Publicly accessible
URL: http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/collections.html
copyright 2013, by the Victoria University of Wellington Library
All unambiguous end-of-line hyphens have been removed and the trailing part of a word has been joined to the preceding line, except in the case of those words that break over a page.
Some keywords in the header are a local Electronic Text Collection scheme to aid in establishing analytical groupings.
A special general meeting of the VUW Students' Association to start at 7.30 tonight will decide whether the Association will officially endorse the protest march to Parliament tomorrow.
It is expected that an amendment accompanying the motion will call students to boycott lectures during the afternoon.
These moves are the result of student support for the Committee on Vietnam and trade union demonstrations which will coincide with the opening of Parliament tomorrow.
The meeting will also decide whether the Association has confidence in the Government's handling of the economy and of University affairs.
The organiser of the march,
Owen said the committee believed that "no confidence in the Government on every possibly issue must be the theme of tomorrow's strike and demonstration.
"The Government's pretence of having a foreign policy is totally exposed by its present failure to have a domestic policy.
"We will be demonstrating to show our support for the NZ worker and to join the unions in creating the electoral climate which will reject the Holyoake Government," said Mr.
He said a demonstration by workers and students would not change the Government's policy regarding the income of the wage earner, nor the undemocratic structure of educational decision-making in New Zealand.
"One thing we hope it will do is show others, and the demonstrators themselves, that they are not the sad-eyed ruminants who gaze dolefully on their own plight as they have previously been led to believe.
"The workers and students have power and must be encouraged to use it." Mr Wainwright said.
The failure of the Arbitration Court to issue even a token wage increase was termed "the most serious breakdown of the system of income distribution in the post-1890 New Zealand capitalist economy," by a Spartacist Club spokesman,
"The cult of the "little man' who is against both 'big labour' and 'big capital' which is the ideology used to unite small-scale business and craft labour unions against social change has collapsed.
"A successful strike and demonstration could mark 'the beginning of a re-making of NZ politics.
"The Spartacist Club opposes all efforts to limit the objectives of tomorrow's action to 'reform the arbitration system—Kirk's line— or to call things off if the Employers Federation goes in for secret diplomacy with the Trade Union bureaucrats— Toby Hill's line."
A spokesman for the Labour Club,
"Students need increased support for accommodation shortages, which, like bursary levels, discriminate against the less fortunate obtaining access to higher education."
The President of the National Club,
He said he thought the Court of Arbitration's decision was "unfortunate", but the Government's handling of economic and educational policy was "better than could be expected of any alternative Government."
The Government is investigating the installation of a radio navigational system of such importance that it could make New Zealand a primary target for nuclear attack in any war involving the United States.
The Prime Minister, the
His statement does not view the installation as a potential threat to New Zealand.
But some scientists see it as being essential to the accurate firing of nuclear weapons from Polaris submarines.
"More information must be gathered and assessed before it can be decided whether it would be advantageous to have an Omega station in New Zealand or elsewhere," said Mr Holyoake.
"No commitment has been entered into by either the New Zealand or the United States Governments to establish an Omega station in this country.
"Should a New Zealand site prove suitable, the United States authorities will approach the New Zealand Government to seek approval for the establishment of the station and full consideration will then be given to the matter.
"The Omega system will not be restricted to military uses. With the purchase of a small, simple and relatively cheap receiving device, all ships and aircraft will be able to fix their positions — with great accuracy — from the lower frequency signals of the Omega station," Mr Holyoake said.
In an article published in Canta this morning (Tuesday),
"There Is sufficient internal evidence available to suggest that Omega is intended for military use. Accuracy can be obtained up to a quarter of a mile," he said.
"This is far in excess of the accuracy required by merchant ships."
The position is arrived at by comparing beams from two radio stations, he said. For Omega to work, the position of the craft must be established within seven miles by conventional methods; Omega can then pinpoint the position within a quarter of a mile.
"To achieve seven mile accuracy is beyond the precision of the ordinary sextant and nautical calendar methods so Omega is useless for merchant ships," Mr Wilkes said.
They would have to purchase most expensive equipment, he said.
A Wellington physicist said last night that the Omega system went to great expense to secure very long wave lengths. These are unnecessary for ordinary purposes.
But as seawater is a conductor of electricity, only long wave lengths can penetrate it. Long wave lengths are therefore necessary to reach submarines.
In the case of the Omega the wave length is 20,000 metres fat 15 kilocycles) and this can penetrate to 2000-3000 metres. To produce this wave length, you need a very long and expensive transmitting aerial, say between two mountains, he said.
Even this is really not long enough and to compensate for this disadvantage it must be fed a termendous power supply.
"I would suspect they definitely would not hook on to the national grid for this power" he said. "They will have a very high . realiability grid which means they will probably have one of their own—my guess would be they will put in a nuclear power reactor, for this would be the most efficient way of getitng the power continuously.
Mr
"In the event of the outbreak of war, it would be imperative for the enemies of the U.S.A. to destroy this radio guidance system for nuclear submarines immediately.
"The mere presence of such a station in a country committed to United States policy would change New Zealand's status from a country whose lack of importance might well save it from an expensive missile attack to one which would be hit in the very first phase by rockets etc," he said.
The Christchurch Press on Friday, June 14, said it is conservatively estimated that the station will cost more than $4 million and will require a small town to accommodate staff.
It will be equipped with a computer and atomic clock and will have a 4000ft long aerial strung between two hills, and will use four megawatts of power.
The New Zealand station is apparently an attempt to overcome jamming of the network of Omega stations by the Chinese. It will be similar to the one being installed at North-West Cape in Australia.
The Vice-Chancellor told the president and vice-presidents of the Students' Association that the University will be open tomorrow unless there is a general transport strike.
Should there be a partial transport strike, the Vice Chancellor will ask lecturers to repeat material covered at a future lecture if their classes are reduced in size.
The managing-secretary of the Students' Union said last night that food services will be available in the students' union tomorrow, although, a few limitations may be caused by the 24-hour work stoppage affecting some supplies and deliveries.
The Medal was presented to His Excellency the Governor-General, Sir
Sanele. who is from American Samoa, spoke on the need to be friendly to people from other countries.
The text of his speech "The Stranger" was:
He may become the leader of his nation for the future;
He may become the premier of his country in years to come;
He may become the Head-of-State of his homeland for tomorrow;
As for today, he is the stranger in your midst.
Strangers fly in and out of New Zealand most hours of every day. Strangers sail in and out of New Zealand most days of every week. Strangers walk in and out of our lives without saying a word of greeting or uttering a word of farewell. But the stranger about whom I am speaking tonight is a man with a difference; a man of the future, a man for others, a man of destiny.
He may have come from Formosa, Vietnam, or Indonesia;
He may have come from India, Pakistan or Malaysia.
He may have hailed from the Congo, Tanzania or South Africa.
Or even from Rhodesia, Great Britain or North America.
He may have come from Ceylon, Thailand or Singapore;
He may have come from Fiji, Tonga or, in this case, Samoa.
From wherever he may have come this stranger is here on a mission of greatest importance. He has come to your universities so that he may live and share with you the life made by you. He has come so that he may share with you the future leadership of our world. He is here so that you may know his needs and thereby help to realise them. He is here so that you and he may build a binding-friendship and enjoy doing it.
Indeed this stranger is a man of destiny—for upon his shoulders rest the hopes of his family, his village, his people and his nation. He stands to you New Zealanders as a potential friend or a potential foe! If he and you become friends now, he and you will become friends forever; if he and you become enemies now, he and you will become enemies forever. But it is a wonderful thought that an individual friend made now may very well turn out to be 'nations of friends' for the future for before nations can become friends individuals should learn to befriend one another. Thus it is worth your while to befriend the stranger now in your universities.
When the foreign-student now in your universities returns to his homeland at the completion of his studies— when the temptation may come upon him to use the colour of his skin as the weapon for the destruction of his fellowmen—please God may he remember, let him look back to his university days in New Zealand that:
When he was hungry, you New Zealanders gave him to eat;
When he was thirsty, you New Zealanders gave him to drink;
And above all, when he was The Stranger you New Zealanders took him in.
Second place-getter was the Debating Society's president,
Third was
Other speakers were
A Political Science honours student has been refused permission by the Professorial Board to continue a course of study pursued for over two months.
The student, who declined to be identified, was doing an honours course concurrently with a Reading Knowledge Test which he failed last year for the second time.
At the beginning of the year, he applied to the Professorial Board for a special dispensation from the language requirement.
On 6th February he received a reply from the Registrar advising that his appeal against exclusion from class had been allowed.
The student took this to mean he would be permitted to do honours. He left work and began to prepare for the academic year.
A week later he received a letter from the Registrar saying his application for dispensation was being considered and the previous letter had been sent in error.
Upon enrolment he was told his application had been rejected, but was informed of an amendment to the B.A. (Hons.) Course Regulations which allows for a student to do a Reading Knowledge concurrently with an honours course.
"The Department head did not forsee any major problems," Salient was told, "and so I wrote out an application on the spot."
On March 12th, after more than a week of lectures, he was informed by the Registrar that the Professorial Board had declined his application.
On March 20th, he wrote to the Council under Section 34(3) of the University Act appealing against the Professorial Board's decision.
Six days later the Registrar replied that he was arranging for the appeal to be considered.
On April 26th, one week before the end of the first term, the student was informed his appeal had been considered by the Professorial Board and rejected.
The student was disappointed on several points.
He was very disappointed it had taken a term to clarify his position.
Mr. Salient In 1967, has been awarded the Salient Reporting Prize for 1967.
Mr
The article has "human Interest bears evidence of careful inquiries having been made and makes a sharp impact on the mind," the judge said.
For the 1967 prize $20.00 has been made available. Under the conditions setting up the prize Mr Curry may purchase "a book or books approved by the President for the time being of the Students' Association".
The book or books, under the conditions, are to have as en inscription the words "Comment is free but facts are sacred.—
Dear Sir,—How long must we permit Asian and Indian students to roam around this university ? Certainly, there is considerable apathy on the part of the New Zealand Government as regards this situation, as these students are actually encouraged to come to this country and attend a New Zealand university. With this position one is forced to wonder why governmental apathy should be readily inculcated in the student body which seems quite prepared to tolerate the inclusion of Asian and Indian students into university sports, their sharing of tables with white students both in the library and the cafe, their perpetual chattering in languages that in no way resemble English. I have attended Victoria for three and a half years, and during this time have noticed that there has been little open defiance against these Asian and Indian students whose arrogance has increased accordingly. The time has now come when every serious-minded white student must openly declare his views, hitherto held privately, as to the utter exclusion or even segregation of these above-mentioned alien students.
Your sincerely, Kelly
The Asian national unions of students may soon have an Asian Student Travel Bureau. The bureau would be responsible for the stimulation of student travel in Asia and development of travel facilities for Asian students' unions without travel bureaus.
The International Student Conference will sponsor a feasibility study for the project next month. A member of one of the sophisticated European Student Travel Bureaux will travel to New Zealand and other Asian countries in the course of the study.
The export will examine and advise on the relatively recently formed New Zealand Student Travel Bureau. It is also hoped his visit will stimulate local student interest in travel in the Asian region.
Another student trip to China is being organised this year. But it may be the last, because the shipping service is scheduled to be withdrawn. Other group trips offered this year are to Russia, New Caledonia, Samoa and Fiji.
Also this year will be first organised trip to the United States.
A considerable concession will still be offered on travel to Australia. Over 20 flights will be leaving for Australia after final exams, at 25% discount.
Students travelling on these flights can return at their discretion within a year of departure, to any of the four main centres.
Former NZUSA President,
He will be head of the newly-formed Education Department where his function will be to undertake research on matters affecting higher education and assist in the formulation of ISC's higher education policy.
Initially his appointment will be until the next International Student Conference probably in February next year.
It is possible he will take up a one or two year term following the conference.
Ross is the second New Zealander to serve in the Secretariat of the ISC.
Mr.
Could you please tell me if there is a standard 8 mm film of Bonnie and Clyde? I have seen the proper film once as I am only 12 years old. I got in that time because the doorman didn't seem to care. However I doubt if I will be able to see it again, so I would like my own 8 mm film of it — Letter in Films & Filming.
Our new Public Relations man, Salient last week. The dailies will be calling us studants as soon as he starts making statements.
At Exec. last week:
"Do you want to speak, Mr. Guthrie?"
"Yes—but I'm not quite sure what I want to say."
Guest speaker at the National Party Club meeting on Wednesday brought along some moral support — six other members of the National Party Southern Maori Electorate Executive. Three members of the Club also attended.
A Christian wants selection of conjuring tricks cheap but good and reliable for Gospel purposes, also battery/mains public address unit — Exchange and Mart.
"Newsmen don't have morals," says
Salient the other day. "Y' know, Bill," he said, "I find it infinitely easier to write the kind of tripe I usually write."
"The United Nations Declaration of Human Rights is a dangerous and hypocritical document which is likely to exaggerate the very situation it is intended to improve."
This view was stated by Mr
Defining "rights" Mr Mulgan said, "there are non-legal or moral rights in terms of which we criticise, alter and construct law. It is this sort or right which we are conconcerned with in a discussion of human rights.
"To ascribe moral rights to individuals is not a similar process to ascribing legal rights. They are demands that people ought to be treated in a particular way. Not statements that they are or will be so treated.
"These moral statements", said Mr Mulgan, "are statements of value distinct from statements of fact.
"It is the individual who 'possesses' the right, who is the source of the duty which he places on other people. Rights are a sort of moral property belonging to their owner.
"The possession of a right entitles one to limit the action of another. Thus the language of individual rights implies that the individual and his needs and claims are the foundations upon which the obligations of morality are based.
"The acceptance of the theory of human rights by most peoples, or at least by their leaders is one of the least noticed legacies of imperialism.
"Along with the Bible and industrialisation, the theory of human rights has been foisted by the west on a more or less unwilling world. This unforeseen consequence of western colonialism, the extension of a set of principles which was originally constructed to one social and economic context, to cover the whole world is likely to create great difficulties."
Mr Mulgan said that the whole idea of human rights had come under attack.
"It is impossible to draw up, in general terms, an absolute right. General rights can only give us guidelines or presumptions. They cannot provide clear cut solutions for all possible legal, political or moral situations.
"Furthermore there is the possibility or rather the inevitably that one right will clash with another."
However, "it does not follow from the fact that rights cannot be defined clearly and must sometimes be limited, that they are either useless or nonsensical," said Mr Mulgan.
"The facts of human nature are too complicated to allow us to extract any single, universal natural purpose. We should recognise the truth of the view put forward by Rousseau and Hegel, that men's needs and aspirations, vary according to particular social context in which they find themselves. The fact that men's economic, political cultural backgrounds are so widely disparate creates real difficulties.
"This diversity does not rule out the possibility of talking meaningfully in terms of human rights. But it does give serious doubts about the value of the United Nations declaration."
Mr Mulgan said that most thoughtful supporters of the Declaration would agree that all human rights will not be enjoyed by all the world's population in the near future.
They would claim the Declaration was a "step in the right direction." In this he felt the supporters of the Declaration were wrong.
While the developed countries could overcome difficulties in defining rights and arbitrating between them, the situation in underdeveloped countries is quite different.
"We have seen the tragic consequences of demanding that all societies must have democratic institutions on our model, regardless of their particular situation and needs.
"It is this sort of well-intentioned bungling that a document such as the Declaration, epitomises and encourages.
"The United Nations Declaration says that all men should be equally treated in certain fundamental respects, But it sets the level impossibly high. The underprivileged are not to be blamed for thinking it a highly disingenuous document.
"If we will not practise what we preach, then we should at least be prepared to accept a particular requirement as a human right only if three conditions are satisfied:—
"Firstly, if we think that it is important that all men ought to enjoy it; Secondly, if all men can enjoy it now, or at least, in the not too distant future; Thirdly, if we are prepared to do our bit to help all men to enjoy it if they do not already do so.
"Instead of starting at the top and describing the fundamental rights of a citizen to the most developed country, we should start at the bottom and find those rights which should and could be guaranteed to all men."
Jamie, known last year and in 1968's first term as
Wedderspoon stood for Students' Association Secretary at VUW early this year. He was defeated by
At the annual Executive elections in 1967 he was defeated in his bid for House Committee chairman.
He stood as a Democratic Labour candidate in the Palmerston North by-election, polling 61 votes, and losing his deposit. Features of the by-election included a campaign meeting where he climbed through a window in an attempt to crash a debate between the labour and National candidates.
"Jamie" Wedderspoon has announced his policy on Vietnam as being based on "the needs of the Vietnamese people rather than on American or Communist victory in military terms".
Early in 1967 the Minister of Defence, Mr
In 1968 Wedderspoon led a delegation of VUW students to see the Minister of Defence. at the time of the SEATO and Peace, Power and Politics conferences. The delegation affirmed its support for government policy in Vietnam.
His latest statement, if quoted correctly, appears to be his third recorded major change of policy on Vietnam.
According to the report quoted earlier, Wedderspoon was a member of the New Zealand Labour Party for seven years. He says he will give "discretionary support" to a Labour government.
To three people he said he received financial support and aid from the N.Z. National Party during the Palmerston North by-election.
National Party support came, Wedderspoon claimed, in an effort to split the Labour vote.
The Otago Daily Times report refers to Mr Wedderspoon as having had a year as a regular soldier in the New Zealand Army.
At VUW Forum in 1967. Wedderspoon said he had been court-martialled by the Army and as a result spent some time in the Ardmore Military Penal Detention Barracks.
The New Zealand Democratic Labour Party has disassociated itself from Mr
"As far as we're concerned, Mr Wedderspoon was a can didate for us at the Palm erston North by-election last year, but he is not a candidate for us in Dunedin North," continued Mr Guthrie.
Wedderspoon said that he considered himself an independent candidate. "I ran on my own two feel at Palmerston North, too."
According to the O.D.T.,
When asked to comment on the report above, Mr
"I have had to face up to these attacks on my character before, and I will face up to them again".
Mr Wedderspoon said that a statement quoting him as having claimed support from the National Party was a "lie".
Asked if at any time he had been a member, or had claimed to have been a member or employee of the party, he said: "That is a lie."
His comment on the report regarding alleged changes of religion was: "Now they're trying anti-Semitism."
Mr Wedderspoon denied calling the Minister of Defence a "fascist". When told that several students were willing to swear that they had heard him, he said: "They are no friends of mine".
Nzusa Insurance Scheme
Special Concessions And Low Premiums For Life Insurance
Contact Student Association Office.
Our Social Officer,
* * *
* * *
* * *
It was decided, without dissent, that the Students' Association should support the petition being arranged by
* * *
* * *
The Students' Association paid the Science Club $50 that they did not expect. It was returned !
* * *
* * *
A motion that exec. censure itself was lost by eight votes to six.
She said that thinking was fuxxy, debate disordered, and some of the chairmanship "inadequete".
The President,
It was generally acceptad the debate wes shambolic, but enough people realised the inexpedience of a vote of selfcensure to vole against it.
* * *
It seems to be fashionable, in religious circles, to be constructive, idealistic, hopeful and meaningful. An increasingly small number of people define everything as intrinsically meaningful and their actions show a similar obsession with the meaning in life.
They throw God at you as being the founder of their school (an honour I think God would probably take great exception to) and feel that, to keep the meaningful flag flying, they must leap on to the ever-existent, and always present, bandwaggon. They define the university, world, other people and themselves as absolutely meaningful.
Then they do not shout out against the apathy of students, indifference of students and the need for student power. Some of these people are not on the Executive of this establishment because they think that Exec has less meaning than the rest of the university and because they want to be involved in the meaningfulness of things in order to convince themselves that their initial diagnosis is right.
Some belong to the British and Foreign Bible Society and write meaningful poetry and meaningful literature for those who want to read meaningful words. Some of them are involved in the movement agitating for civil rights not because they believe in civil rights and because they want to help the establishment and other purveyors of meaningful propaganda.
Some of them are not involved in the campaign against Mr Levenbach, because they can afford to pay for cafe meals but because, if they support a man for long enough and something happens they feel they have proved that all activity is meaningful. Some of them take communion in order to prove that there is reality behind the altar.
But, whatever activity the optimist engages in or has engaged in, the cry now is not for student power; all power to the Executive, do not put up barricades in pigeon park, do not join with the unions and overthrow the Government, up with apathetic students, up with positivist, hopeful, idealistic students and give them absolute power to see how their superegos grow.
All power to the forces of hope,
The political clubs are also affected by this storm of hopeful locusts. Apart from the redoubtable forces of exec. (who are too much concerned with individual salvation to be worried about the world) the other religious groups seem to share the positivism of this group.
Is it true that the E.U. (with renewed ecumenical spirit) is joining forces with the Catholic society, in an attempt to erase heresies of all kind? Why not infuse student power with religious power and that way ensure the re-emergence of the inquisition?
Everyone, a hearty laugh for these—the consciences of our society, critics who do not know much, people who do not make a point of throwing out babies with bath water, people who are providing the meaningful leadership that the university needs so much.
Let us all applaud the constructive efforts of these people to infuse the society with the necessary idealism to arouse it from its contented slumbers. Three cheers for the S.C.M.
From this big, little, meaningful essay on meaning one can see that these trend setters in our midst, straight and ascetic, constructive and optimistic, are, in fact, achieving a great deal that is meaningless in the way of negative ideas for the recreation of our sick society. They are not imbuing us all with that crusading spirit which sees where there is a need in the community and does something about it
They are not giving us a positive lead by showing where the student can best use his resources. They are demonstrating with great aplomb the essentially negative role that the university can play in the community.
They agitate for better town-gown relations (it's not the best way to get money for meaningful halls of residence, but its good anyway) and advocate an Open Day for the university so the public can see the meaningful in action.
But there are one or two questions I would like to ask them before I would consider leaping on the bandwaggon.
(1) Why do they wander around with their eyes closed and fail to see that when they fail to debunk the debunkable myths they often overlook the people who create them? Why, when they are drinking in the pub, do they not see that their not too distant drinking partners happen to be Samoans, Cook Islanders and potential alcoholics drinking their wages away because they can't see the point in being aware and conscious of life?
(2) Why don't they hibernate for the winter and wait for the slightly more meaningful summer before coming out with their absurd smiles and shallow constructiveness?
(3) If they were really being meaningful why don't they advocate a revolution to provide life with the absurdity that it so sorely needs?
(4) Why can't they endeavour to become aware of the real meaning of our system (not just the adolescent contrivances they pass off as the meaningful) and do something about it? Can it be that they can't see past communion-time?
(5) Why do these people seem to lack enthusiasm for anything other than religious experience?
(6) Why are they unable to empathise with other people and able to resort to the pre-historic protection of insensitivity to safeguard their beliefs?
(7) Can it be that like the dinosaur, the traffickers of the meaningful in life suffer from a chimerically small body and very little brain?
(8) Can they prove a better world will emerge from their positivism?
If these people are unable to answer these questions I had better not leap on their bandwaggon, but rather remain one of the many (I hope there are more that I haven't heard of) realists around the place. At least our eyes are opening and, although we see very dimly at the moment, the light is getting strong enough for us to identify the fact that, there are a few people around this institution and in society who are trying to pull the blinds down.
June 25, 1968
Opinions expressed in Salient are not necessarily those of VUWSA.
The Prime Minister has presented the Wednesday demonstrators, at the last minute with what can only be from their point of view of superb issue—the previously unnounced and frequently denied existence of an American base of serious military significance within New Zealand. The various Committees on Vietnam have had their most cynical predictions confirmed. As usual when dealing with military matters, the Government has taken its notorious short way of handling public opinion — leaving it in the dark—on what, in the event of a major Asian war, could well be the single act of a Government in the last decade on which the lives of New Zealanders will most depend. When the chips are down, the Government has proved again democracy is a mere propaganda slogan —something that may exist in South Vietnam, where we let our boys die for it, but is conspicuously absent in New Zealand.
This news dwarfs the other issues involved in the demonstrations of no confidence in the Government tomorrow, though for the average man the central issues will probably remain the refusal of a Court not even remotely resembling a responsible economic planning body to grant a wage increase to any section of wage-earners, while the Government's neglect of our universities, the academic paupers of the Southern Hemisphere, must remain an issue. If the Government had been less gauche, it might have hoped that these separate issues would not be fused by our present pitiful Labour Opposition into anything remotely coherent and that opposition to its foreign policy might disappear now talks on a negotiated peace in Vietnam have begun.
Now these hopes have been disappointed, and the Government has only itself to blame.
Editor: Bill Login.
Telephone 70-319 (S.U.B.) or 28-585 (Home).
Associate Editor: Nevil Gibson.
Advertising Manager: Henry Newrick.
Telephone 55-922 (Work) or 26-260 (Home).
Chief Sub-editor: Helen Pickford.
News Editor: Judie Falloon.
Senior Sub-Editors:Sub-Editors:Sports Editor:Political Editor:Literary Editor:Features Editor:Science Editor:Contributing Editors:Reviews:Administration Officer:Business Manager:Photographers:Senior Reporters:Reporters:Typists:Proof Readers:
Cartoonists:Circulation:
Reporters are Expected to Attend News Conferences at 5 p.m. Every Tuesday.
In Salient 11 I discussed visiting universities and meeting students on my trip to America. But this was only one of the aims of the Student Leader Project. The others were to "experience American Life", sec as much of the country within the limits of time and money, and do these things with a group of Asian students.
To "experience American life" first hand, I stayed with American families in two greatly different parts of the United States. For three weeks I lived with the family of a Ford Service Agency manager on the shores of Puget Sound, Seattle, Washington State towards the end of our trip I spent a much shorter four day "home stay" with the family of a lawyer in Hutchinson, Kansas, Both were wonderful experiences.
I found the people of the Pacific Northwest similar to New Zealanders in that many led an outdoor life and I was very fortunate to be able to fit in some skiing, seal-hunting, steel-heading, and boating on the Sound. The seal is a predator which is shot on the shores of the Sound and the steel-head is similar to our trout, though as both expeditions were unsuccessful I am relying on hearsay!
It was somewhat surprising to find that quite a number of people in the Pacific North-West thinks of the cast coast of the United States as mecca. There seemed to be an inferiority complex about it when some people told us that everything would be so much more sophisticated and cosmopolitan in the east. They felt that they were out in the back blocks as well they might if they heard a New Zealander say that going out West was going to Chicago.
The tremendous contrasts in the United States were never more clearly demonstrated than when we left the east coast and flew to Kansas which is in the middle of the two "belts." The dead fiat corn belt and the puritan Bible belt were both something of a shock to someone from "down under." Nonetheless true Kansas hospitality greeted us wherever we went during our short stay and "come visit with me" was always the call.
In fact the generous hospitality which we were accorded throughout the trip was overwhelming. Our short visits to several cities provide many memories of people and sights.
The programme got off to a flying start with a few days "orientation" at the East West Centre of the University of Hawaii where we discussed amongst other topics "myth pictures" of the United States and Asia.
Our first stop on mainland America was
As well as Boston on the east coast we spent some time in New York, Philadelphia and Washington D.C. A lifetime would not be long enough to see New York. Five hectic days gave us time to visit the Police Department, City Hall, the New York Times Office, two art museums, one cathedral, the United Nations and several other sights as well as some shows.
In Washington D.C., where local news is national news, we had the opportunity to meet Senator Clark of Pennsylvania and Congressman Cohelan (Democrat, Berkeley District, California) and Frelinghuysen (Republican, New Jersey). We were also fortunate that when we attended the Senate
While we were in Washington D.C. President
During a short busy ten weeks it was only possible to gather a limited picture of the negro problem which after all has its roots in American history and which required the "Riot Commission" to produce a 700 page report. Our first contact with the urgency of the problem was in Honolulu where a negro student told us, "if we waited 20 years until the present college generation were in the majority, the Negro would be O.K.—but I don't want to wait 20 years just so as I can be accepted as an equal to a white man".
One only needed to visit the Negro ghettos in the large cities to see the extent to which the Negro is separate and unequal. Walking through the dirty streets of New York's dilapidated Harlem with the Japanese in our group, we were in a colour minority of two and extremely aware of the silence and stares which followed us. I was pleased to remember that my Japanese friend was a black belt in judo.
In Boston's Roxbury the Negro has his own school, newspaper and centre. The separate New School was set up by Negro parents dissatisfied with the Boston Public Schools. The Negro couple I dined with told me that the conditions in the Public Schools had not changed since they attended them over twenty years ago.
The separate negro community newspaper, "The Banner", is published weekly. We were told it had been in great difficulties a year or so ago when white advertisers withdrew their support, but now it had managed to pull through with the backing of the community. The Negro Ecumenical Centre was set up by Negros to help themselves "make ours a powerful, vibrant and whole community" through services in housing, education and welfare.
The Boston City Council has had one Negro elected to it since 1951. He is Mr
One of the standard methods of protest is the newspaper advertisement.
Liberally sprinkled with the names, degrees and designations of the scientific and academic illumination, a full or half-page spread in The Times or The New York Times, will put the world right on the moral issues involved in "the bomb" or NATO, Israel or Vietnam.
Indeed, on almost any major controversy, a seemingly impressive swarm of Ph.D.'s will hasten to tell us why a democratic decision, once taken, is wrong.
What is the aim of this barrage of academic qualifications, directed in salvos at any festering trouble-spot in the minds of our intelectuals? Why the smoke-screen of university degrees, so carefully listed? Is it done to" impress?
Unfortunately, that seems to be the motive, and many people are very impressed.
Seeing that the Chichele Professor of Early Slavonic Studies has seen fit to unburden his soul (and his wallet) to give them the benefit of his views on Mr. Wilson and Rhodesia, there must be a good reason, thinks our Mr. Average Man-in-thc-street.
But, Mr.
Although the whole of our scientific mafia would draw back their academic gowns in horror at the thought of comparison with any nasty militaristic intentions, their actions are the same.
"Bull" does baffle brains, especially when clothed in a uniform, not of sergeants' stripe but of learned credentials.
Just how valid are these shrieks of moral outrage with which we are regaled at frequent intervals?
Have the protesters any right to seek to impose their views on others by using a camouflage of apparent learning?
To this writer it seems they have no such inherent right. Their views are of no more value than those of any diligent reader of the press. Most important of all, they are just as susceptible to the same vices—greed, intolerance and illiberal thought.
For some time we have been accustomed to pay undue attention to the thoughts of our scientists and academics.
This enchantment of their value as educators in widely disparate fields appears to be a product of modern times.
With the increasing complexity of living in the late 19th and 20th centuries, the layman is unable to comprehend all the marvels of civilisation laid before him.
The man with the key to these marvels is the man with the degree, for, are we not told that knowledge is power?
Previous to this age, the gifted amateur could often take his place among the learned. With persistence, he could stand on equal terms with the best of them.
Sometimes he could produce theories of his own which would compete with those of the professors, and which might even become accepted.
That time is now long past. We are, at present, in an age where man who knows everything about something is presumed to know something about everything.
This is a highly dangerous doctrine, creating as class of super-men. A "brave new world" where Huxley's "alphas" dominate.
In one way it is worse than Huxley's dream, for these intellectual super-men have not earned the right to dominate.
Their qualifications do not equip them to rule. But they are willing to arrogate to themselves this right to dispute the wishes of the rest of the people, however democratically expressed.
It matters little, apparently that with one voice they ask for their "rights" (freedom of thought and expression) and with another voice deny those rights to others.
When a noted pediatrician—Dr. Spock— counsels young men to defy the laws of his country, laws that have been passed by an elected and fully democratic legislature, he is not merely attacking a policy that he dislikes, but also attacking the whole right of a free people to regulate society in the manner it wishes.
When a lecturer at VUW, Mr.
For a student entering a university, one of the first lessons to be learned is academic integrity.
It is not considered enough to read a right-wing critique of
When a Professor of Geography at VUW, Prof
Or is International Club to promulgate a new Index Prohibitorum, and exclude those whose views are not orthodox—whatever that classification might entail?
The intellectual arrogance that can expound the old Jesuit credo of "the end justifies the means" is becoming too common.
"All men are equal, but some are more equal than others" is an appealing thought to the students and professors willing to cause disruption and take part in violence.
A feature of the rise of Fascism in Nazi Germany was the public burning of books and literature.
Books by "non-Aryans", books which advocated democratic ideals—in fact any literature which was inimical to the regime, was thrown on the pyre.
This book-burning ritual was also the routine in Indonesia at the time of confrontation and has been a feature of despotic and illiberal regimes around the world.
It was in this finest tradition of thought that students of Columbia University, New York, acted recently.
To round off their campaign of rioting and looting, they burnt the books and manuscripts of a professor, thought to oppose their aims.
One of the more fascinating displays of academic deviousness is offered by the liberal intellectual who pays lip-service to the virtues of democracy.
Ask him if it is right that the will of the greatest number should be carried out, and he will answer in the affirmative.
He will angrily defend the right of Kenyatta's government to dispossess Kenyan Asians of their lands and property—after all, it is the will of the people!
Then remind him that the latest public opinion polls show 74% of Britons support the views concerning racial problems of the much-misrepresented
With nauseating adroitness, he will explain exactly why it would be wrong for the two major parlies to carry out the wishes of the people.
Our liberal has now become authoritarian. The main difficulty confronting these men is that it is often apparent they are completely unwilling to allow other people the freedoms which they so stridently demand.
If we encourage a not go towards our miniscule Defence Budget?
They will insist that a free press is a necessity in any country, under any circumstances —and then maintain a press group, opposing their views, should be broken up.
The "Springer Empire", a highly successful group of newspapers in West Germany. has been one of the main causes of discontent to the students of that country.
In pursuing this point, they have murdered a reporter and a photographer; all to suppress freedom of the press.
They will protest when a reporter from the British Communist journal The Daily Worker, who assisted North Koreans and Chinese in brain-washing and indoctrination on British troops during the Korean War, is refused a passport by the United Kingdom Government.
They evidently see no need to protest when a Rhodesian has his passport confiscated, then offered it back on condition that he publicly parrot the political views of Commonwealth Secretary, Mr Bottomley.
In this context of passport-snatching, (an operation which can also be legally applied in New Zealand) it is interesting to note that the United States Government does not have the same powers.
A Supreme Court decision, given almost concurrently with the demise of McCarthyism, forbade the executive branch of government to restrict a person's right of free travel on account of his political views.
How many of our academic liberals, so completely anti-American by nature, would be willing to acknowledge this?
By nature, academics are not tolerant of others. Anyone who has watched the infighting when a new idea is produced, the attempts, often based on little more than prejudice and fear of supercession, to denigrate a new idea, will have realised this.
Academic maintains its own Inquisition, which operates in just as sordid a way as its religious progenitor.
It used to be said that if, for instance, one could not trust a Professor of Orthodontics on the subject of Vietnam, one could at least trust him on orthodontics—or whatever his speciality was.
This is not necessarily so. The "experts" are just as likely to be blinded by bias as a non-professional worker.
Examples are not hard to detail. The cases of Velikovsky and McConnell are of particular interest.
Both are scientists working in the United States and have been subjected to scurrilous abuse and attempted censorship from academic circles.
In 1950 Dr
The book, Worlds in Collision, was published by Macmillan in the USA.
As a result of pressure applied to the publishers by various scientists threatening to boycott the company; the publisher's editor. who approved the book, was dismissed and Macmillan ceased its publication.
The scientists instrumental in forcing the issue, defended their action as the "democratic privilege of organised protest".
Velikovsky has, of course, been vindicated since that time.
Dr
Where Velikovsky dealt in time intervals of a thousand years and units the size of the solar system. McConnell, in the early 1960's, carried out his experiments on a species of earthworm.
These experiments were designed to show that memory can be transmitted through the cellular chemical ribonucleic acid (RNA).
At the time, it was a "known fact" that memory could not be transmitted genetically.
Vilification from leading invertebrate physiologists and biochemists almost dried up McConncll's sources of funds, and prevented his work being published.
Now, independent researchers are beginning to duplicate his results.
They show how even the most gifted scientists have no protection from those of their own kind who feel that they are stepping out of line.
One of the more sordid facts about academic protest is that most are willing to take part as long as they are not too involved.
Few fled from Nazi Germany before the last war: a notable exception was the great Einstein.
Possession of academic qualifications is not sufficient reason for general acceptance as an all-purpose prophet
Until it is generally accepted that scientists and academics are only technicians, qualified to deal in their particular fields, we will remain with the problems outlined above.
When it is realised they have no peculiar moral authority, are just as likely as anyone else to falsify facts and just as fallible as mere ordinary mortals, they will lose this authority.
Their comments will have the authority of a well-informed metaphorical plumber: valid within limits on the subject of plumbing, merely of interest on world politics.
This is the importance they should have.
Griffin
According to the ancient chronicles we are lost; I have taken all the 31,813 pages down from the shelves and hunted through for an indication of this place. Not a word. Perhaps we are more to the south. Or (but let us hope this is not so) the ancients were not using any consistent compass: so we may as well have travelled west as east. We may now be further from our destination than when we left Coldplace—if there are two Aggabugs—which is very likely if the man is as symmetrical as we are. Behind me there are fifteen wagons—ahead there are also fifteen. Above me there is something—below me there is also something.
A drawback. We arrived at the top of a hill only to find that the road disappears into a lake. But we must still follow the road; therefore we are stopped to caulk the cracks in the undersides of our wagons. The ancient chronicles mention no large lakes; I think we may have lost our way, but Ocarina swears that we are taking the correct route. I do not understand how he knows, unless he has made an interpretation of the Chronicle of Hexatriximenia and does not care to disclose it to me; such an action seems unfair, but not impossible for Ocarina. He purposefully wedged his wagon in an Aggabug street corner, that Cantilever should not pass*, and that he might keep Mazinta and Nenuphar trapped so that they could say nothing. All this time he implored Mazinta to Rive herself to him in a particular mode, but she declined fearfully. * So that 1 could meet Cantilever without seeing Ocarina. A cunning trick.
Nenuphar was unfortunately caught, so he says, in the lowest room of Ocarina's wagon, from which there is no exit apart from a door opening toward the outside. This door was jammed close by the corner of a nearby house. Therefore, while the wagon remained wedged in the street corner, Nenuphar could not emerge and had only the food to console him. Mazinta and Ocarina had to be fed by means of a small knothole in the floor of the main compartment of the wagon, through which Nenuphar poked sticks of licorice.
Ottoman has been talking to a local man, who seemed to be interested in our caravanserai, and was found lying on his back looking up at the underside of Ottoman's wagon. Otto, fearing that this man might have designs on our timepiece, had him surrounded by a number of our people. The man turned out to be harmless, but also to speak the Shajat tongue. Otto himself possesses the rudiments of this language, and held a conversation with the man, a wandering minstrel become a shepherd. The man, Clodagh by name, has reported that the road on which we are travelling runs along the bottom of a valley falling to our right hand side. What we took to be a lake we find now to be a swollen stream which till a few days ago ran as a trickle beside the road. Perhaps last week's cataclysm has caused a flood. However our way is clear: we shall let our wagons float like buns with the current, till the current cease; and then, perhaps, the animals can draw us along by swimming. But in the meantime, we must find a way for the animals to travel with us. It is of no use for them to walk, since most cannot breathe under water. Perhaps they should walk beside us along the hills. But what when they reach abysses and impassable jungles? I shall propose that we inflate bladders from bong trees—of which we passed a grove yesterday—and tie them to the tails, legs, and heads of the animals who will then float comfortably down the little stream.
Ottoman wants the man Clodagh to accompany us; Ocarina is not at all pleased with this idea, for reasons, he says, which are not describable but very cogent. I feel that reasons which cannot be put into words do not matter, and that there is good reason for allowing the man to accompany us, the foremost reason being that he knows where we are which we do not. Many of us shall talk to Ocarina . . . He has grudgingly agreed; Clodagh is to travel with Ottoman.
Today we made an expedition to gather bong bladders, leaving encampment guarded by only a few invalids. We returned slowly, struggling against the fierce wind which repeatedly tore the bladders from my grasp until I thought to tie them together with a creeper. But the creeper retarded our progress more than the wind might have done. We returned to our camping place, only to find that we were totally immersed in water and our wagons afloat far above us. However when the creeper, which had been lagging behind, caught up with us, the buoyancy of the long bladders brought us abruptly to the surface. This we took to be a sign that the water level had risen. So now we are drying ourselves as we float slowly along the road.
The valley becomes wider and wider; yesterday I lost sight of the left bank (we are keeping to the right, owing to occasional swimming by the animals); Laughing Gas could still see it clearly, were it not, he says, that a mist has come over it. I see no sign of any mist.
Now a mist has come over the right bank, and it as if we were in a giant lake like that which is mentioned in the chronicle of Hexatriximenia: no land can be seen (not even by Laughing Gas). I wonder why. Perhaps we have reached a particularly convex point on the. man, such as the ball of his thumb. Surely we cannot be on his thumb. All the indications of the ancients are that our Coldplace was somewhere near the knee; this hypothesis is corroborated by the phenomenon of the land's disappearance at a distance. Many years ago just after we had left the valley of Troppos, and we came upon some curious stones. I took them to be a skin disease occurring most commonly (according to Phenoketylinuria) on the groin, but never on the hand. No: we cannot be on the thumb now; we must be on some part of the body, which is shown by the pronounced lack of ridges which are always found on the fingers. In fingers there are mountains and hot water. Perhaps the clash of times has produced a wet wart on the groin, even a wound with a drop of blood . . . but we'd have noticed the steep climb up the sides of the drop. The man is truly a paradox!
There is nothing to judge our motion by in this vast stream; we may have stopped moving, or we may even be moving backwards. The sun is assuming a curious pattern; it rises firstly in what may be the east, then again an hour later in the south-west; at noon it meets itself, encircles itself, and rapidly drops. It has been doing this for about ten days.
I wonder how far below us the water extends; I shall collect up pieces of string and tie them together and drop it over the edge held down by a rock with a hole in the middle which I happen to have had in my pocket for a long, long time. It is over the edge and still pulling; I have sent messages to the other thirty wagons, asking to borrow string. Many animals are swimming towards me, bearing on their backs riders, bearing in their hands string (and sometimes messages). Were it not for fear, we should find it very pleasant to live on the water. As it is, I have now used all the string of our people, and the weight still pulls. The meaning is either— the water is alarmingly deep or somebody is pulling on the string. Both prospects fill us with horror; the first because we are so alone, the second because we may not be. My hand is misbehaving; it must stop.
reviews new releases of Mozart, Beethoven, Vivaldi, Tchaikovsky and Schubert.
All this is a roundabout way of commenting on the very small percentage of Boskovsky recordings released in New Zealand. For years he has been recording dozens of Strauss albums, all beautifully laved in the inimitable Viennese style. Instead of these being released here, we seem to end up with a mass of concert-hall renditions of Strauss—last month in Phase Four, this month is Columbia Studio Two sound—"Viennese Prom Concert: Sir
I have previously raved on in this column about
Fifty per cent of music lovers are prepared to put up with
With Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony (PFSM 34129) the textual transgressions abound; however the main ingredient still remains—real blood and guts type Tchaikovsky, with some of the most immaculate stereo sound captured on this label, and that's saying something! Old Leopold's interpretation—dynamic, climactic crescendoes, with lush sweeping strings and vociferous brass is suited to this type of recording.
Schubert symphonies are rather out of fashion at present. Few new recordings are appearing, the majority of pressings being re-releases. Last year HMV (NZ) Ltd. brought back the old Munchinger Vienna Philharmonic recording of numbers 2 and 8 'The Unfinished", (Decca Ace of Diamonds SDD 130 Stereo). This year brings forth the ninth 'The Great" (SDD 153 Stereo: retail price only $3.50).
previews the visit of eminent American art critic
Next month the internationally known American art critic. Clement Greenberg, will be in New Zealand. He was recently in Australia where he was the main speaker at a seminar on criticism in the arts sponsored by UNESCO. His visit to New Zealand is due solely to the efforts of
Greenberg began writing art criticism after he became editor of the left-wing cultural periodical Partisan Review in 1940. Although his first criticism was concerned with literature, he felt that the low standard of writing on art—"the most ungrateful form of 'elevated' writing, but also the most challenging"—must be radically transformed by establishing the same rigorous standards as were accepted in literary criticism.
As a critic Greenberg was responsible for the recognition and acceptance of the American abstract expressionist movement, especially that of its leading painter
The core of Greenberg's role as a critic is to detect, define, and develop the mainstream which the best artists create and follow. This concept of "permanent revolution" in art explains the dialectic in the progression from the impressionists through the post-impressionists to the cubists. Abstract impressionism was a further evolution in this continual movement of art.
New York, Greenberg's birth-place, to him has been the centre of the best modern art for the last 25 years. It is in here that the major progression in modern art has taken place. From the drip paintings of
Greenberg's criticism has knocked many sacred cows in the art world; he has stirred up more controversy than any other major critic. His visit to this part of the world is an important occasion, and those interested in the visual arts should not miss this opportunity to hear him. He will speak in Wellington on 2 July.
The recent display of Kees Hos' prints in the Library was the first of a series of such exhibitions to be held throughout the year featuring the work of leading New Zealand artists.
Kees Hos studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts at the Hague. He began publishing when he came to New Zealand in 1936. Since then he has explored new methods of relief printing and intaglio which allow him a flexible and spontaneous way of image formation.
new writer on art for
The prints in the exhibition are concerned with the duality of spirit and matter. Elements representing our physical material and commercial involvement are contrasted with the organic, spiritual and etheric forces in a free and creative way within the idiom of the medium, but not as illustration.
Released by United Artists.
Accusations still linger over the enigmatic, self-indulgent, non-communicable spiritual anguish, baroquial The Virgin Spring, Naked Night, The Seventh Seal, So Close To Life, Through a Glass Darkly and The Silence, will receive a severe shock when they see his latest film to be released in New Zealand, Persona.
Not only do I sense that Bergman has woken up at last, and renovated the thought-processes about his serious-private-confessional-displays-made-public, but he has distilled and refined the cinema to such a degree and made a masterpiece, understandably public, so that we can share with its intimate and moving ways, as in no other of his films.
Bergman's love of theatre is well known. Half of these so-called accusations centre around that the "comedies" are staged dialogue (in cinematic terms), beautifully presented by the Bergman family, and hardly meaningful (or -less) to our cinema existence, which matters to some of us—if we think like that.
In a recent article on Bergman's latest film The Shame he says: "It was a source of great sorrow and disappointment for me to hold the opinion that I could live without film but not without theatre, and I feel that, now, theatre is perfectly meaningless . . . and I can do nothing about this feeling."
After seeing Persona, I could see this most clearly. It is unlike any of his other films. Some of the more familiar themes have been re-represented, shuttled-forth-with, discarded, but it is the first time I have seen film used as an object, for we are watching in Persona a film of a film: it is the cinema reflecting itself.
Persona begins with darkness, and gradually we see two carbons of an arc lamp grow brighter, and suddenly emerge into a brilliant white light. The sound of a screaming projector engine, portions of leader flash by uncontrolled; the sight of various bits of the engine, film spilling through gates like a silver river. Suddenly a cartoon appears sideways, tinkly music. The film jams in the gates, sprocket ripping noises, then back on the tracks. Then a series of images, very quick: a ghost and policeman silent comedy, a large spider, a nail being hammered into a curling bleeding hand, a sheep's eye and tissue being gouged out, slow forest scenes, faces of bodies in a morgue, and then a small child lying on a table covered by a sheet.
He puts on some rimless spectacles, and begins reading. It is The Silence. He reaches out into the lens of the camera as if inspecting the safe distance betwen reality in the audience and his own. Then a face behind his emerges, and he tries to touch its blurred mirror surface. It is the two women of the film, their faces alternating.
The credits are banged out (a post-serialist score by
We are in a hospital where a female psychologist is telling the story of how an actress, The Magician?) (Liv Ullmann) stopped speaking during a performance of Electra, and had remained mute ever since. A friendly talkative nurse Alma (
The psychologist has told Elisabeth that she is shackled by a sense of her own falseness, by the growing difference between what the world thinks of her, and what she knows of herself. What else can she do? Suicide would be too vulgar, so Elisabeth chooses silence, and so, in effect, stops lying.
And with narrator
Through Alma's monologue in Persona, she describes her happy life—with a husband to be, an orgy on a beach with two boys resulting in abortion (the censor has excised three chunks of dialogue here, blast him!) and slowly we are aware of her coming closer and closer to Elisabeth's barrier, until all of a sudden, after reading a letter by her (to her husband?) she realises she has been made a toy of Elisabeth's silence. Elisabeth has been making an amusing study of Alma, during their harmless days of her talking and their love-play.
In an extraordinary 3 1/2 minute still-take, Alma leaves a piece of broken bottle for Elisabeth to cut herself on. The shout is heard, pain expressed and Alma's face becomes covered in scratches. But they aren't facial blemishes, they are film scratches. The soundtrack mumbles to a halt, the film (Alma's face) burns . . . . white arc light. A screaming voice horrifying heard backwards, snappy scenes from the ghost/policeman film, the nail and the hand, an eye, a male sex-organ in erection, and an out of focus Alma coming into a room, freezed, then a jump to normal focus. The film continues untouched.
Alma at a pitch of hysteria threatens Elisabeth with a pot of boiling water, as if physical pain will cause her to speak, but Elisabeth is vaguely heard mumbling: "No! Don't hurt me."
There is an incredibly long tracking shot, with the two women running down the beach. Alma is hysterical crying, but it still has no effect. Elisabeth visits Alma during the night; it is a sequence of rare distilled beauty. They meet and seem to blend into each other. Of course Elisabeth denies the meeting the following day.
The blind husband (
It is our turn now to wonder if these really aren't the same woman, and only until a 4 minute sequence of Alma telling Elisabeth about the son (camera focussed on Elisabeth) and then repeating it entirely, though it takes on a more complete and definitive meaning, snowing Alma's reaction, with the two faces suddenly merging into one, do we know what is happening. The face-amalgam titles read; "I am Elisabeth Vogler/I am not Elisabeth Vogler."
Because of this modification of identity, there is a transfixed state in the later scenes as to really who is who; Their physical resemblance in real life gave Bergman the idea for the movie.
When Alma scratches her arm Elisabeth sucks the blood, and forces Alma to shriek: "I am not you!" She screams at her meaningless words, phrases and suddenly, quietly some time later (perhaps?) she will prompt Elisabeth to say her only word: "Nothing." It is all we can expect. The chairs are packed up by Alma dressed as the nurse, and Elisabeth dressed as Alma leaves on a bus for, where?
We see a gigantic ugly bust of a shipfront, dissolving into the Electra scene, a shot of a tracking camera (Resnais directing Seyrig in Marienbad?), the boy is reaching up to the mirror surface of the faces, the soundtrack hisses, the carbons disconnect and die away. The most beautiful of Bergman's films is over.
So much has been written about Persona, especially the enormous article (6 pages) by that gifted young lady Susan Sontag in Sight and Sound, which I thought laboured and pompous, after the second viewing of the film. At least Miss Sontag makes a point that the film is not so obscure (and everyone seems to treat it as obscure), but it will certainly promote discussion more than any other film in recent years.
Cahiers du Cinema: "Never was the screen a more faithful mirror. We are in front of it, and what it shows us in the back of us. It and we— transparent phantoms.
Alma equals Soul. Persona is latin for mask: faces merge—crack—identity changes, yet everything is separate. They are intertwined "parasitically, even vampiristically." I am not going into this; it will make its point when you see it.
The film is so beautiful (Sven Nykvist as always) and one reviewer commented that it recalled the work of Dreyer and Godard—"its extraordinary transitions from warmth to coldness and back again."
The film is full of faces.
Liv Ullmann's is always quizzical and strange. (In some of the stills she resembles
She is confronted by a television programme of a buddhist monk incinerating himself; the commentary is unrelated to the scene, and she shies away in terrors. Another indication of the duplicity of language.
To see these two beautiful women on the screen, acting their relationship of identity (not fully lesbian as some said) is a profound and satisfying thing. There has never been such a perfect interplay between two women ever before.
Persona is due in Wellington (at the Lido) later in the year. Finally I want to quote the eternal magician with these words: "There are painters who will never paint since they close their eyes, and, in the shelter of their closed lids, imagine the purest masterpieces. There are cineastes who live their films and who never will squander their talent to give them materiality, reality."
The Day the Fish Came Out is an example of the black humour cult pervading the cinema as in theatre and literature. Black humour has the fascination of disgusting us with its reversal of orthodox values, yet amusing us with its absurdity. Novelists like Lord Love a Duck. The most recent example is this new film by Electra and Zorba the Greek.
The plot utilises the recent incident of a US nuclear bomber dropping its atomic load off the Spanish coast In Cacoyannis' treatment the "load" is dropped on the small Greek island of Karos, and the two airmen,
Karos rapidly becomes the mecca of holiday seekers eternally searching for virgin territory—Courtenay and Blakely are the first to be stripped to their bare essentials, wandering around the island trying to reach a telephone without attracting attention. Cacoyannis uses futuristic, slightly clad fashion models, including
Miss Bergen is the castrating female with her all-eating chemical; reducing her Mr French to a protesting wretch; demolishing young
Cacoyannis has used gimmicks—Beethoven's 9th, the rugby tackle of a scarecrow, the fashion parades, sexual titillation, all to emphasis his biggest joke—death.
The Day The Fish Came Out is Cacoyannis' equivalent to Losey's "paper handkerchief" Modesty Blaise. Both are serious directors but show that they can experiment with variations of colour and humour with the best of the "entertainment" directors.
A senate of up to 100 students, a smaller Students' Association Executive, and a full-time paid President are innovations suggested by
These proposals follow his criticisms last week of "those responsible for communication" in the Students' Association.
A committee set up by the Students' Association Annual General Meeting which includes Doug is investigating a student representation council along the lines of the senate he suggests.
Doug says the senate would have formal regular meetings, unlike Forum or general meetings.
The senate would have power to decide all Association policy (subject only to general meetings), make recommendations to the Executive on all matters, appoint student representatives to such bodies as the University Council, fill vacancies on the Executive, and set up committees on any matters such as bursaries, drugs, or Rhodesia.
Membership of the student senate could either be on a faculty basis or on a yearly basis whereby first year students elected first years and so on.
Membership should not total more than 100 and should include the Executive, representatives from Sports Council, Cultural Affairs' Council, Publications' Board, and the various student representatives on University committees.
Such a body would provide the opportunities for wider representation of student views, greater direct participation in the Association, a wider base of informed students and the possibility for interested students to learn about the activities of the Association.
There is an obvious need for the reduction in size of the present 15-member Executive.
The establishment of a student senate would make this feasible.
I suggest that portfolios such as National, International, Education and Accommodation could be dealt with by the student senate.
Streamlining of the Executive would hopefully produce a more efficient administrative body leaving the policy debates to the larger student senate.
The establishment of a full-time paid Students' Association President has been mooted in the past.
I consider that this position should be set up for the 1969 President if possible.
The role of a student President is to represent the Association in the University and in the community, act as the official spokesman for the Association through the news media, initiate and co-ordinate policy, assist portfolio holders, be responsible for administration of the Association, be available to hear and act on student complaints, liaise with other universities and NZUSA, and chair Association and Executive meetings.
From my experience in the position, both as a full-time and now as a part-time student, I am convinced that the office of President is a full-time job.
To require that the President be a full-time student would mean that he would have to receive some sort of remuneration.
I suggest that he should be paid along the lines of the Editor of Salient.
Many students have been asking about intramural sport: — what sports are played? Who is eligible to play? How many in a team? Must a team consist of members of one faculty only? How often are games played and at what times? How long do games last?
Sports available at the moment are:—
Badminton: 12-2, Mon. 4 in a team.
Table Tennis: 12-2, Tues. 4 in a team.
Soccer: 12-2, Wed. 4 in a team.
Indoor Basketball: 12-2 Thurs. 5 in a team.
Volleyball: 12-2, Fri. 6 in a team.
Another game—as an addition to table tennis is now being arranged for students who prefer a more active sport!
The 2nd Term Intramural Competitions—These are progressing rapidly. The Finals of Table Tennis, Soccer, Basketball and Volleyball have been reached already.
This means that from next week on new teams will be eligible to join the competition for the remainder of the term.
The Badminton competition will continue till the end of term as a greater number of teams is involved. So—Badminton players — organise a team for Term III.
The Intramural Sports Programme is organised by the Physical Welfare Service to enable groups of students to participate regularly in a game they enjoy playing, but have not the time nor the skill to play "seriously".
Any group of students interested in playing a particular sport is eligible.
You do not have to play only with students in your faculty.
You may form a team with your flatmates—students from the same hostel, students, taking the same unit, members of a VUW club you belong to or with several of your friends!
The numbers of students required for teams have been stated above.
Players of all levels of skill, and particularly, novices, are welcome. Mixed teams or team consisting of all girls are most welcome too, for all games except soccer.
If you wish to participate in the Intramural programme a team representative should contact the Physical Welfare Stall as soon as possible.
Phone 70-319. Exts. 72, 84 or 77.
Nzusa Insurance Scheme
Special Concessions And Low Premiums For Life Insurance
Contact Student Association Office.
Vic's recent effort of almost putting Western Suburbs out of this year's Chatham Cup must rate as one of the best-ever performances by a university soccer side.
At the time Western Suburbs were unbeaten in the Central League Competition and were expected to have a comfortable match against Varsity, who do not play Central League and are not high up in the Wellington competition.
But from the whistle Vic showed they were not overawed by the opposition and settled down to play intelligent football against a team who had obviously underrated their opponents.
The first shock came when
Vigorous defending by Vic proved highly effective and at half-time they still held a slender lead.
The Suburbs' forwards were having difficulty finishing off and, in an effort to inject some fire into the attack, player/coach
During this half Vic continued to play stirring football, repulsing attack after attack.
Finally, with only 10 minutes play remaining,
But the varsity side wilted a little in extra time and allowed Suburbs to score two more goals.
After 120 minutes of football the final score was 3-1 to Western Suburbs.
Varsity 'keeper
It is hoped that with this brilliant display he will receive some of the recognition due to him for several seasons.
The rest of the team all played well and they can be satisfied that their performance caused one of the biggest stirs in Chatham Cup football for many seasons.
Sir—Alister Taylor's statements on the political, moral and intellectual timidity of students in the issue of Salient would seem to be founded on a false premise. I contend that the political and moral attitude taken by people towards a governing body is determined by environment and temperament. New Zealand students, on the whole, do not inherit a tradition of revolution and demonstration to gain their desires. Because of the relative political stability of this country volatile reactions are extremely rare, and leaders in almost every field rely on protracted negotiations.
I do not wish to say that the wielding of student power would be a bad thing. The present negotiation setup usually results in lukewarm compromises which have little lasting effect and give even less satisfaction to student needs. What I am saying is that until those in power become accustomed to more violent means of obtaining concessions it is simply not feasible to use those more violent means.
Sir—I take this opportunity to correct editorial statements made in your last copy, and to base on this a plea for the adoption of an editorial policy suitable for a student newspaper.
During the last few weeks students overseas have been asserting themselves in a demand for their "rights" with an enthusiasm and effectivenes which has never been approached before in the Western world. During this time I, and presumably many other students, have been waiting for some comment, or reporting of these disturbances to appear in this newspaper, but we have waited in vain. Now, the ignorance, the unwarranted assumptions, and the lack of sympathetic understanding expressed in your editorial has added disappointment to those who have hoped and waited.
Some comments then on your editorial:
The student movement in France had brought the French government virtually to a standstill before the labour unions decided to support them, in the hope that they (the unions) might be able to further their own interests by bringing down a government they had not liked, and to take a share of any gains the students might make. As for the student movements of the United States, they look to the injustices abuses and exploitations of their own society for their motivations; and then inspiration they get from the Third World personalities of Fidel Castro and "The" Guevara, hot these are hardly the "militant students" you claim them to be. Neither is your statement of their "ultra-simplistic theories of imperialism" at all realistic and it must be rejected.
You now state that the reason for student unrest is "the extent of the alienation of students from the communities", which I fully agree with, but to continue,"the birth of student unionism a hundred years after the birth of unionism among industrial workers" implies a parallel between the two movements which does not exist. In general terms the intense activity and enthusiasm among the industrial workers was motivated by two things. Firstly, the need to improve and extend the existing institutions, and secondly, to gain for themselves a greater share of this "improved" society. In direct contrast to this attitude the new generation students point out the direct casual relationships between the injustices of their society and the institutions of that same society, and so their first act is to reject those institutions and to work actively to limit or abolish their influence.
In America today a growing number of young people are renouncing higher education in the universities, which are seen as merely machines wherein young people are turned into the correct numbers and types of graduates to satisfy the needs of society. There university students, who can no longer accept the Universities role in society, are being joined by large numbers from the Artist-Bohemian-Beatnik-Hippie movements, who are attracted by the opportunity of working actively in the communities to try and change our societies values instead of isolating themselves within their own movement.
It is essential for every student in these times of unrest and change, to examine not only the structure of our present society, but to look critically at the basic values and determinants of our whole way of life, for there is still a great deal of misunderstanding and lack of knowledge about how and why our society works. This is made very obvious by the large number of misleading or incorrect statements made by many of our own leaders and administrators.
Even the Vice-Chancellor of Auckland University, Mr Marshment, thinks that ". . . it is axiomatic in this democratic society that everyone should enjoy an equal opportunity for educational advancement", which shows a profound lack of understanding of our educational system within the Capitalist society.
I feel that it should be the function, of a student newspaper to present to the students truly radical ideas and that this could best be done by following the actions and thoughts of The Movement in America and in other countries where it exists. There are many people, among the students and staff of this University, who have had the opportunity to see, at first hand, The Movement in America, or who have followed its progress since its emergence. I am sure that these people would be willing to help inform the students of Victoria.
Perhaps if a few more articles on the Student Movement overseas, their activities and ideas, and of Radical movements throughout the world could be published, then possibly the pages of Salient would not be filled with the excessive dog-fights of the very fractional "radicals" of Right and Left, and their criticisms of our present political leaders of which too much spoils the flavour.
Then perhaps Salient might be distinguished by the two Wellington daily papers by its content and outlook instead of just by its size as at present.
Yours faithfully, Carmichael.
Sir—Your correspondent
In passing, Mr. Grant, not only Christians have "bloody vivid imaginations", and scientists, philosophers and others have also been known to arrive at the correct result by incorrect means.
Sir—If Murray Rowlands is an anarchist then I'm a member of the Labour Party. I am not a member of the Labour Party. If Mr Rowlands thinks he can undermine the power of the state from within, by joining a political party, then he indulges in wishful thinking.
Paltry palliatives like the proposed abolition of the Security Service do not impress me. When the Labour Party becomes the government and votes itself out of existence, I will begin to take some notice of Mr Rowlands absurd position. He has negated all concepts of anarchism by becoming party to an authoritarian bureaucracy. New Zealand anarchists will have as much scorn for his claims as they have for the state of which he seems to be a willing and enthusiastic tool.
Sir—Like Mr Perrott I too was interested to see how I would answer the question, "Can a scientist be a Christian"! The title given appeared somewhere between my typewriter and the printer, and was certainly not a question I intended to raise. Maybe the answer to the puzzle lies in Mr Perrott's definition of evolution?it was simply a question of 'the motion of matter'.
Newsheet was published yesterday separately from Salient . . . . it will not henceforth appear here.
It needs to be pointed out just how far ahead Victoria is, not only of other New Zealand but of Australian universities, in publishing a weekly student newspaper and employing professional staff to run it. To put Salient on a weekly basis has been the principal achievement of Publications Board this year, and its principal problem, this year, and next, will be to keep it on the same basis. If Salient can remain a weekly publication for the next two years, it is fairly safe to assume it will stay that way for a longer period. After that, the next step would be daily publication, and steps are already being taken which may make this a possibility in the future. Victoria, in the publication field, has set a precedent for Australasia.
As the President of Students' Association has made a rather immature attack on immaturity in student elections. I will comment, too.
Mr White appears to think that nobody has a right to discuss the Union extensions, the increase of bursaries or meals in the Caf at elections. To set the records straight, some facts should be made known about Exec's record and the prospects for change in these areas.
• Union Extensions: The first discussion of union extensions I have ever heard at Exec since I was elected occurred last Monday. At that meeting it was decided . . .
(1) To approach local M.P.'s, including at my insistence, one Labour M.P. ? to pressure the Government to give us a date when extensions will be allowed to start;
(2) to consider re-planning extensions to allow for a bookshop, a Salient darkroom and facilities for BNZ and the Post Office if no Government action was forthcoming. I thought the Government would do nothing, Mr White thought the opposite?which may prove something. Anyway, it's very clear for election candidates what the options are ? either being gullible about Government promises, or taking Muldoon's threats to cut education spending seriously; and supporting a plan for the extension made in 1960, or altering it. These choices clearly affect the possibility of a bookshop.
• Bursaries: The options open about these were discussed at the AGM. Should we concentrate on raising academic staff salaries?this preventing New Zealand universities becoming academic slums?and forget our bursary claims; or press on both issues, if we can do both effectively?
Here also?as with union building extensions ? are we putting enough pressure on the Government? If every farmer's son or daughter at Vic wrote home to Dad asking him to raise the issue of bursaries at the next
• Meals in the Caf:
Only Alister Taylor, so long out of touch with students, is attacking the Joint Committee. Salient.
I will not be standing for Exec again, so I have no axe to grind. I recommend to intelligent voters that they do not take Mr White's remarks seriously—and I will move a motion of censure against him for his article at the next Exec meeting.
New Hairdressing Salon
•
47 Parish Street and 23 Manners Street
For All Student Styles
Hotel St. George
The "Seven Seas Bar"
Best In New Zealand
• Nearest to University.
• Modern, comfortable surroundings
• Cool, bright, fresh beer on tap always.
• Food available from our "Food Bar", 11.45 a.m. to 2.30 p.m.
• Mixed drinking?all facilities.
Entrees, Cold Buffet, Vegetables, Hot Pies
Victuallers
Reginald Collins Ltd.
Wholesale wine and spirit people. Vintners to the Students' Association. Carry stocks 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 end)
Barry & Sargent Ltd Opticians
118 Willis St. - Tel. 45-841
Nzusa Insurance Scheme
Special Concessions And Low Premiums For Life Assurance
Contact Student Association Office.
Members Wellington Stock Exchange
National Mutual Centre Featherston Street Tel. 70-169
F. C. Wood Ltd.
Jewellers
122 Willis Street
(Opp. Hotel St. George)
Diamond Rings - Watches Souvenirs, etc.
Suit Hire
•
Corner Manners and Farish Streets
Sports
The Sports Depot
(Witcombe & Caldwell)
Half-way along Willis St.
Long-standing connection with University sport. Every one of Vic's 24 sports catered for.
A Delicate Balance
by Edward Albee
Director:
Design:
Cast:
Dinner 6.45 p.m. - Show 8.15 p.m.
Reservations Tel. 55-739
St George Billiard Saloon
Offers 15% Discount To Students
Mondays To Thursdays
OPEN 9 a.m. — 11 p.m.
Monday to Saturday
The Arbitration Court 'no' to a wage increase—a stern put-down of sectional avarice for the sake of the national interest—has now been rubbished by everyone, including the Government. Price control is best viewed as an attempt to allay unprecedented discontent by an ineffective gesture toward an incomes policy, What is basically wrong, though, is that a decision, so basic to any kind of economic forecasting—forecasting, not planning—is not only unpredictable, but it is even against the law (contempt of the Arbitration Court) to try to predict. So all those Government Departments which, according to the papers, were budgeting for a 3(% wage increase were acting illegally.
* * *
Did You Notice that forthright declaration by the Chambers of Commerce the other day that under no circumstances should pay and conditions in the Public Service be superior to those in private enterprise? So if you were idealistically thinking of getting away from all those businessmen when you left University by working for the Government, you should realise now that you'll literally pay for a career in the Public Service. So next time you hear some Labour Party type talk about improving the public sector, discount him—a public sector in the economy is only tolerated by business as long as it doesn't compete with capitalism. It may be a mixed economy, but only businessmen can be the mixers. (Didn't notice any protest from the PSA about all this, either).
* * *
Heard that rumour that Salient article was better than his Listener effort? Salient will scoop the National press yet.
* * *
Gordon Bick may be walking backwards for Xmas across the Tasman Sea—rumour is he's being recruited from Australia for NZUSA Congress.
* * *
Notice that Dominion editorial the other day which said (inter alia) 'Mr Kirk is right' a revolution in journalistic history! Typical, though, that the DOMINION should finally take up the Labour Party when within two elections the Party will be dead.
* * *
If You Heard about a case where a graduate was not allowed to sign letters, and had to give them all to a non-degreed superior to sign, would your union do anything? "No" said a PSA official recently. So if you do swing into that plush Bowcn State job, remember that a watchdog is watching you—the union, to see that you don't get uppity about your degree. The common workers don't have these advantages—and neither have quite a few PSA officials.
Students posing as United Nations delegates may be debating in the old Legislative Council Chamber in August.
If permission is granted by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, this debate will highlight a two-day discussion, organised by NZUSA on Rhodesia.
"This will take the form of a Model United Nations General Assembly meeting along the lines of a large number of similar such meetings arranged by other National Student Organisations." said the organiser, NZUSA Vice-President
"Each participant will represent one particular United Nations member country and it will be his or her task to put forward the view of that country on Rhodesia."
Participants will be expected to familiarise themselves both with the facts of the case and the attitude of the country they have chosen to represent. NZUSA will provide information on Rhodesia and details of United Nations debates on the issue.
On the first day of the discussion, to be held at Victoria University, background papers on Rhodesia will be presented by both advocates and opponents of the Smith Government, as well as background papers on the United Nations.
The second day, which it is hoped will be held in the Legislative Council Chamber in Parliament Buildings, will be the Model United Nations General Assembly. The Prime Minister has been invited to open this debate.
The organisers intend that all students interested in international affairs should participate. Registration forms will be available in all constituent Student Association offices. Registration will close on July 19 at NZUSA, Box 806, Wellington.
The University radio programme is threatened with extinction.
NZBC producer. Mr
Greet said that students with things to say seemed hesitant in saying them into a microphone.
"We are always prepared to mould our presentation to suit the personality concerned, so that would-be reviewers, critics, or entertainers have the best opportunity to do these things," he said.
The radio programme was started by former PRO
Since it began six months ago it has occupied the 9.15-9.45 pm spot on 2ZB's Monday night programme.
The programme tries to present news and reviews as well as reports and items of interest. But Mr Greet wants a greater breadth of coverage and depth of presentation.
As acceptable items he mentioned, poetry, music, humour and any other original work.
Mr Greet said regular contributors include
"But the potential of such a programme is not being fully realised."
The programme provides an opportunity for anyone with designs on a career in news and entertainment media to advance their knowledge and to obtain some practice in the field.
It also gives anyone who is prepared to accept a wider audience a chance for his views to be more widely disseminated—Like open day. the University radio programme can help others see us as we see ourselves.
No progress has been made with the Catholics' Newman Hall hostel to be built on the present site of the Mount Street Cemetery.
Steps had not yet been taken to legally close the cemetery, said one of the trustees representing Newman Hall, Mr
Father Matthias, of the Northland Presbytery, said, "It's all a question of finances."
He did not think the Hostel Finances Committee would be able to start the Everton. Trinity and Newman Halls together.
It was reported in the March 19 issue of Salient that the graves would be moved next long vacation.
This letter is from Students' Association Secretary John Lenart's uncle in Paris.
John has made it available for publication in the hope to throw more light on the new wave of Student Revolutions.
". . . As you know, the last fortnight was not exactly a period of peace and quiet. We spent the night of the 13th at the radio.
"Public sympathy was unanimous and on the side of the students who behaved marvellously and gave the police and gendarmerie a hard time. During the last two weeks some 600 police have been wounded. So it was understandable why the police applied such brutal means against the students, some of whom were children 15 years of age. Everything has two sides.
"Some 550,000 paving blocks will have to be replaced. These were used by the students partly to erect barricades, partly as ammunition thrown at the heads of policemen. But the police used, instead of tear-gas, a new type of poison gas which the Americans, at present use, against the Vietcong. This gas attacks the kidneys and caused general consternation, especially because the antidote to this gas is still unknown.
"The red flag waves from the dome of the Sorbonne. The Square in front is black with students, who around the statue of Pasteur (adorned with a red scarf) sit, stands, squat, lie, march, give political speeches, carry slogans, argue and rave. They don't seem to have any plan or know what they want. But they are united on one point: 'do nothing.'
"The walls of the university are full of slogans: 'It is forbidden to forbid.' On the entrance is a crude poster:
'The revolution which commences is to replace not only capitalism but also the industrial society. The society of consumers will perish in a violent death. The society of alienation must disappear from history. We are inventing an original new world. Imagination before power.'
The Cultural Commission Of The Action Committee, 3 May 1968.
A revolution based on the above theories, even if these are better understood by others than myself, would have little success in giving the world anything new or constructive."