Gager.
It was, I think, a Yugoslav writer, who first said the tag "Marxism is not a dogma but a guide to action" had itself become a dogma.
Even the most apparently open-ended Marx statements seems quickly to acquire an encrustation of dogma— this book is perhaps the first major attempt to explain why.
There have been many previous discussions of dialectical materialism some of the worst of which have ended up as Victoria Political Science Texts.
Dr Jordan is the first writer to portray Marx as an empiricist with affinities with Comte and Saint-Simon, a naturalist rather than materialist whose strongest debt was to Feuerbach rather than Hegel, whose views have been edited and distorted by 'Hegelianising' disciples beginning with Engels.
Other writers have seen Marx as a cross between an atheist and an existentialist (Rubel), an apolitical sociologist (Bottomore), a second-rate metaphysician (H. B. Acton), a semi-pragmatist (Bertrand Russell), a dialectal idealist (Jack Lindsay), and of course a dialectical materialist (Plekhanov and Lenin).
It is easy to get lost in this maze of interpretation and as Marx had the misfortune (for a writer who was trying to say something relatively precise) of founding a movement which placed a high premium on "orthodox" belief in basic texts, conflicts within the movement have led to almost as many versions of what Marx really meant as there are different interpretations of the Bible.
The real danger to Marxism at this period, when one dogmatic interpretation has ceased to emanate unquestioned from Moscow, is the works of Marx suffer the same fate as the Bible during the Reformation—they may lose their status entirely as writings written at a specific time with a definite meaning.
Dr Jordan's book, though it documents the major differences between Marx and Engels and charts dialectical materialisms slow drift in the works of Plekhanov, Lenin, and Stalin (for some reason Mao Tse-Tung is ommited though he illustrates Dr Jordan's basic thesis excellently) is not sufficiently well-organised to break through the academic smoke-screen put up by commentators who have imprisoned Marx in their systems.
We still do not really understand the working relationships between Marx and Engels—in default of written evidence (and surely there is more material in the complete correspondence on this point than has so far been made available in English) Dr Jordan could have at least made an effort to make some educated guesses about the psychology of the two men.
Marx, after all, needed some intellectual support and his only reliable intellectual co-worker was Engels. Did a time perhaps come when Marx was afraid to upbraid Engels for over-simplifying his (Marx's) thought? Or is it not done to attribute to Marx such purely human qualities as friendship and need for intellectual company or tact?
Dr Jordan, of course, really only needs to show there are fundamental differences between the thought of Marx and Engls to make a prima facie case that they did not work together as closely as has been though—evidence from the history of ideas should surely be treated as much more reliable than dubious biographical data culled from Engels' obiter dicta.
This is in fact what Dr Jordan does but unfortunately so anarchically that half of what is said about Marx and Engels in part one is substantially modified in part three.
There is a real case for the thesis of this book but the author has so presented his case that the reputation of his argument will depend far too heavily on the charity of reviewers.
For the orthodox Marxist as much as the academic reviewer there will be a lot of excuses for not taking this book seriously not the least of which is Dr Jordan's leaning on Bernstein in his epilogue (he earlier described Bernsteins advocacy of some of his ideas as "unfortunate").
Marx is half a naturalist with affinities with Comte and Saint-Simon and half a metaphysician although perhaps half-heartedly.
We are not sure of the exact proportions of the mixture after reading this book. All Dr Jordan can probably hope to do here is to set up a thesis with a lot of evidence for it which will be left for someone else to finally prove.
His real achievement is to show how Engels' introduction to a 'dialetics of nature' introduces into a thesis which could have been an empirical theory of historical sociology a metaphysical element to which Marxism-Leninism has been added.
It will be asked why Engels should be entirely the villain—did not Marx's theory of 'productive forces', a term with no empirical reference, do as much harm? Or Marx's insistence that there was a material basis? That such questions can be asked shows in a way that the answers are still open—to paraphrase the Theses on Feuerbach the question of whether there can or cannot be a Marxism which is naturalistic rather than metaphysical is not a theoretical but a practical question,
We are still in the midst of this great plain, passing between the sticky hemispherical rocks. Somebody has suggested that perhaps these rocks are the man's spittle. But if so, why is the substance pouring into the skin at each rock? For what my own untutored opinion is worth, I believe that these rocks show an outbreak of boils. Rubbish! said Cagliostro-the rocks are cold. But the air boils, I replied (wiping sweat from my skin). Why then, he asked, do you rub the sweat from your skin? It should be boiling with the air. if what you say is correct .... You should be well-cooked.In spite of the crushing weight of rhetoric which he then poured upon me, I still feel him to be mistaken. Fine words prove nothing.
Sparadrap bade me read the ancient chronicles more closely that I might discover hidden among the pages some indication of the whereabouts of our homeland, relative to the horrid spot we have left. I could find nothing more than I have already indicated. Another method will have to be devised the magicians are to be asked what they can do.
They are meeting now. They are sitting on the bronze wagon, while Sparadrap addresses them from a nearby tree He tries to hold an umbrella over his head, for protection against the strong light of the sun. I cannot hear what a being said; the wind is loud, though I am close
Now they are more earnestly conferring. It is near might They have gone into the wagon.
Morning: still.
" "
" "
" "
After five days, a solution has been reached! An invention been made! Quidditas emerged, carrying above his head device which has been constructed. Bleary eyed Sparadrap
One machine was set up on the ground, and levelled by
We have noted the direction shown by the pointer, have turned sharply to the left of our former course.
We are headed straight for one of the pale rocks. When we reach an obstacle, Sparadrap says, we re-set the sights on the machine, and spin the pointer again, except that we shall then be either pointed or beckoned, whichever way forces us to retrace the same path nearly over which he have come. However, the pointer's guidance must be corrected by time of day, in order that we may not tread on 'our own shadows.
This morning we have reached the pale rock which our pointer first beckoned us towards. The machine was reassembled on a flat bald rock among the tussock. A strange thing happened as Cantilever took the glass ball: he dropped it, and it rapidly rolled out of sight, to the edge of the bald rock, and was lost in the grass. What made the ball move? Perhaps the Spirits are against us. No. A solution has been agreed upon. The whole plateau that we have been travelling on is not flat: we have been progressing downhill for the past year or longer, supported only by the winds in our faces. By now we must be far below the level of the valley of Ytinutroppo, or halfway down the leg. Most odd!
It is some years since I have made an entry in this Journal. Nothing of any importance has happened in this time, till this afternoon. We have asked each other all the riddles, recited the chronicles, told the jokes, and talked, all the day through this desert (which has become no hotter, or no colder, no wetter or no drier, contains no more or no less tussock or pale rocks, and has given us no sign of any men). The magicians had shrunk into apathy, and accomplished nothing new (not surprising). But today we saw in the distance a number of small lumps; we later met them and discovered that they were human ... merchants from Aggabug, taking a short cut to another place. So at last we are approaching Aggabug!
There are ten of these merchants. Odd specimens. They are very tall, have pink skin, and lack tails. Our progress has ceased, as has theirs. They have suggested that we bargain with them; I do not know what about. A number among us speak their language (a barbarous style of speech known as Blihrp) : Cantilever, Pergola, Phenobarbara (of course), Waterlulu, Apidistra, and Charlemagne; also a few others. I cannot recall who. A most vile tongue! At this moment the merchants are holding an argument with Cantilever. Now they are going to their brown horses ... searching in their packs ... taking out bags ... opening them with sharp shiny instruments ... showing some of our people what is inside the bags. I shall now put down my pencil and inspect the contents of the bags.
I have looked in the bags which I have mentioned. There is a strange white powder, said to be edible. The Aggabuggers are demanding gold in return for the powder. What could they want with such a useful metal? So Cantilever has given them a horscful of gold for a horseful of the powder. They seem excessively pleased (perhaps we gave them too much. though the bargain seems fair); they are advising us on our whereabouts, and the easiest ways to be rid of it. So for the time being shall proceed to Aggabug. In this ancient city, the merchants sugests, there may well be some who know of our ancestral home, or of the remainder of our people. Several of these merchants seem to remember a body of men from the deserted mountains who arrived in Aggabug some years ago. Interest is renewed among the apathetic. Tomorrow at dawn we shall change the direction of our travel, and go towards Aggabug. The merchants tell us that such a noble gathering as ours will be well-received in that prosperous town. So at last we are approaching the territory so familiar to our forefathers! After years of trudging through mire (so to speak) we are at the threshold of the paved highway. The merchants say that it will take us about three weeks reach the city, but three years to leave. Parochialists!
I
A certain man lived alone in a cottage at the top of a hill, and in this cottage he shut himself up, and so was never to be seen in the village which lay at the foot of the hill.
But one morning this man was, altogether without reason, very happy; and one account of this he ran out of his whitewashed cottage, down the green hill, and into the little village.
As he ran through the village he cried with joy and shouted to attract everyone's attention. Soon however he noticed that the inhabitants who greeted him all of them moaned and wailed despondently Everywhere old people lay overcome by infirmity, the daily toil threatened to get the better of the still capable ones, and the few youthful faces to be seen were pale and sickly.
Having surveyed a crowd of such villagers, all of whom began at once to direct all kinds of complaint at the newcomer, the later turned round, seized with fear, and ran all the way up to the top of the green hill, and was so overwhelmed by feelings of sadness that he rushed into his cottage and hanged himself.
II
The villagers meanwhile, suddenly seized with curiosity about this unfriendly man, ceased their moaning, rushed up the hill in one angry mob, and stormed into the cottage.
1
Confronted by the hanged man, they were very amused and in fact from that day have never stopped laughing.
2
Confronted by the hanged man, they were so upset that they rushed back down the hill and hung themselves, yes every one of them, too.
I
An absurd eccentric! who was bound to hang himself in the end.
... who deluded himself that he was happy, who saw boundless joy in every tear he shed, and was in fact as sad as hell. His sadness due no doubt to his anti-social habits. Maybe, nevertheless, that he one morning looked up at the blue sky, and the nice cotton-wool clouds floating across it, and that he consequently was extra happy.
And so he left his cottage and ran into the village. Of course the people there appeared to him to be moaning: that was just a reflection of his own sadness. Besides, the truth is that there were two villages on opposite sides of the hill. In one they were rejoicing over a good harvest; whilst the crops of the other village had been ruined, so naturally they were in a bad way there—why should he have chosen, inappropriately, that village, instead of running down the other side of the hill to help the rejoicers?
II
Very likely that the villagers were too concerned with their ruined crops even to notice this useless individual, however odd his appearance. Possible that the village constable climbed slowly and altogether without reason to the top of the hill, upon discovering the corpse was glad to have found a reason for his journey, smiled and took the necessary steps.
P. J. McGrath.
Frontiers. Vol. 1 No. 1. Edited by David Prescott, P.O. Box 1659, Christchurch. 40c. Reviewed by Nevil Gibson.
The first thought regarding a new literary review is one of foreboding. Is it really necessary when the recent issues of Mate and Arena have been so appalling that one wonders whether they should have been published at all. The standard of new writing in New Zealand at the present moment seems to be at an all-time low. Work is published not for merit, but out of sympathy.
It is time editors (aspiring and actual) who want to encourage new writers, realise that only a minor part of contributed work deserved publication. Little magazines have a vital part to play in any literate culture, but low standards will gain nothing, neither will parochialism.
Frontiers appears to be breaking the "isolationist" stance of N.Z. literary magazines by virtue of a strong representation of overseas writing and a New York-based editor. But how much good this will do remains to be seen. As it is the best poetry in the first issue is by two Americans unknown to local readers.
Samuel Eisenstein's poems are terse, concerned with destruction and estrangement. Keith Wilson's are more obscure, depending largely upon disjunctive rhythm, confirming the sadly ignored art of poetry reading in public.
Of the N.Z. contributors it is pleasing to see more of Toss Woolaston's autobiography in print—it has long been in ms form and hopefully it promises extended publication.
Poems by James K. Baxter, Ruth Dallas and Robert Thompson are included but are disappointing, although one of Baxter's shows a departure from his more recent public pre-occupations.
The short story by Bernard Brodsky lacks tension and insight into his pensioner whose vision of life is as inform as his physique.
Finally in the issue are some examples of "concrete" poetry, all by overseas poets. It is somewhat to be expected that the latest poetic cult would find itself in a new review. But experimentations in typography in the "concreteness" of words themselves in print, are very limited in scope. There has been a anthology of this type of verse published recently in England by Alan Ross but has yet to reach New Zealand, and this will serve as an introduction if and when it does make an appearance.
All the same, "concrete" poetry should be viewed with some scepticism. The editor, in his introductory note, offers Frontiers as an open magazine welcoming both the traditional and experimental. This is, however, an error of enthusiasm that could mean the premature death of a promising venture. Too many literary magazines fear committment to some idea of literature (understandable only in the case of a subsidised one). Publication as a "responsibility to the material itself as it is created and is defined in larger time and space" tells us nothing that is certain, nothing that is new.
If Frontiers, or any such similar magazine, is to find an original voice and create something of value, it must be prepared to select carefully and edit vigorously. It must come to grips with new movements in literature, and re-explore old ones. The concept of "vanguard culture" is not a weirdie term from radical wastepaper baskets, but something that vitally needs discussion and expression. New Zealand has needed such writers for some time.
A new magazine must attempt to cultivate such latency, not just sit back and wait for contributions to flow in. It must not, however become the purveyor of cliche and synthetic "people's literature" such as the unlamented Fernfire. To deserve and achieve success Frontiers must seriously consider such questions, for existence alone is no guaranty of survival.
The Eye Corrects. Poems by Alan Roddick. Blackwood & Janet Paul, Auckland 1967. Price $1.25. Reviewed by Jan Walker.
Alan Roddick damns his own poetry by his blurb on the back cover. "I rarely find writing a poem an enjoyable experience, and I write only when I have to. Not when I have something to write about, but rather when I have to write something".
Unfortunately he does exactly as he says and writes 'something' which rarely turns out to be a successful poem. He has odd successful lines where he achieves stinging orgininality and beauty, but generally his work is clumsy and unpolished.
His poems suffer from a self-conscious artificially and become more an intellectual exercise than the expression of feeling. For example his poem "The Shell" begins and in "Baby with Ball" his analogy of the world becomes uncomfortably blatant.
His poem "A Patient", which is a description of a dental extraction probably springs from his genuine affection for his profession, but between the extraction and the recording the spontaneity dies, and the poem fails to excite.
Alan Rodick is a poet of good intention. He attempts, as he states, to throw new light on the everyday world and in part succeeds although his poems do not yet claim a distinctive style nor freedom from a forced construction.
It's about time the Wellington City Council woke up— the National Art Gallery is a disgrace to our city. In the whole gallery there are only three nudes.
The first, a semi-nude, is entitled The Straw Hat. Granted the model is wearing a straw hat but that doesn't strike the eye first.
The artist is Mark Gertler. The painting was bought from the Sir Harold Beauchamp Bequest in 1959.
It is an uninspiring work painted with great regard for detail—this is its downfall.
The second is somewhat more distinctive. It is clearly a nude woman, but not of the exact representational type as The Straw Hat.
The artist, W. Brooker, appears to have been influenced by Velasquez' Rokeby Venus in his positioning of the model and style. This painting came from the Beauchamp Bequest in 1957.
The third has a refreshing title—simply Nude and Moon. It is in the cubist style with blues and greys predominating. This makes it hard to understand at first, but careful inspection plus some imagination helps. Painted by Godfrey Miller Nude and Moon was presented by the Wellington City Council in 1965.
—A. M. Catterall.
The Graphic Work Of M. C. Escher, sixty nine reproductions in black and white, four in colour. 12 1/2 × 9 inches. Preceded by classification and description. Oldbourne, London, 1967. Distributed by Whitcombe and Tombs.
Maurits Cornelius Escher is a master in visual perception. A dutch artist born 1898, the foundations of his art are constructed upon philosophy and mathematics, more specifically an integration of psychological perception and topological theory.
Escher is concerned primarily with the discrepancy between the mental image and the visual image. His perception of physical phenomena of the external world, via the optics and its interpretation and correlation within the mind. He believes, "A mental image is something completely different from a visual image, and however one exerts oneself, one can never manage to capture the fulness of that perfection which hovers in the mind and which one thinks of, quite falsely as something that is 'seen'."
Primarily figurative, Escher is technically competent in his use of graphic techniques of which examples in this book include lithographs, woodcuts, wood engravings, and mezzotints. Undoubtedly influenced by dada and surrealism his work is similar to Dali and Rene Margritte. Overtones of German expressionism prevade his graphic hallucinations which involve a subliminal awareness of death, absurdity, and the futility of human existence.
The assault on the olfactory sense currently emanating from the smokestack which looms out of the culinary quarters of Maison Fritz is now seriously rivalling for the first time the overpowering aroma of oleaginous armpits which greets the entrant to the eating quarters at the luncheon hour. Surely the proprietor would not be seeking in his inimitable way to remind the younger generation of the horrible days of Auschwitz?
* * *
With all this talk about the breathalyser being batted around in the corridors of power I feel it incumbent upon myself to relate this somewhat outdated incident from the British scene. At the time when the breathalyser was being discussed, the Minister of Transport, Barbara Castle became very heated, and because of the oppressiw British atmosphere and what all, suddenly fainted. Georges Brown, ever the gallante, rushed to her aid and commenced to administer the kiss of life. She turned green.
* * *
One has to admire that great entrepreneur Alister Taylor (note the spelling of the name, which the news media have been not too careful over) for his derring do. What promised to be a petty C.O.V. promotion on the usual scale has turned out to be one of the best publicity stunts ever perpetrated in God's own.
* * *
I laughed the other day. I really did. At a Publications Board meeting. Last year there was bitter language spoke over the appointment of the Cappicade editors. A past editor and a past writer of Extrav. were given the old thumbs down at a packed meeting in favour of a nondesscript fellow, who writes a sometime funny column. The reason I laughed? The nondescript was given the sack at the last Publications Board meeting, a mere five weeks before publication date. His better half continues to plug on. And what of the unsuccessful applicants? Weeellll, one is writing Extrav. and the other is writing a sometime funny column in Salient. Funny, that.
Sir—When is something to be done about the deceptive gradient leading from the S.U.B. to R.B. It is difficult enough to detect the irregularities on bright sunny days let alone in the dusk of a post-five or six o'clock lecture.
I have seen several people with leather soled shoes go 'a' over 'k' upon encountering the depressions in this path with ah above average speed. I would suggest a few shovel-fulls of tarseal be introduced to alleviate this problem before some Q.A.I, student rushing to his part-time job in the early evening breaks a limb, lacerates an exposed place or bruises a part.
Sir,—I am delighted to find Salient publishing at least one column of impeccably sound political comment; to wit, the thoughts of Mr. J. H. Mitchell. It is rare indeed that such an acute political wit and such a fierce contempt, for the milky-kneed liberal myths are combined with the more traditional views, but in Mr. Mitchell we find both.
When Mr. Mitchell wittily pokes gentle fun (however obliquely) at the beliefs held, I am sure, by many of our readers, and certainly reflected on occasion in your columns, how can we fail to realise that there are two sides to any issue: the Right, and the Wrong side. May I say that I am on Mr. Mitchell's side, and indeed, will support anyone whose political faith is securely based on the trinity of Morality, Private Property, and the Superior Culture of the Anglo-Saxon Race.
God bless you in your persecution of the Good Fight. Mr. Mitchell. When the 'Dominion' describes you, who can doubt but that it will call you. 'The William F. Buckley Of Karori'
Sir,—In the issue on April 9th you included a photo of surfing. The caption below read, "Dropping in on a perfect four foot curl at Houghton Bay."
1. The surfer was not dropping in.
2. The wave was nowhere near four feet, more like 2(-3 ft. Exaggeration is a well-known feature of a gremmie.
3. There was no curl as the photo shows.
4. The wave nowhere near perfect—it was a small, slow, there was a short ride, and it was closing out that day as the photographer (a surfer well-worth watching) would confirm.
We would like to know, as members of the V.U.W. Surfriders Club, the name of the goose who wrote this manure.
A more appropriate caption would have been., "He also surfs, who only stands up on waves".
[I have no knowledge of surfing. The photo and caption were supplied by somebody purporting to be a member of the V.U.W. Surfriders Club,—ed.]
Cinema offerings over the past few weeks have been disappointing, especially in new releases. Highlight of Easter weekend was a chance to see a rare screening of Victor Fleming's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941) with Spencer Tracy brilliant in a double role as the charming kindly doctor and the grinning diabolical Hyde.
Although 27 years old the original print was in good condition but it deserves more than a showing at 1.30 a.m. on a Saturday morning. For some reason the advertising made no mention of either Tracy or his co-stars, Ingrid Bergman (as the prostitute-with-a-heart-of-gold) and the young and glamorous Lana Turner. Many people have
The re-issue at Cinerama of Fleming's most famous film Gone With The Wind is a mixture of good and bad, as is to be expected of a film made in 1939. The increased size, stereophonic sound and new colour printing emphasise its good production values, but the curvature of the cinerama screen is unsuitable, except for the brief outdoor scenes during the first half. The flatter 70 mm screen at the Kings would have been a better choice.
The photography remains striking; some of it quite breathtaking in the imaginative use of colour, notably in the burning of Atlanta and the escape back to the lantation.
The dialogue is justly memorable for some of the biting lines delivered by Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh), and the
The sentimentality and melodrama of Margret Mitchell's long novel provides enough plot to keep office girls and housewives happy wiping (ears from their eyes while
For sophisticated viewers it is something of an endur
Max Steiner's music is at times insufferable. The acting of a period when "stylism", not "method" was paramount can be appreciated, however.
The Way West
Harold Hecht's production of A. B. Guthrie's The Way west aspires to greatness, but that's about all. Its sprawing narrative lacks tension and elementary entertainment values in order to achieve a degree of realism. The
Guthrie's novel (previous writing includes the classic too vulnerable a character. Predictably his vision survives, but he doesn't.
There is undoubtedly some merit in attempting to film an epic journey with some truthfulness, but unfortunately the scriptwriters did not develop the characters beyond stereotype.
It is, one imagines, an inferior Stagecoach writ large, and a warning that serious novels of the West don't necessarily contain the ingredients of a good Western. This can be best appreciated by comparison with either Sergio Leone's Italian-made ode to violence For A Few Dollars More, the minor masterpieces of Budd Boetticher (Commanche Station (1958), Buchanan Rides Alone (1958), The Tall T (1957) are recently-seen examples), or last year's two best Westerns, El Dorado and The War Wagon.
Point Blank
Best of the new releases is due at the Plaza following the popular Bedazzled. John Boorman's Point Blank is the best new American film since In The Heat Of The Night, and probably for some time yet. It has none of the racial melodrama of the latter film and all (and more) of its technical stylism. Resnais-style flashbacks, Lee Marvin brilliantly wry and brutal, slashing, killing— a man obsessed by revenge and jealousy—and Boorman's pacy direction make this an impressive achievement.
Although not wholly digestible in one screening Point Blank will no doubt cause many to turn away with unsavourv palates. The violence is at times uncontrolled; glass-slashed faces caused an uproar more than once in the theatre. There is no moralising to satisfy the bourgeois, no tragic catharthic ending.
The beautifully muted colours of Philip Lathrop's photography (Last seen to effect in The Happening) adds a strange hypnotic realism. Co-star Angie Dickinson was last seen with Marvin in Don Seigel's neglected, violent essay The Killers.
Boorman's first feature was the small but effective Dave Clarke Five vehicle, Catch Us If You Can. With Point Blank he has made a first-class modern American thriller proving that Hollywood is not the dead-end in film-making.
Sharp eyes may have detected three cuts made by the censor (in reels 3, 5, 7), a habit he has in most new films dealing with violence and sex. The cuts here are probably for sex, as they were in Bonnie and Clyde. Verdict: a must see.
Watch for return season shortly at the Paramount of one of last years best but least-seen films, Fred Coe's brilliant adaption of A Thousand Clowns.
Excellent acting imaginative photography and "grab-you" music
—Nevil Gibson/M. J. Heath.
Victoria Unive rsity stole the limelight in the New Zealand universities' Easter tournament rowing, held on the Wanganui River.
It won the feature eights event impressively and followed this by a resounding single sculls victory.
Gibbons, one of the power men in the successful Vic eight, had too much in reserve for the single sculling field to take his third consecutive victory in this race. He was selected for the New Zealand universities' crew which trounced the rest by 1( lengths.
The eights was no walkover for Victoria. They had to fight off Canterbury who finished fast over the last quarter mile of the two mile course.
On the driftwood-strewn river. Victorias course was the most obstacle-laden and they had to literally weave their way to the finish. The crew did well to win with an interrupted training schedule after a boating accident on Wellington Harbour which claimed the life of their coxswain A. Boycott and injured their coach, R. Joyce.
Victoria was helped to its overall points tally win of 23 points for the regatta by the second placing of its doublesculls R. Troll and O. Gilbert, both members of the eight. These two were also picked for the New Zealand universities eight.
The race between the N.Z. universities' eight and the rest was a fine exhibition of solid rowing. New Zealand universities held their rating low until the last 300 metres after containing the rest from the gun.
Then in a last sprint they suddenly accelerated away to beat the rest by 1( lengths.
Comprising the N.Z.U. crew were: R. Black (stroke), A. Winwood (Canterbury), O. Gilbert, J. Gibbons (Victoria), P. R. Trott (Victoria), R. Fairclough (Auckland and N. Lynch (cox).
Those selected for the Rest were: P. Hill (Masssey), C. Ashby (Auckland), N. Reilly, L. Lopus, D. Raw son (Canterbury), C. Nilsson (Lincoln), T. Castle (Victoria) and M. Seawood (cox).
The race billed as "Ladies fours—1000 metres, if they survive", produced some fine rowing. particularly from Auckland who were in a class of their own.
Otago led all the way in the closest race of the day— the novice fours, to win from Canterbury and a fast-finishing Massey No. 3.
Otago also won the light-weight fours. They boated a strong combination which left Massey crews more than 100 metres behind.
Lincoln took their only placing in the college fours. They were third behind Canterbury No. 1 and Otago No. 1.
Otago's N. Sharpe and M. Ramsay were in fine form for the double sculls, comfortably beating Troll and Gilbert from Vic. who had steering trouble.
Results were:
Eights: Victoria (O. Gilbert, stroke, J. Gibbons, B. Sharp, T. Castle, C Gilbert, J. Welch) 1, Canterbury 2, Massey 3; distances, 1L. 3(L.
College fours: Canterbury No. 1 (D. Lindstrom, stroke, T. Brownlie, A. Mclntyre, A Tail) 1, Olago No. 1. 2, Lincoln 3; distances, 2L, 3L.
Lightweight fours: Otago 1. Massey No. 1, 2, Massey No. 2, 3; distanc 1 1/2 L.
Single sculls: Victoria (J. Gibbons) 1, Otago 2, Canterbury 3; distances, 3 1/2 L, 1L. Novice fours: Olago No. 1, 1/2 G. Holloway, A. Edmond, B. Ferris, E. Edgar) 1, Canterbury No. 1, 2, Massey N. 3; distances 1L, canvas.
Ladies' fours: Auckland 1, Otago 2, Canterbury 3. Distances, 3L, 1/2L.
Double sculls: Otago (N. Sharpe, M. Ramsay) 1, Victoria 2, Massey 3; distances, 2 1/2L, 3L.
Double sculls: Otago (N. Sharpe, M. Ramsay) 1, Victoria 2, Massey 3; distances, 2 1/2L, 3L.
Final points: Victoria 23, Canterbury 18, Otago 16, Massey 4, Lincoln 2.
1 p.m. Forum. On Sub lawn if fine, Common Common Room if wet.
7 p.m. Common Common Room. Meeting to set up a committee to organise World University Services at Victoria.
World University Service
WUS aims to aid universities in under-developed areas by assisting them through self-help enterprises, and is helping resolve basic university problems. It is a world-wide organisation and is very active in other NZ universities, especially Canterbury and Otago. All interested students are invited to attend. VUW International Affairs Committee.
7.15-10.30 p.m. Committee Room 1, Chess Club ladder games—if you arc not already on our ladder, then come along tonight.
8 p.m. Memorial Theatre. EXTRAV, produced by Roger Hall.
8 p.m. Interfaculty drinking horn. St. Francis Hall. Tickets 5/- from office. Free grog laid on.
8.20 a.m. Quiet Room. Holy Communion will be celebrated by the N.C.C. Chaplain.
1 p.m. Memorial Theatre— Pol. Sci. Soc. lecture.
8 p.m. Memorial Theatre— EXTRAV.
6 a.m.-7 p.m. Charity Collection: Collectors urgently wanted.
12.00 noon. Prosech. Leaves from Sussex Street.
1.10 p.m. Music Room. Hunter Building. Weekly music recital music by klebe and Schubert, performed by Natan Okner, Frederick Page and Judith Clark.
8 p.m. Memorial Theatre. EXTRAV.
8 p.m. Memorial Theatre, EXTRAV.
9.00 p.m. CAPPING BALL. Tickets $5 double from Office
2 p.m. EXTRAV.
8 p.m. EXTRAV.
5-10 May, Science Students Conference. Application forms available at Stud Ass Office. Please return to P. Cropp, E3I0 Easterfield, or post to The Secretary Science Clubs Committee, P.O. Box 196. Wellington.
10-12 May. University Catholic Societies of NZ Congress at Sacred Heart Convent, Island Bay. Leading speakers, seminars. social events. Tickets $11.00 Contact Committee members or Chaplain.
Film Society Showing. the first showing for Term 2 will be in the Memorial Theatre on
Western Film Festival —Memorial Theatre, May 25, 26. : Modesty Blaise". Memorial Theatre—27 May.
Wednesday 22 May, Thursday 23 May. Memorial Theatre 8 p.m. Massey University Drama Club present "Magnificence" by Skelton. Watch for publicity about this play on the Student Union Notice-boards and in Salient.
Friday 24th May. Memorial Theatre. Debating Club Debate 7.30 p.m.
Friday 7th June Sub VUW Ski Club Ball, 9 p.m. Refreshments and excellent sitdown supper provided. Swinging band "Tijuana Brass" style. Tickets on sale shortly.
During Terms 2 And 3 The Sandwich Lunch Bar Will Be Open On Saturdays From 10.30 A.M. To 13
During The May Vacation The Student Union Dining Room Will Be Open Monday To Friday, From 10.00 A.M. To 3.30 P.M.
Capping is a defunct beast at Vic: at Auckland, Christ-church and Dunedin, it runs wild, chaotic, impressive.
These cities know more about their universities through Capping than through any other student activity or medium; "town-gown" relations in these cities are often more amiable than they are here.
Look around—YOU are an integral part of an apathetic society.
Your University is known for its judicial management, its financial stability, its stultifying conservatism.
"Student life", in a liberal sense, has atrophied; it is almost non-existent.
This week you can do something about it.
Society permits university students a certain amount of licence and indeed, expects this to be taken advantage of over Capping.
With a little enthusiasm and a little applied ingenuity, Capping can be made a worthwhile tradition.
It is probably too late to think of building a float now.
Stunts can still be "perpetrated" but, please, running around town wielding a paint brush is not pulling off a stunt; any student should be able to recognise juvenile vandalism.
There are plenty of other activities: tonight, the Drinking Horn.
Thursday, Charity Collection. This is not merely an outlet for altruists, it can be fun. It definitely is worthwhile and free Capping Ball tickets will be given to the best-costumed collectors).
Friday, Capping Ball, tickets $5.
It is not too late to do something. just get off your arses and Think.
Sportsmen and women may feel well satisfied with Vic's effort in finishing runner-up to Otago in Easter Tournament held at Massey. Otago traditionally has a very powerful team—particularly so in Athletics and swimming." Third behind Vic in overall points was Auckland followed by Canterbury and Massey.
As far as individual sports were concerned Vic was overall winner in shooting, rowing and yachting and also finished well up in Volleyball, Tennis and Swimming. For the first time Surfing was held as an invitation sport and from all accounts was most successful with Vic finishing second equal. It was most unfortunate that the cricket had to be cancelled due to the fact that the teams from South Island Universities were on the Wahine. It did seem at one stage that the whole of Tournament may have been disrupted by the Wahine disaster but alternative arrangements were able to be made for the transport of Southern teams to Massey.
The next major event on the sporting calendar is Winter Tournament which is to be staged by Vic this year. As usual it will be held in the first week of the August holidays (12-17th August). The Tournament Controller is Chris Corry and organization is already well under way.
In addition to the sports usually held the possibility of holding gymnastics as an invitation sport is being looked into. This does however raise the point that because of the large number of sports which are or wish to be included in Winter Tournament it may be necessary soon to examine the structure of Winter Tournament as it could become too large and unwieldy for one University to administer.
For Quality Meat
call
Upland Road Butchers
86 Upland Road Kelburn
For Flowers ...
Waughs
Flower Shoppe Ltd.
5 Bowen Street
Tel. 40-797
(After Hours 44-068)
Barry & Sargent Ltd
Opticians
118 Willis St. - Tel. 45-841
Victuallers
Reginald Collins Ltd
Wholesale wine and spirit people. Vintners to the Students' Association. Carry slocks of all brands of ale, spirits, table wine (from 55c), sherry in flagons ($1.60) or quart bottles.
Free delivery—Cellars located at No. 3 Ballance Street
(Customhouse Quay and)
Centre way Cafe
42 Ghuznee Street
*
For all Chinese Meals cooked while you wait.
*
Reasonable Prices
James Soteros
New Hairdressing Salon
•
47 Farish Street And 23 Manners Street
For All Student Styles
St. George
Billiard Saloon
Offers 15% Discount To Students
Mondays to Thursdays
Open 9 a.m. — 11 p.m.
Monday to Saturday
Dentice Dry Cleaning
Telephone 81-105
•
The Students' Dry Cleaner
•
Free Pick-Up And Delivery 48-Hour Service
Downstage Theatre Cafe
Commencing 30 April
"Killing Of Sister George"
by Frank Marcus
Produced by Dick Johnstone With Pal Evison Cocily Polson Mariorie, Brooke-White Nancy Krinkel
Dinner 7 p.m. - Show 8.30 p.m.
All Reservations
Telephone 55-739
Coffee
"The Park"
is situated opposite the fountain in Kelburn Park, 200ft. from the Varsity.
Open every Wednesday and Sunday from 6 p.m.
•
Hosts :
Rachel and Jan Calkoen
Hotel St. George The "Seven Seas Bar"
Best In New Zealand
• Nearest to university
• Modern, comfortable surroundings.
• Cool, bright, fresh best on tap always.
• Food available from our "Food Bar",1.45 a.m. to 2.30 p.m.
• Mixed drinking—all facilities.
Entrees, Cold Buffet, Vegetables, Hot Pies
S. P. Andrew Studio
Photographers
10 Willis Street
Daysh Renouf & Co
Members Wellington Stock Exchange
National Mutual Centre
Featherston Street Tel. 70-169
Transistor. • Radio Electrical Repairs
Radiart Co.
22 Brandon Street Wellington
Correction: Committee on Vietnam chairman John Cough has a bourgeois career after all—he's a Big Wheel in the Institute of Nuclear Sciences. So status is saved, the C.O.V. is in no danger, and the only thing lost is the cause of Student Power.
John has in fact graduated three times. So we have erred — badly. Long may the bourgeoisie chair the C.O.V!
* * *
New idea for exporting revolution: paint Owen Gager black and send him to Harlem.
* * *
Among the steady stream of protests to Salient'S editor against the folly, irresponsibility and/or crudity of this column was another letter on the Saga of Downstage's Own Paper, ACT, this time from a Marie August. Miss August rebukes this column for ignoring Mr. Bruce Mason's assertion that ACT "breaks even".
It is with bitter tears indeed that this column, under pressure, is forced to admit that it won't take Mr. Mason's bare word until it sees his figures—and finds out why they weren't included in Downstage's balance sheet. Which goes to show how suspicious irreverent and rude this column is. If you have read this far why not stop reading now. Your mind will be healthier for it.
* * *
I like Piggy Muldoon. Its good to see somebody mentioning that education costs money, and obeys the laws of economics rather than transcending mere vulgar cash. Perhaps now Piggy has proved the education pressure group is dishonest with statistics, somebody will start wondering why we are spending all this money on Halls of Residence when most students prefer to live in flats. Is it because churches and other responsible hostelsponsoring organisations think it is easier to Watch Student Morals in hostels, especially ones with tight 11 o'clock curfews? Wouldn't it be easier to campaign for lower rents for flats than build hostels whose cost per square foot is spectacularly richer than commercial buildings?
* * *
Before the Executive, whom a letter to last week's Salient revealed was a branch of the Labour Party, kicks me off Salient for supporting Muldoon, I should compensate for my right-wingery by a plug for the left. Going back to Piggy's speech last Tuesday, it did seem, that at some time Piggy was going to try to cut down education spending, and if we think that Piggy was wrong we don't want that. But how Is Piggy going to beat the Sound Men in the Education Department, the University Grants Commission, Old Uncle Tom Cobley and all? Who will say he's wrong? Well, he told us. He'll try to undercut the normal methods of working out Government education spending by making submissions to the coming Nat. and Development Conference. The Conference will then be used AGAINST the education lobby. Sinister, eh? But did you know our Exec has gone on record In Favour Of the National Development Conference? Shortsighted, perhaps?
"Indonesia wants to live in friendship and peace with all nations of the world," said Mr. Adam Malik, Foreign Minister of Indonesia, speaking at Victoria University recently.
"Friendly relations with our immediate neighbours are of utmost importance," he continued. "We have consistently pursued this policy ever since I had the privilege to serve as Foreign Minister in the Government of President Suharto."
"Our foreign policy will continue to be non-aligned, an independent and active foreign policy, anti-imperialist and anti-colonialist, as delineated in the decision of the M.P.R.S., the Provisional
People's Consultative Assembly." he said.
This decision had been taken in conformity with the provisions of Indonesia's 1945 Constitution and with the State philosophy, he said. This consisted or five principles, belief in God, humanity, the unity of Indonesia or nationalism, democracy, and social justice.
"After the abortive coup d'etat of 30 September 1965 by the P.K.I., a comprehensive review had to be made of the conduct of our foreign policy. It has to be brought back to its basic principles which remain unchanged," he said.
Mr. Malik discussed the need in South East Asia for a scheme of effective cooperation between countries with different outlooks and political systems. He mentioned the formation of the Association of South East Asian Nations (A.S.E.A.N.) on 8 August 1967.
This Association comprises Thailand. the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and Indoesia—five nations "determined to enter into arrangements with each other to bring about progress and prosperity to the peoples of their region in equality, fraternity, mutual respect and understanding."
Mr. Malik said that it was hoped that improvement in the standard of living of the people would blunt the sharp edges of political controversies, and gradually national resistance capabilities would increase.
"Armed strength alone is not sufficient for the defence of a nation; it is but a part of the overall capacity of that nation to safeguard itself from any possible threat."
"Within this context Indonesia places more importance on economic co-operation and development rather than on military alliances or pacts," he said.
Discussing the planned withdrawal of British forces from the basis in South East Asia by 1971, Mr Maia—filik said Indonesia welcomed the idea of withdrawal.
"But we do not subscribe to the anxieties of those countries who may still think of Indonesia as a potential menace after the British leave the scene.
To those who erroneously harbour this feeling of anxiety we categorically say that Indonesia has no territorial ambitions whatsoever and that it respects the territorial integrity of its neighbours," he said.
On the war in Vietnam, Mr. Malik said "We are of the opinion that the cessation of the bombings on North Vietnam could lead to a peaceful settlement through negotiation.
He welcomed the recent American de-escalation move, and said all moves towards the negotiation table should be encouraged. He suggested the use of Djarkarta as a venue for negotiations.
Mr. Malik welcomed also the elevation to ambassadorial status of representation between New Zealand and Indonesia.
A conference of science students is to be held at Victoria over the May holdays.
A spokesman said that all talks will have scientific subject matter, some of them specifically so, but they are designed to appeal.
The best-known of the speakers will be Professor Geering, who will give a talk entitled The Role of Theology in a Scientific Ago'.
Other activties will include a glassblowing demonstration and a debate between two VUW profesors and the Debating Society on the motion That the earth is flat", the two professors supporting the motion.
On the social, side there will be a wine and cheese evening, for which a number of tickets will be available to non delegates (price 50c single) and a dinner on the final night, Friday 10th.
Enrolments have come in from as far as South Australia; the total number expected is in the region of 100.
Enrolments will probably be accepted up until Friday 3rd.