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Salient has received letters from two Malaysian students supporting charges of government intervention in the establishment of the Malaysian Students' Association.
"It is time to say," writes one student, "that, with pressure from High Commissioner
"The minority are undermining a principle of democracy by opting out, with the intention of leaving the Singapore students to form an association by themselves.
"At the least this is unfriendly, and at the worst provocative."
"I would like to inform you frankly, Sir, that a large number of Chinese educated students in this University are opposing the education policy of our present Government, which is oppressing Chinese education," says the letter.
"Even the M.S.S.A. has not represented the Chinese educated students."
According to the second letter the new Association is supported by "no more than 25 individuals, out of a total of nearly 200 (Malaysian) students."
Majorities of Malaysian students had been opposed to the formation of a Malaysian, as distinct from a Malaysia-Singapore, Students' Association at both a panel discussion on the subject, and at the Annual General Meeting of the Malaysian-Singapore Students' Association.
This letter notes "the suspicious coincidence of timing" in the formation of the new Association and the visit of the High Commissioner.
It goes on to challenge: "Will the High Commissioner deny that he did mention the word. 'Blacklisting' in his conversation with certain students?"
This letter has a postscript: "It would be suicide to reveal the author. Should you decide not to publish this please destroy it: I would rather that nobody else sees this letter in the present form.
The Joint Committee on Student Representation in the University has deferred its decision on student representation on the Academic Committee of the Professorial Board until a decision is made on student representation on the Board itself.
But the Chairman of Committee, the Chancellor of the University, Mr R. S. V. Simpson, said after its last meeting that the committee "were convinced that there were few matters dealt with by the Academic Committee in which students could legitimately claim a share in the decision making, especially since most decisions involved the consideration of personal information on their fellow students which might well be embarrassing."
"The Committee was agreeably surprised to learn how many course and staff evaluation schemes were already in operation in the University.
"The Joint Committee considered it could lay down no definite policy for individual departments on evaluation, but felt that the information made available to the Joint Committee should be circulated to the Academic staff so they could decide on the kind of course evaluation that may suit their individual needs," said Mr. Simpson.
The Committee resolved "That the Joint Committee recognises the importance of regular evaluation of courses and teaching, and the value of the work going on in this respect in the University, and recommends to all members of the academic staff that they regularly seek critical assessment of their courses and teaching performance by their students and colleagues… "
The Executive of the Students' Association has received a report recommending the establishment of a council of about seventy students, with power to pass recommendations makinq association policy.
The Council would not be along the lines of the Otago Council which has over two hundred members, but more like Canterbury's which is doing useful work with a membership of about 60.
The report was prepared by a committee set up for the purpose by the A.G.M. of the Association in April.
The Committee consisted of the Students' Association, Salient,
"In a University of 5000 students it is obviously not possible for everyone to participate in student government and it is equally obvious that not everyone has any desire to. There is, however, a responsibility to provide opportunities for those who are interested to participate," the report stated.
"The greater number involved in a Student Council Association matters and thus more could feel a sense of involvement
"It would be extremely valuable to have a body which would have a broader sense of student opinions.
"The establishment of a Student Council would ensure close contact on Association matters between Executive and more students.
"It would also provide a wider range of ideas for the surveillance of Executive and provide personnel for Association activities.
"The Committee decided that the most satisfactory basis of membership was by election on a Faculty basis on the ground that this would ensure the widest possible representation of views.
"We do not believe that election on a Faculty basis will in any way reduce such contact or cause strong divisions between Faculties; rather the Council will become a place where interdisciplinary contact is publicly encouraged.
Membership of the proposed Council should include the Executive, two representatives from Sports Council Cultural Affairs Council and Publications Board, the two immediate Past-Presidents if available and the Student Representatives on the University Council, the Student Union Management Committee and the Professorial Board if this eventuates.
"The Committee considers that the Council should be given power to pass resolutions making Association policy. It should also be able to pass a vole of no confidence in the Executive or individual members.
"The Council should also have the power to elect members of Executive when vacancies occur on the Executive, providing that there is no automatic co-option under the Constitution. The Presidency should be dealt with as under the present Constitution.
"The University Administration has advised that a student roll including a student's faculty could be produced for election purposes in late March or early April each year.
"On the basis of a basic four members for each faculty with the balance apportioned on a pro rata basis one for every two hundred and residue of one hundred or more the membership would be as follows:
Arts 17. Commerce 9. Science 9, Law 7.
"It is clear that as the Arts Faculty provides over 50% of the student roll some subdivision is necessary to provide a sufficiently small community of interest for identification between elector and representative.
"At the request of the Executive the Committee is willing to investigate the possibility of voting groups according to groups of major subjects which will not necessarily fall into the present faculty divisions, e.g. , modern, languages, bio science, physical science, social science, etc.
"All America saw at the Democratic Convention that Hubert Humphrey is not the Democratic Party candidate at all," said Mr Barrie Watts (left), a New Zealand journalist who attended both party conventions in the U.S.A. this vear.
"It was a railroad job."
"Humphrey will go down down screaming and he will take all the reactionaries in the party with him, leaving the liberals in a very strong position to ask for managerial control in 1972."
Mr Watts was speaking at the University at the invitation of the Labour Club.
"It was a hell of a scrap," he said. "A real ripper."
"What I really wanted to tell you about was the night of the nomination," he said.
"Then was the worst outbreak of violence.
"They were not riots, nobody was rioting; it was plain police brutality.
"A fact not mentioned in much of the Republican and Democratic Press was that the demonstrators who were outside the hotels had been granted a license by the Chicago police to be there."
Mr Watts said he was at the convention hall when he heard through the television outside broadcasts that the police, followed by the National Guard, were approaching the demonstrators.
He said he went down to the scene and sheltered on the roof of a C.B.S. van.
"The young people were packed in the street and the police were walking towards them.
"Thev looked like 21st century Buck Rogers stormtroopers in their baby-blue shirts, tailored at the waist; tight black pants and great big, black boots.
"They were a terrible, anonymous force coming along the street, and then they came in, splintering off in all directions and swinging their clubs.
"They laid about them with terrible effect." he said.
"I was pleased to see the National Guard behind them removing their bayonets and sticking them in their webbing; they must have thought it would be a push-over job.
"The injured were helped by guests from the hotels, those who weren't pursued through the hotel by the police."
Mr Watts said the National Guard cleaned up the bodies on the street.
"They worked three to a body, slipping their rifles underneath and making a a sort of a pallet to throw it in the great truck behind them.
"There were 10,000 Federal troops ringing the town with tanks, planes and helicopters.
"All in all it was a little bit one-sided.
"When it became too much, and I couldn't watch it any more I went back to my hotel to watch the nomination on T.V.
Mr Watts said the liberals were staging a "terrific rally", and were attempting to move that the Convention be reconvened two weeks hence.
But the chairman was refusing to accept the motion every time it was attempted.
"The Convention never actually voted on the issue." said Mr Watts.
"There was a surge of fighting on the floor as reactionaries somersaulted over seats to attack liberals.
"Then the chairman would disallow the motion, it would be proposed again, and the fighting would resume.
Mr Watts said the Convention "really went wild" when the New York delegation attempted a motion of censure of police, administrators and Mayor Daley.
"The camera zeroed in on Daley's great, fat face which was mouthing terrible things which I couldn't hear because there was no sound boom near.
"He picked up a white telephone and spoke into it for about 10 seconds.
"Then, in came the police and out went the liberal delegations.
"Then Humphrey was elected and it was alt over; nobody else really had a chance.
"I found it hard to believe the scenes shown before the fascinated gaze of millions of people."
The playwright,
"If you can look at things in that cynical light I think I agree with him, for the reactionaries made the liberals a unified force which will achieve a large measure of success in the next three years."
Referring to the Convention generally. Mr Watts said that the "stage-managing of the Convention" was "disgusting".
He said at the Republican Convention 300 youths dressed in white took up one hour and a half every mornine raising the American flag and reciting an oath of allegiance and half an hour in the evening taking is down again.
"The Democrats used a hollow, stainless steel pole with a flag at the top, and every morning gas would set it fluttering."
"It took only about 15 minutes," he said.
Mr Watts said the victory of the liberals on the first day was the challenge to racially-based delegations.
"Two delegations from each state which sent a racially-based delegation tried to enter; and they were both accepted."
Mr Watts said a terrific floor fight greeted the attempt of the alternative delegations to seat themselves.
"Why they didn't throw out the all-white delegations I'm damned if I know," said Mr Walls.
"Public announcements had already been made by these delegations that they would vole for Wallace anyway."
He said the liberal delegates, including Governor Rockefeller and Mayor Lindsay, were stage-managed out of any possibility of getting the nomination.
"Rockefeller was not heard on Tv at all," he said.
"Lindsay gave the only lucid, literary speech at the convention, and a deliberately scheduled coffee-break, bonds playing and people singing meant no one heard him.
"There was no applause for him or anything, nothing at all."
Mr Watts said Lindsay was considered a possible Presidential candidate at that stage.
"Nixon's speech was infamous," said Mr Watts. "It was thoroughly rotten."
"In journalistic terms there was 'a plot' to nominate
"But Kennedy's dithering lost him the nomination," Mr
"He was unable to gauge his strength unless he declared, and he didn't declare,"
Mr Watts said a letter was sent by a Congressman to key state members of the National Committee, containing all the possible objections Kennedy might use to turn down the nomination."
Then followed the means of overcoming the protests.
"Kennedy's inaction was a great tragedy because he could have saved the convention," said Mr. Watts.
"Humphrey proved himself one of the greatest turncoats in political history by my estimation." said Mr
He gave a display of political sophistry which stank to high heaven.
"Why they didn't throw him out of the convention I'm damned if I know," he said.
"He wooed the racist delegations from the South which he didn't need for his nomination anyway."
Jobs will be no harder to obtain this year than last year, the Secretary of the University Appointments Board, Mr A. T. Mitchell, said last week.
In a statement he said the situation will probably be a little easier.
"Two points are quite clear on comparing the employment situation with the years prior to 1967," the statement said.
"There will be less jobs available to students.
"The available jobs will not, in general, offer the same long hours and consequent high wages.
"Although the main role of the Appointments Board is to assist students and graduates to find permanent employment, the Board also assists with vacation employment."
Only students seeking professional vacation employment (related to a particular course study), should register with the Board at this stage, the statement said.
The Board will again contact various employers' and trade organisations and an extra telephone has been installed for canvassing.
Details of vacancies will be posted on the notice board in the main foyer on the first floor of the Union Building.
The statement urged students to try immediately to return to last year's job. "Some employers are prepared to engage only students employed previously.
"If last year's job is not available, do not just wait for a suitable job to appear on the Board's notice board. Use your own initiative in seeking jobs in which you have some experience, or elsewhere."
Business directories are available at the Board Office.
The statement said the Board would welcome any suggestions and information on likely areas of employment which might be suitable for students.
"Groups of students might canvass some of the more affluent suburbs for odd jobs and gardening. If kept informed, the Board could assist in co-ordinating such activities to avoid duplication."
From 25 November a register will be opened if a significant number of students are unable to find vacation work. Special attention can then be given to these people.
The Students' Association general finance advisory committee met for the first time recently.
It consists of the president of the Students' Association, the treasurer, the immediate past-treasurer, the Vice-Chancellor, and the Association's financial advisor.
The committee recommended to the Executive that the 1969 estimates be approved with some amendments.
They provide for an increase from $5,000 in 1968 to $5,500 in 1969 in sports club grants, and an increase from $1,400 to $1,500 for cultural clubs.
The possibility of raising the Students' Association fee was discussed. It was decided there was not enough evidence to suggest it was necessary at the present time.
The University Grants Committee will visit Victoria University on 6 and 7 November to discuss submissions for the Government's next quinquennial grant.
On the morning of Wednesday 7 they will meet with the Vice-Chancellor and Deans.
In the afternoon they will meet other officers of the university and later the University Council.
That evening there will be an informal cocktail party for members of the Professorial Board to meet the delegation.
On the following morning there will be a meeting with the Executive of the Students' Association.
The Vice-Chancellor, Dr. D. B. C. Taylor, supports the view that Students' Association representatives should be able to explain to the Professorial Board their reason for wanting representation on it.
Dr. Taylor said this in a letter in reply to Doug's one seeking student representation.
Dr. Taylor said it was up to the Board to give students speaking rights.
Last issue of Salient for 1968
At its meeting last week the Executive of the Students' Association refused to endorse student candidates for the City Council elections. Instaad it passad a motion "That this Executive supports the principle of studants offering themselves as candidalas for the Wellington City Council elections".
A bill of $12 incurred by the Studant Action Committee on Cxochoslovakia for an advertisement in the Sunday Times hat baan paid by tha Studants' Association.
The Students' Association office manager,
The Executive was advised that Colin Knox had baan appointad Forum Controller, 1969, by tha Forum Controller Selection Committee.
The Houso Committee Chairwoman,
As reported last week,
Well, who is
Joining the elite band of nigglcrs whose gems appear with some regularity in the correspondence columns of our daily papers, this gallant epistolizer has established himself as a leading authority on the subject of students.
At least three times in as many months Mr
The opening of Parliament demonstration, an event not noted for the objectivity of its news coverage, was apparently too much for the worthy Mr Hill who wrote to The Dominion; "Time was when anyone with a University education was regarded as possessing qualities far in advance of those of his fellow man lacking that education.
"Nowadays any reference to students invariably centres on disgust at their aptitude to present thmselves, more often than not, as slovenly, disruptive, rowdy troublemakers."
Advocating the instant expulsion of all those involved, (and who's to tell), he said "Let their place be taken by those who are prepared to justify the ever-increasing taxpayers money diverted to house and educated them in surroundings and conditions unknown to their worthy predecessors (sic) of a generation or two ago."
When Canterbury students proposed a contraceptive vending machine on campus, the good Mr Hill instantly dispatched an impassioned missive to the editor of Riddiford's Rag.
"It is time a searching enquiry was made into every facets of student activities,' he said; a tall order already—but there's more to come—"And one and all who are not solely interested in serious study, or prepared to measure up to clearly defined standards of conduct (?) or propositions for their tutorial advancement be debarred from benefiting from all university tuition."
"Heaven knows," he said knowledgably, "enough public money is poured into these institutions without it being frittered (new word for it) away on elements capable of propounding this latest suggested outlet for their personal impulses."
Mr
Turning his attention this time to the Evening Post he wrote; "If ever there was justification for a certain section of our youthful community (guess who) being unceremoniously tossed into the authoritarian atmosphere of an army training camp and] given a thorough lambasting in rigid discipline and controlled behaviour it was given during a recent screening of "The Green Berets".
"The opening half of this film was shattered under a continuous barrage of shouted obscenities, filthy abuse, and disgustingly vulgar noises from a group of brazen, cocky louts obviously for the express purpose of doing just this, regardless of the presence in the audience of women and children.
"My congratulations to the theatre manager for stopping the show and trying to inject some degree of mentality into their shamelessly vacuous heads," said Raymond mond M. Hill esq.
"My congratulations would be the greater had he ordered the entire theatre to be evacuated. Elements such as these" (theatre managers?) "are a disgrace to themselves and are repugnant to every decent-minded citizen."
Apparently Mr Hill counts himself among these admirable people.
Despite his vivid description of the events in the theatre, obviously gleaned from press reports, he has made one great error. The noise and disruption did not only last for the first half hour; it lasted through the entire performance. Let's hope Mr Hill will get his facts right next time.
Opinions expressed in Salient are not necessarily those of VUWSA.
Salient 1969 is brought to an end with this issue, and there are a number of people I should thank. I won't, not only because it is traditional to refrain from thanking people for work done around the campus, however unpublically, but also because the people who expect thanks deserve little.
The people who deserve thanks expect none. Amongst the latter are the associate editor,
He would be the last to see himself as having the skills of a businessman, and the absence of these skills he may not have been an ideal Publications Officer. But from an editor's point of view it is more important that the Publications Officer does not in any way use that position to influence editorial policy than that he is a businessman.
It is to be hoped that next year's Publications Officer realises the importance of this fact, and does not misuse his position in any way.
There are very few people who could successfully combine any position on the Executive with membership of the staff of Salient, let alone the position of Publications Officer, but a precise knowledge of the natures of the jobs he was doing led
The revelation of what exactly the bright new people of Salient 69 have in store for us can only come with 69, but
It is hoped that the Students' Association Publications Board will make about twice as much money available for technical assistance as at present. This would free the editor for the real job of editing. The full potentialities of all the people interested in Salient could be better exploited with this development. Those potentialities are very large indeed.
Many of the chores associated with running a newspaper are uninteresting, and by no means literary. It is such people as distribution managers and administration officer that make Salient work, and it will be necessary one day to pay a student to do this sort of work, too.
Column Comment on television last week devoted several minutes to a discussion of an editorial in Salient on political journalism. Besides faulty argument and generalisation about all student journalists, the commentator distorted fact and seemed to hold an unduly malicious attitude towards students.
At the time of going to press the editor of Salient is negotiating for the opportunity to reply.
Editor:
Telephone 70-319 (S.U.B.) or 27-731 (Home).
Associate Editor: Nevil Gibson.
Advertising Manager: Henry Newrick.
Telephone 55-922 (Work) or 26-260 (Home).
Technical Editor: Graham Ingram.
Sub-Editors:Literary Editor:Features Editor:Science Editor:News Editor:Sports Editor:Political Editor:Contributing Editors:Reviews:Administration Officer:Business Manager:Photographers:Senior Reporter:Reporters:Proof Readers:
Cartoonists:Circulation:
On the left,
Dear Sir, To clarify our position on South Africa I am enclosing 0) a statement of NZUSA's policy on South Africa. (2) a copy of my letter of 2nd August, 1967 to the Afrikaanse Studente Bond.
NZUSA has no interest whatever in establishing contact with any student group supporting apartheid in the field of education. We are totally opposed to any forms of racial discrimination and therefore totally opposed to any groups supporting it. There is no way in which we could have any sort of a meaningful dialogue with the A.S.B. On the other hand we do maintain close relations with the National Union of South African Students, along with other members of the International Student Conference. On various occasions we have protested to your Government and its Consul-General in New Zealand on its continued harassment of NUSAS, well illustrated by the banning of
Ian Robertson . Any student organisation worth its salt and adhering to the basic principle of freedom of speech would have protested about such a happening, but not the ASB! It gives the impression that the ASB is little more, than a student division of your Nationalist party. We have also assisted NUSAS by raising money for some of its programmes, for example the Prison Education Programme.I have myself met representatives of NUSAS at International Student Conferences and have learned of the persecution they have suffered, merely because they hold contrary views to your Government, something that it seems is not permissible in South Africa.
In considering the attitudes of New Zealanders towards South Africa, you should realise that we are proud to call ourselves a multi-racial society. About eight percent of our people are of Maori or Polynesian race and a much larger number of New Zealanders have varying degrees of Maori blood in them. This is not something of which we are ashamed, but something we are proud of. We do have some racial problems but basically race relations are harmonious. We therefore find it very strange that any group of people should become so obsessed with the idea of maintaining racial purity (whatever that is) that they are prepared to deny their fellow countrymen the most elementary human rights, such as the right to vote and the right to live where one chooses, merely because they are of a different race. In particular we find the police state methods used to enforce this idea, such as the suspension of the rule of Law and the stifling of free speech, appalling to say the least.
If you would like to raise any further questions I will do my best to answer them.
Yours faithfully, David A. Shand International Vice-President.
South African Replies
On the right an anonymous S.A. student replies to
The President. N.Z. University Students Association. Your letter to the Afrikaanse Studente Bond says: "I regret that I cannot wish you luck". Could any remark about the question of survival as a race be more fatuous and childish? I am a supporter of NUSAS but I recognise that the ASB leaders, however misguided they may be in certain respects, are earnest men and are men. We have no use for "luck" in Southern Africa. What we need is some medium of understanding of the vast and intricate race problem we have on our hands. When the thousand million Chinese start breathing heavily down your necks in Australasia you too will need a bit more than luck. If, via the Tanzania-Zambia railway the Communists reach Durban and Cape Town, I would not give tuppence for your survival as a white people and little more for your continued existence as half-breeds, the Chinese not being exactly tolerant of non-Yellows.
The Europeans of Southern Africa are very proud of being a white people and of our European heritage. We are also very proud of what we have managed to do so far for Southern Africa as a whole. We have no wish to change our appearance, outlook and habits and will therefore not accept integration and thus encourage mongrelisation. There is nothing wrong with bastards, but we just happen to want to stay the way we are and our forefathers were. After all, no reputable farmer would encourage his Charolais and Aberdeen Angus herds to breed indiscriminately. So we stand or fall by apartheid. However, what particularly bedevils this decision is the inefficient and thoughtless way the Nationalist government goes about things in practice, and its deadly fear of losing power. But that phobia is not unknown elsewhere, for example You-Know-Who at No. 10 Downing Street. However, for the sake of all the races in South Africa. We and many of the non-Whites are prepared, much as we dislike it in theory, to accept a semi-fascist regime if that means avoiding what has recently happened to so many countries in Africa. In NUSAS and generally dangerous liberalist elements easily exploitable by Communism have been ruthlessly axed as we are not prepared to suffer another Sharpesville. But please not that NUSAS itself has as an organisation not been banned. This would not cost more than a stroke of Mr Vorster's pen.
Incidentally, what of a practical nature have you people done to promote democracy and prosperity and to prevent Communism and mass slaughter in Algeria, Ghana, Nigeria, and Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania, the Congo, etc., most of them your brother countries in the Commonwealth? What have you done tor the starving oppressed million adjacent to you? We, at least, provide employment for something like 6 million South African Bantu (Africans) in While South Africa, and for hundreds of thousands more we have no direct responsibility for. In the region of 50 thousand a year continue to enter our country illegally from such countries-Lesotho, Botswana, Swaziland, Malawi. Zambia, and even from Tanzania and the Congo.
The tragedy about most people who are so fully informed about our affairs ("NZUSA is fully aware of the situation in South Africa") is that they apparently cannot conceive that the basic setup in Southern Africa might well be very different from that in their country and, in fact, in most others. Your statement quoted above was immediately contradicted in your next paragraph-"the vast majority of your countrymen are denied the most elementary human rights". The Bantu are not-and who should know better than we-'"our fellow countrymen". Their presence in While South Africa future Republic of Good Hope) is little different from the masses of workers from Southern Europe employed in France and Germany. As such they enter and remain in our country on our terms which include non-integration and better pay, housing, medical attention, education and justice, etc. than any other workers in Africa enjoy. The Egyptian worker is a serf in comparison. Nevertheless, we know only too well that too many are too often too hungry and too cold. This in my opinion requires the most urgent attention, but even we cannot build Rome in a day. How, do you think, does the richest nation in the world and a century ahead of us in industrialisation measure up in these respects? We would prefer permanent white settlers or even migrant Italian labourers, but a well established practice cannot suddenly be reversed. The Bantu are not South African citizens (have you any right to tell us who are and who are not citizens?), but citizens of the embryo countries to the north. Many of these groups will obviously later amalgamate, for example the Zulu, Swazi and, in Rhodesia, the Mata-bele. While it is true that the Bantu of the Republic now have too little land, bear in mind please that little land was taken away from the Bantu in the way that the North American Indians were dispossessed. The Whites in Southern Africa occupied in general only land then unoccupied by Bantu peoples. The 13% story is also a delusion —much of White S.A. is the poorest land in S.A. and much of the Bantu land, now extensively damaged because they and their cattle prospered greatly under our protection, the best. That's why they settled there.
Souh Africa is no more one country, though governed as such since 1910, than Great Britain and Ireland was and is one country. Eire has already broken away, Ulster is semi-independent, and Scotland and Wales will sooner or later be granted or obtain (UDI?) their independence. But these five politically independent countries will no doubt continue to function as an economic unit despite the relatively disproportionate strength of England. Unification in Southern Africa did not advance as far as in the area mentioned above. Rhodesia decided in 1923 not to join the Union, and Lesotho, Botswana and Swaziland were not incorporated as provided for in 1910. South West Africa, though conquered by S.A. forces, was not incorporated in the Union. As far as it went the process of unification is now being reversed. It is quite possible that Southern Africa may in due course consist of the following "states":
White (and Coloured and Indian): Western Province, Eastern Province, Northern Cape, Orange Free State, Transvaal, Rhodesia and the white stale in S.W.A.
Bantu: Xhosa, Lesotho, Zulu/Swazi/Mata-bele group, Marshonaland, Sotho/Tswana group, Damaraland, Hereroland, and one or two smaller groups. These countries will have to unite in an economic unit and will probably also have in the end a multiracial federal type central government. Of course, the White stales are likely to retain their central government - Republic of Good Hope.
The crying need in practically every Black African country (and many others) is for employment. Many of the worst off are your brother Commonwealth countries. How about N.Z. providing work (and houses, hospitals, schools, etc.) for, not 6 million, but only 4 million Africans at a time in White N.Z.? If you don't do this your whole attitude to White South Africa is a sham and a lie. Will you, do you think, give them the vote and enforce integration. Of course, if you consider the Africans are somebody else's trouble, how about 4 million Indonesians or Chinese or Indians?
Finally, I cannot but hope that you slip on a banana skin, fall flat on your arse, and thereby get your ideas and views down to the level of practical politics. Do recent events in France perhaps mean anything to you? To me it is abundantly clear that the backbone of the country has massively rejected student blue-eyed liberalist antics which were immediately exploited by the Communists.
Unlike you, I have learned that my ideas and opinions about countries I have not lived in are often, if not usually, erroneous. For example, to me it appears that N.Z. is a bit of a backwater politically and otherwise, her main claims to fame being pretty good rugby and a welfare state which encourages vast illegitimate families.
Fairly Typical White Southern African.
NZUSA President, John McGrath, was recently sent by the National Youth Council to a South Pacific Commision Regional Seminar on Youth, where he was the New Zealand Government's official observer.
The Seminar was held at Suva, Fiji, on the campus of the new University of the South Pacific.
Mr McGrath took the opportunity to make contact with the University authorities and Student Council and records here his impressions for Salient.
The University of the South Pacific situated at Laucala Bay in Suva, Fiji could well be the catalyst for sweeping social and economic development throughout the South Pacific.
The University which this year teaching preliminary classes, will commence full degree courses in 1969. It occupies the very attractive 140 acre site of the RNZAF's former Laucala Bay airbase. The New Zealand Government donated the £l( million improvements on the site to the University.
From the New Zealand Universities have come the first Vice-Chancellor, Dr
A Programme Planning Seminar for the university was convened by Dr Aikman during May this year. It saw as the prime purpose of the university the provision of courses reflecting the social and economic needs of the South Pacific Region and in particular of its natural resources. At the same time it saw the university providing students with an understanding of their own societies and the impact that international trends would have on them. This regional emphasis was seen as the best way to combine the best value for the investment of the individual Pacific Territories with a broad liberal education for the students.
It is reflected in the degree and other courses the university will introduce next year. Already however in its preliminary classes one third of the 154 students come from outside Fiji-from America and Western Samoa, the Solomon Islands, the Cook Islands, Gilbert and Ellis Islands, New Hebrides, Niue, Tokelau Islands, Tonga and Marshall Islands.
Accepting the general views of the Seminar the Interim Council will probably on 25 & 26 September proceed to set up the university's three initial Schools in Natural Resources. Social Development and Education orientating them towards the Seminar's recommendations. The School of Natural Resources will initially concentrate on biological sciences with third year specialisation planned in particular for such areas as ecology, oceanography, soil science and microbiology. It is envisaged that this will eventually lead to an institute or centre of Tropical Ecology (the study of living organisms in their environment) at the university.
The School of Social Development will concentrate on the leaching of the economic and social characteristics of the South Pacific, and in particular Political Science. Economics, Sociology, History (of the region), and South Pacific Studies. The school will have the further aim of stimulating the general cultural development of the individual students.
The School of Education will combine within the university several levels of secondary teacher training which are separated in New Zealand. The first is a diploma course with entry at School Certificate level for Junior forms. There will also be a four year degree course in education for secondary school teachers, and a post-graduate diploma course, as well as "in service" courses for teachers, of both primary and secondary schools.
Dr Aikman feels that the university has something to contribute to all tertiary training in the South Pacific encouraging high standards and ensuring that equivalent qualifications are mutually recognised. Close liaison will accordingly be maintained with the Derrick Technical Institute, the Fiji Schools of Medicine and of Agriculture, the Regional College of Tropical Agriculture at Alafua in Western Samoa and teachers training colleges throughout the region.
Such coordination would appear to avoid the illogical formal distinctions often made in New Zealand between universities and other forms of tertiary education.
The entrance standard for degree courses will be higher than that required for the New Zealand Universities but the university will continue to provide its Preliminary courses to bridge the wide gap between the standard of secondary schools in the Pacific and this university's requirements. Either a pass in the Preliminary Stage II course or the New Zealand Higher School Certificate will be the Entrance qualification for its degree courses.
The current university buildings are of course those of the former RNZAF base. They include provision for up to 250 students living on the campus. There is also very extensive library space for what will probably eventually be the most comprehensive library in the South Pacific providing facilities for specialised research in the area. At this early stage however it is building from scratch and clearly requires books, periodicals, and other publications of Pacific relevance.
The University site has also a large amount of stall accommodation and buildings which have been adapted for use as a student canteen, recreation room and common rooms. The great asset of the university however lies in its very beautiful grassed site sloping gently down towards Laucala Bay. Here there is all the scope for every imaginable development in the future. The current buildings are seen as adequate for the university's needs until the end of 1969 and their further development is being discussed now by the university.
Apart from the site and the buildings the largest part of the financing of the university has come from the British Government which has made a contribution of £1,250,000 (approximately 60% being for capital development and 40% for recurring expenses). The Government of Fiji is also making a substantial contribution as are the region's various territorial governments' through a contribution based on the number of students sent.
Obviously however the South Pacific region will look towards the New Zealand and Australian governments and other sources in these two countries for further necessary support. Indeed the governments concerned which have for so long been at a loss as to how they can best contribute to the development of the South Pacific will probably find long-term continued support of the new university as their best means of doing so.
Provided this type of support comes there would seem to be little difficulty in the recruitment of top level staff for the university (something that is now under way). New universities have a knack for picking up excellent stall and the prospects of building up this region's university will be a lure for many. Salaries also are competitive being well above the current New Zealand rates but not above the Australian rates.
A Students' Association has been formed and is gaining strength. The Student Council President.
It is clear that the widely representative Student Council is assisting excellent racial harmony in the university at a time when outside tension is high. There are 56 Indian students, 33 Fijian and 47 from other Territories in the region.
It is clear that the university authorities intend to make the University of the South Pacific a relaxed informal place for students to live and work. Indeed the new freedom it is giving to students has not gone uncriticised in the strict society of Fiji. However it is very much appreciated by the students who already feel that they have wide access to the administration and constructive consideration tor their views on university matters. By this early recognition of the value of student participation in the running of the university the authorities have helped develop an enthusiasm amongst students for the university's future. The first degree students among them will graduate at the end of 1971 and although all will see this as the first great milestone in the university's contribution to the region its impact is already being felt.
Sir-What a pity it was that Plymouth Rock didn't land on the Pilgrim Fathers instead of the other way round.
This remark is not humorous, it is part of the tragic truth that because of the inert nature of that rock, death for the Indians, enslavement for the Negroes, and spiritual disaster for the homeless New-Americans resulted. And they have become enslaved by a brutal and cynical oligarchic business-world. Will this unsagacious society mature to arise distinguishable from the concrete and steel they have created.
This extends beyond spiritual and mental deprivation. Lately our attention has been drawn to the ten million people suffering from malnutrition in the USA. There is an overproduction of food problem where the Treasury pays farmers nor to utilise a certain percentage of their properties because it is not economically profitable to distribute the excess food to the human slagheap created by the capitalistic system. To have starvation right there in the same country, where wealth and poverty exist side by side,' is a tragedy for everyone of those ten million people.
Because of these ironic conditions the 'Aid to America Society' has been formed within Victoria University with the objective of alleviating human suffering and deprivation within the Republic of the United States of America. This Society hopes to collect money which will be presented to the American Ambassador to New Zealand. No student could fail to sympathise with this previously overlooked underprivileged area. We are disinterested politically, simply keen that no Americans should die of malnutrition or other mistreatment.
If support is forthcoming we shall send a Communique to the United Nations and endeavour to enlist the support of other Universities in the world. We hope you will be enthusiastic about this practical opportunity to help America.
Sir-As might have been expected (and hoped for) my recent article, headed "The Death of God", provoked a good deal of thought and discussion. To those few students who actually became vocal (or rather, literary) in their protests, I am grateful, for the contents reveal, if admittedly no sympathy, at least the fact that I may have touched a few raw points somewhere. After all few people bother to react defensively if this is not the case. The literary few were outraged and unconvinced by my argument when all is said and done, no-can be argued into anything that he does not want to be argued into. Present all the rational arguments you please, all the absolute proofs and their conclusions for any thesis-the plain fact of human nature dictates that nobody will be convinced about anything unless he is willing to be. Recognising this, I do not propose to carry the argument any further myself. In the last analysis my only plea is this: that you may reject or accept the Christian position as you wish (my article was written to defend its intellectual integrity, not for the purpose of instant conversion), but please, let there be honesty in thhe motives for your choice. My original point remains-that if Christianity is rejected (and one is entitled and free to think as one pleases), let it not be on the grounds of so-so-called 'irrationality', or because it fails to satisfy the demands of the intelligent thinker. I believe that the Christian position is able to hold its own against any alternative philosophy, and that it provides a good deal more than intellectual satisfaction. Let it be openly admitted that the real factors behind its rejection or acceptance involve a good deal more than cut-and-dried consistency, although a system must he consistent before any thinking person should be expected to follow it. They involve the will and disposition of the individual, who for reasons other than necessarily logical ones may not be prepared or inclined to accept the responsibilities and implications of this or any position.
Finally, thank you Mr. Pettigrow, Mr. Silver, Miss Follick and Mr. Cropp for your inspiring and courteous attempts to state the Opposing position with the dignity and integrity worthy of those who have the human capacity to think and to reason.
Sir-In reply to David Harcourt's article on the Language Requirement, may I say that, anything he said there notwithstanding, I consider it supremely arrogant for anyone to formulate, or want to formulate degreecourse requirements according only to his subjective preferences. I am sure that neither he nor anybody else can provide a convincing argument that any unit is objectively and intrinsically more worth studying than any-other.
I agree that, in the present debate, it depends on how you regard the B.A. degree; but I propose to disregard it. Tradition in this case should give way, not to a conflicting would-be tradition, but to a more pragmatic approach. Ideally, in my view, universities would give no degrees -employers and other interested peoplep would look to results in individual units for guidance. No units would be compulsory, nor would there be any compulsory prerequisites, although departments might indicate what amount of knowledge and/or proficiency was taken for granted in any given unit.
Any combination of units that the timetable did not rule out would be possible. Employers would widely advertise their preferred units and grades, and grades, and students could study what they liked, concentration on strictly vocational training or on a "broad education" or on any combination thereof — as they pleased.
One of the main limiting factors would be the impracticability of having an infinite number of units taught at a university.
[
Sir-Dear Jim, I love you. When I was at primary school we used to have the odd pimp. You know what we used to do with them? String them to a wall and flick them with rubber-bands. Dear Jim, rumour has it that you are a pimp. What should we do with you? Perhaps a little playful vengence wouldn't go amiss. If it's one at primary school, why shouldn't we do it here at our noble institution. If they do it in Chicago and Vietnam, why shouldn't we do it here? Yet isn't this a very primitive, basic, perhaps animal reaction? However, in Vietnam they don't use rubber bands, either side, and yet dear Jim, rumour has it that you hold Vietnam as a show-case of dedicated Western attempts at justifying basic human motivations. Perhaps you could understand why I love you so, for I too am a primitive being.
Sir-"The Green Berets" was a stupid and pathetic film, but I think I would almost prefer the inanities of John Wayne's sickening patriotism to the ill considered and equally pathetic attempt of some students to register their protest against it.
The argument against the American, and New Zealand Government's action in Vietnam is overwhelming on legal, moral, and even military grounds. Action should be taken against anything that can be associated with it. But in this case "action" consisted of foot stamping, with obscenities and other remarks being yelled at the screen. The yelling was not even in appropriate places, the German-speaking American soldiers at the beginning, for example, not causing the Obvious comparison. This type of activity can only react to the disadvantage of the anti-war movement in general, and students in particular.
I would venture to suggest a reasonable protest in this case could have consisted of a small demonstration outside the theatre at the Friday 8pm session, with possibly a petition to the manager asking him to stop screening it. Perhaps this is not very exciting, but it would make the point without evincing the hostility of others -as this behaviour did. If some person had felt really bad about the matter they could have attempted a sit-in the foyer, and no doubt have demonstrated to the general public that our police are every bit as efficient as these in Chicago.
Sir-In the Salient of July 30 the drama critic,
This little statement of Aims and Beliefs leaves the reader with the impression that only one sketch succeeded, "but even this failed to come across as fully as it might." This is, presumably, according to his view of what "Knickers" should be.
I can only pass an opinion on what was there, and my opinion is that it was very good fun. I to have been to "Knickers" twice and found it quite the funniest thing I have ever seen at Downstage. It contains some brilliantly vicious satire, much at Keith's expense, and some truly beautiful trips into absurdity. It certainly was not, when I saw it, the typical rehash of cribbed overseas humour set in the traditional frames of student revue sketches. This was what I had expected and what Bob's review could lead unsuspecting readers to think. I don't laugh easily, and the show made me laugh a great deal. If this is the criterion, then the production is a success.
To paraphrase
[
Sir-I've grown a trifle bored to read these rants against the Lord
To make the world in seven days with one day off deserves our praise Miss Follick whose undoubted wit—why yes—she uses words like
Shit
And Crap, most rational
just the gear
it must be rather hard to smear two thousand years or so of Him (of course he's just a feeble whim—a concept, read your Sigmund Freud)
Well I mean to say you know He's enough to make any decent upright young New Zealand girl annoyed.
A fascist too, a pusher—Yea—the type to lead young folks astray enough—Miss Follick, cross your—let's crucify the bum again.
Sir—I am deeply ashamed.
I have hatred and contempt for training college students. Salient Editorial last week, assured me that student teachers are reviled by normal students like you and me. You and I have this attitude that "training college students are in an intellectually inferior institution and that deserve nothing but contempt." We think of student teachers as "a marauding tribe Intent on destruction" and of the university as "a convent to remain aloof from the world."
Honestly, I didn't know! Who would have thunk that a peaceful, harmless person like me had such reactionary attitudes? How was it that I never suspected that "many student teachers do traverse the mighty walls of the university, almost to be overcome by the intellectual snobbery exuding from the lecture theatres"? How long have I been persecuting training college students?
It's got to stop. It's not good enough for we normal students to protest that we've never sneered at student teachers or to pretend that we can't tell the difference between student teachers and normal students. They know that we have this hatred and contempt for them and if can't go on any longer. They must be brought in from the cold, clapsed to our collective bosom, etc., etc. But I hope that
Sir-This whole correspondence seems rather pointless so long as Messrs Fyson attribute to me-and the Spartacist Club-views, we do not and have never held I find it imposible to work out how they, or anybody, came to the conclusion that the Sparacist League broke with the Pabloite Fourth International over the issue of guorilla war. This is simply not true, as those members of their group know who have been supplied with the documents about the origins of the Spartacist League.
The other reason why this correspondence is pointless is that the Fysons not only misrepresent our position, but also their own. They deny being 'Pabloites' because the organisation with which they solidarise has expelled Pablo; but in fact their entire tactical position is based on a declaration by
I confine this letter to a clear statement of the Spartaeist and Pabloite positions, because the Fysons' misstatement have made people confused about the issues, at stake, and their misstatements, whether intentional or not, should not be allowed to stand. Their position should be stated as what it is-the view, in the words of Australian Pabloite
O's journal few details of places we passed, but a jumble of brief thoughts, such as
"Silly old Ocarina! He was terribly offended this morning when he found that I was rather amused about his plans to codify and organize the entire legends of the Tinutroppi. He stormed off in a bad temper, threatening to resign as chronicler and thereby ruin our civilization. Later today I heard him expounding to young Neuphar his pedantic and unlikely theories of history. I hope he has not filled his chronicle with these."
I see our late leader ( ), like myself, harboured the deepest of misgivings about Ocarina. What a pity it is that the journal that has just been found offers no correction to Ocarina's mistakes. Perhaps if we remain here for a very long time. I shall cast back into my remembrances, and write a more exact account of the events that passed us; in particular the jealousies of Ytinutroppo and the Great Fiasco of Aggabug, and the unfortunate miscalculations of Cagliostro, which (he has now admitted to me) caused the flood that bore us to Netragrednik.
Incidentally, during the recent Chaotic Overturning, which was perhaps the death-throes of the man, I was made blind by an intense ray of light. I cannot see to form these words, therefore I have asked Mazinta to write this chronicle for me. I tell her exactly what words to write, and exactly where to put them. In order to preserve our custom that only the chronicler may see what he has written, I have instructed her not on any account to read the preceding pages.
I am informed that others among us are lost or blinded. Chrononhotonthologos is here, and so is Neuphar, but Harmony-in-a-treetop. Cagliostro, Quidditas, and Phenobarbara are nowhere to be heard from; and the lifeless carcases of Phenylketonuria and Kanchenjunga lie in the mud along the ruins of Sparadrap's wagon. From the same mud Mazinta has been rescuing the Forty one volumes of the chronicles of our people, which I brought on this trip without having asked ; or told Rigmarole or any of the others whom we left. The chair in which I am silling is composed of forty large volumes, all kept dry and comfortable by my presence upon them.
We do nothing but surmise about the cataclysm that befell us recently (we do not know how recently: the sun has not risen for at least a week, and it is very dark. And, lacking the sun, we cannot find out why). Perhaps the great flash that caused my present blindness was all time running together and coming to an end, much as if an ant-flood were caused by tipping-up of a bucket which previously had been only leaking. I see no good reason for time not to end. There are only two possibilities: that time may end, or that it may not; and, if time may end, may it not have ended already? But if that is so, when am I writing these words? Certainly not now. Sightlessness confuses me.
If Ottoman's theory was right, and it is true that all time has suddenly passed, why is it that we (so I am told) remain unchanged in appearance? Perhaps, the path of time crossing itself again, that most precious substances found an easy way to travel, and poured backwards down its own previous path.
for Belinda
Rhys
meeting us on the waY wIth a wave of such force that we were left unmoved by it.
It may be that we brought about our own calamity by inadvertently tickling the man (Neuphar at the lime was cleaning his knife by thrusting it into the ground); but Cagliostro cannot be blamed. He was reading Sparadrap's journal at the time.
We are unable to continue on our way. Our wagons are destroyed, and much of our licorice is lost. Only our five selves, our forty one chronicles, and the ruins of (so I am told) my own wagon are together. We cannot travel except by foot, since our beasts are fled, Chronhotonthologos lame, and Neuphar deaf. My only consolation is to consider the ancient philosophical questions, such ;as It a hermaphrodite were to give birth to itself, would that be incest?
Whirligig is sleeping now, and has let go of this journal. I, Mazinta, am writing in the journal.
I have been reading Whirligig's journal, though I promised him I would not. What great exaggerations, and sometimes pure suppositions. If we were to be struck from the man's body, what would a passing flea make of this great throne of books, many of them not even written by those who claim to be their authors? An unsteady inverted pyramid of untruths built on inexactitudes, and lies built on the untruths: that is what this throne is, and what Whirligig spends every minute composing phrases for. What wild, fantastic words he has told me to write, and has muttered to himself in the last few days! One would think that the burning gaze of the man's contemplating of his belly had blinded his lice (and what of the lice upon the lice?) It is a pity that he ever agreed to be chronicler: written words attract evil, and cause in the end the destruction of their creators.
One day on a hilltop as we watched the sun meet the moon, the pain of their encounter reached Whirligig; he explained his blindness by forcing me to write what was not true, which is all that can be written. He is waking.
I have just been given a very strange dream. I dreamed of a mocking voice emerging from a hole in a tree, telling me that the ancients have lied to us, that we have no homeland, and all our trouble has been wasted. I cannot help feeling that there was some truth in the dream, and that if wc were to remain for ever for until our beasts return, which may be as long a time) in this bleak valley, eating unpalatable licorice, and arguing angrily among ourselves, after a while nothing would matter to us any more, and we would cease to be aware of our existence.
[No more of Whirligig's journal is known to exist. All the subsequent pages have been torn from the book. K.K.]
This time last year I commented on record companies' promises of a renewal of interest in British composers. The revival is now in full swing and the major labels are furiously competing with each other. This is not suggesting that the noble establishments have gone overboard and brought forth a swag of recordings of contemporary works; profit being the motive, they have stuck to the more staid, commercial composers. Rawsthorne, Tippet, Maxwell-Davies and Co. are still not being over-extended.
Of all the past year's releases of these composer's works the most interesting is the wealth of
It is unfortunate that none of the aforementioned have been pressed here yet; I have noticed that even the record shops do not have imported copies. There is a glimmer of hope with HMV (NZ) Ltd's release of V-W's "London" symphonv plaved bv Sir
A magnificent performance from the Halle. 1968 has seen this comparatively insignificant group emerge as one of the best recording orchestras in the world. To top this the recording is one of the finest I have heard—fantastic clarity and a breathtaking spread between channels, all achieved without losing the warm string tone. Barbirolli and this orchestra have also recorded "Sinfonia Antarctica" and the Fifth.
If you are a lover of Leonard Bernstein's version of Mahler's Fourth symphony then you need read no further. However if you would like a warmer, more romantic treatment then try a cheap HMV Concert Classics release with
A visiting musician once told me that many of the principal trumpeters in US orchestras intensely disliked Frenchman
Bizet's Carmen and L'Arlesienne suites with their bright, bold and brassy music, are ideally suited to show off both the achievements and failings of Decca Phase Four Stereo Sound. It is rather perverse but the better your stereo system is, the worse records from this special series sound. I was listening to this disc (PFSM 34127) through a friend's new Akai amplifier (pushed throuen two 8" National speakers and two 12" Philips Bombardiarns) and the sound was almost unbearable. A really sensitive emphasises all the technical gimmickry employed by the Decca engineers and producer—woofly bass, unrealistically brilliant treble and over-attention to woodwind and impani. The music itself is rather monotonous. Charles Munch and the New Philharmonia perform satisfactorily.
M. K. Joseph's new novel The Hole in the Zero is probably the first serious attempt at science fiction in New Zealand. It is not a good attempt. Science fiction is generally used for serious allegorical purposes. This is rarely done successfully. Joseph has an unfortunate heavy touch in his prose and although this book is far removed in subject matter from A Pound of Saffron much of the same awkwardness remains.
This heavy handedness is shared by
Joseph attempts something no less ambitious than Lewis; that is to destroy the element of time. But he also destroys any interest we may have had in the characters.
Undoubtedly the book is well written and full of intellectual attributes. Several reviewers have drawn attention to Joseph's diverse vocabulary and supposed source material, such as German fables and philosophical concepts. Indeed, as in A Pound of Saffron which was over-stuffed with every likely human problem, Joseph's undoubted intelligence is in evidence. But this is no substitute for what could have been a fascinating book but failing because of its dead, rather turgid, prose and colourless fantasy.
Joseph has been slightly too ambitious in believing he can weild the unweildy and fuse together a basic adventure story and a mvthical intellectual allegory.
Joseph Jan Walker.
For a long time students of Maori mythology have lacked texts which provide sufficient authorative background material. Messrs Shortland, Taylor, Grey and White are among the more renowned writers and translators who often found it unnecessary to give specific-source references to their publications. Today, however, anthropologists require even' detail of the collection of myths, a need which often finds the early collectors wanting.
Grey's Polynesian Mythology, for example, is assembled from numerous sources whose renderings differ from tube to tube. Grey took the "best" versions and fitted them together with a resulting substantial variation from anv one tribal version. Sometimes he recorded the name and tribe of the informants in his notes, and this aided subsequent untancling in Anthony Alners's recent version of the mvths which, was able to take advantage of later research, providing a far less ethocentrie, more academically satisfying anthology, without sacrifice of reading eniovment.
Maori Folktales, a collection of classical stories, has the original Maori as well as good English translations. The name of the informant and his tribe or distinct, the collector's name and the date of collection one also given. Of the eighteen tales, nine were previously unpublished, four are translated into Enclish for the first time, and the rest are re-edited from earlier publications. The only fault is probably the result of culling the stories from various sources with no unifying theme to enable the reader to compare and integrate it with the other works.
Each tale is separate, involving the reader in a new asnect of Maori life. As a result he may have difficult achieving the fullest possible understanding of them, I think that any Future book in this senries (if there are any could be more profitably arranged in a tribal context or presented under single or connected themes).
Maori Folktales should be well suited to use in Maori languagee classes in school and universities, especially the study of Maori myths.
Margaret Orbell. Maori Folktales, Paul's Book Arrade. Auckland. 1968. 120pp. $2.25. Reviewed by
Of course, there is a price to pay for this sort of thing. Wally is sent to prison—for a crime he did not commit (Magda did; a war refugee ought to be shielded from such comparative trivia; Wally can: Wally does), and by a malicious jurv really punishinc him for living in sin with a foreigner. While serving his sentence, Wally will think about what has happened to him and plan his married life with the girl who turns out to be his real love. Basia
Characters and situations are empty, there is no backing of sustained careful preservation or analysis of people, and the exchange between characters that are funny.are only fleeting. Seven of George Beardmore's 21 books are for children. Will the 22nd make it eight?
George Beardmore:
John Updike's new novel—now available through the usual oversight of the Tribunal—is his most ambitious work so far and, by and large, it is successful. Some have dismissed it as a highbrow's Peyton Place, but though the novel centres s on the town of Tarbox, a small community near Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the heart of Puritan New England, it is essentially a microscopic view of America's vaunted Protestant middle class. All the couples are well off live in pleasant and commodious surroundings with good, often professional jobs, and non-working wives. But underneath this veneer of high civilisation is a network of sexual liaisons that eventually leads to the disintegration of some of the half-a-dozen or so community of couples.
Some of the couples are already well integrated when the book opens. The Applebys and the Smiths are known as the Applesmiths. No one really minds as long as the couples themselves find it workable. Fashionable though adultery and sexual liberation may be, it is the excessiveness and failure of a more widespread adultery that brings the downfall. The pivotal character, Piet, a Dutch-born housebuilder, sleeps with four of the wives, causing a break-up in the marital arrangements of both his own wife and of Foxy Whitman whose jealous and pre-occupied husband forces Piet's ultimate realisation. The other couples flow back and forward, with various sexual permutations, none however, reaching breaking point.
In his earlier novels (notably Rabbit Run and Of The Farm) and short stories. Updike displayed a sharp control and lyricism in his writing. The first part of the book is an impressionistic orientation to the community, and then transforms rapidly into narrative. Compared with most of the fashionable "serious" writers today, he is remarkably old-fashioned. His prose is highly readable and transparent. There are no hidden meanings, complex structures or capsules of experience to make demanding reading. No doubt the reason for the high readership of Couples is a combination of the clear prose and detailed, uncompromising sexual description. It is fair to warm, however, that it isn't prurient nor is it pornography, and a long way from Herman Wouk.
The major weakness of Couples is its under-characterisation. Even after a 100 pages it is still difficult to sort out who's who, who's doing what with who and who wants to do what to who. Somebody suggested a chart (Time magazine I believe supplied a map) of characters similar to a suggestion I remember when studying Middlemarch in English II. Unnecessary, but the mass of detail and action needs a high concentration if one is to make sense of the narrative, if not the words themselves.
Unlike Updike's prose. Elkin's prose shows some familiarity with much modern fiction and is a reasonable example of the technical skill involved in imitation. I don't think Elkin had to write A Bad Man, for it is unconvincing and scarcely important. But it is enjoyable and does demonstrate a willingness to make demands of the reader,
The book's structure is one of those jumble kaliedo-scopes (more accurately jungle) of prison routine and Feldman's miserable experiences (he does of course make the canteen highly profitable—former inmates in charge had pinched things all the time), both in jail and his past life generally. Gradually from these snippets, both real and fanciful, we are brought closer to the "bad man". Many of these pieces are very funny, the satire original and penetrating, but they hardly make a novel.
Playing chess can be very frustrating when you aren't any good. Reading a novel about chess is worse. James Whitfield Ellison's novel—the third American novel reviewed—is long on chess and short on everything else. The Prim of the title is a chess master at eleven years, and he's as obnoxious and self-centred as most child geniuses seem to be. The narrator of the book is a hack writer for some classy magazine (terribly original) and was a former chess champ in his childhood (natch). Bit of sex at the end and long descriptions of some chess bouts between the writer and young Prim. Leave it unless you know some chess fiend and want to keep him quiet for an hour (he probably won't bother finishing it either).
John Updike: Couples. Deutsch. 458pp. $3.60.
While God may or may not be dead in 1968 it is certain that theatre is very much alive. Debate of the merits of plays and productions have been conducted at length in the press and that institution has awarded much space to the announcement of plans for the Hannah Play-house. Discussion of the use of this theatre by Downstage has been considerable and in weighing the pros and cons it is worth noting that while many amateur groups have complained at the exclusive use of it by Downstage none of them went to the trouble that organisation did to produce publicly plans for a theatre suited to their needs.
There is very definitely a need for another theatre in the city catering for the production of the amateur groups. That the City Council is prepared to support such a venture is good and if the amateur groups who will benefit from it are active enough in raising funds it may be that plans to use the theatre for both musical and theatrical events can be thwaited. Such a combination can only
Another decision of importance for all people interested in drama is that of the University Professorial Board's approval of plans for a unit in drama at Victoria. Although no lecturer has been appointed to direct the course as yet, it is hoped that it will be available for students in 1969. While the nature of the course must depend to a considerable degree on the appointee it is hoped that the unit will combine both practical and academic approaches to drama. Associated with the Faculty of Languages and Literature the unit will be available at Stage Two level for students of all faculties. Such a course should provide a stimulus to drama work at the university and will be of interest to students both academically and practically involved with theatre. If anyone has any doubts as to student interest in the course the vast number of applicants for the Drama Club's course in theatre, which was conducted by
The most debated theatrical event of the year must be Downstage's production of Awatea. While enough has been written of the play to fill a whole issue of Salient it should be remembered that it was a very great popular success.
Awatea was a New Zealand play, one of the two presented by Downstage this year and one of the three presented in Wellington. One hopes that in the future we will see more plays by New Zealand authors presented in this city. Last year Downstage presented a
While on the topic of Downstage with productions from twentieth century Albee to twentieth century Shakespeare they have offered us a lot of entertainment and in two plays (A Delicate Balance and Inadmissible Evidence) some food for thought. While entertaining is a worthy pastime I seem to remember that at the time of its formation Downstage set itself a task something similar to that of the Abbey Theatre: to do unpopular plays until they became popular, with a responsibility not just to entertain but to do something more—to make the audience think. I forget the exact phrasing of the aim and I hope that that Theatre has not forgotten its nature.
I mentioned earlier that a New Zealand play was presented outside Downstage this year. I was referring to Baxter's The Bureaucrat which was given an interesting if uneven production (perhaps more the fault of the play than the producer) by Unity Theatre in their Aro Street Workshop. Indications are that Unity is "on the road to regaining its status as New Zealand's foremost amateur group. Venturing up to the University Theatre for one night with Stephen D and for their forthcoming season of A Day in the Death of Joe Egg they are expressing a confidence in their talent which I hope will be rewarded.
Like Unity, Wellington Repertory has been forced to retreat to their own small theatre out this has not diminished the range of their activities or he accomplishment of them. Their production of Henry Living's play Eh won the nation wide Benson & Hedges Three Act Play Competition—a success to be proud of.
Another amateur group that has been very active this year is Ngaio Revue. Their productions in the University Theatre have ranged from Finian's Rainbow to She Stoops to Conquer.
Highlight of the year in amateur theatre have been Stagecraft's sensitive production of The Subject Was Roses and the University Club's production of The Crucible. It seems a little unfair to mention both plays in the one sentence but they shared an integrity in approach and a polish in production that to my mind ranks them above other amateur productions seen in Wellington in 1968.
One of the most consistent sources of pleasure for the theatre-goer throughout this year has been the New Theatre Studio in Cuba Street. Run by well-known producer Nola Millar this group offers both practical classes and semi-professional productions to its members. Miss Millar in running the Studio has so far received no assistance from the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council, a lamentable situation. That the Studio is able to continue is a tribute to her devoted work both as a producer and as a tutor.
Productions at the Studio this year have included Olwyn Wymark's Lunch Hour Concert with excellent performances by A Streetcar Named Desire (surprisingly the first production of this play in Wellington) produced by Miss Millar of Ibsen's play Brand will begin an eight night season with
Other plays shortly to be seen in Wellington include Charles Over's Staircase at Downstage and A Day in the Death of Joe Egg. Both are contemporary English plays that have received acclaim in their overseas productions.
Perhaps The Green Berets (Batjac for, eventually, Warner-Seven Arts) isn't worth a review. But one claim to notice is its embodiment of that now-forgotten genre, the Boy Scout War Film, where motives counted higher than means. Courtesy of Big John and the Pentagon loos this neglected art-form has been resurrected in perfectly preserved frankensense down in the steaming, woginfested jungles of Florida.
The most disappointing feature of this long-hatched wingless monstrosity was that it was inordinately boring. We needed more than Messiahs of the Minimen (thanks Don), but an Apostle of the Minutemen to liven things up. Of the Cong, the Cong, it was merely How many have ya killed today? And that was all in long shot. There was a loosening down on the Crusade elements, only the new sophisticate angle of a Dirty Job That's Got To Be Done; too bad a few get hurt. Anyway things got moving, picture-wise, after about half an hour of demo in which I spoted The Fugitive whose shameful looks down made me think I also saw Lt. Gerard sitting next to Shirley Temple Black in the back row (Sergeant
Once in "Vietnam" we learn that all the streets are named after heroes—very posthumorous. And where did all those Connecticut women come into the picture? One orphan and several battle scenes later the shameful Fugitive has faced up to his responsibilities (this time he remembered his typewriter—the other journalists wouldn't give him one now that he had sold out). Local insurrectionists learned something of boobs and boobys. The odd characters were all flogged from better films:
Righteous reviewers, all for the public good in their little conspiracies against the AWOL, have called this film the 'nastiest, most pernicious, subversive vomitproducing piece of war propaganda", no doubt in a vain attempt to Keep people away in case Big John's message gets further than the outhouse. I wouldn't agree. I thought it was fun. Smell-o-vision never reached NZ, so Kiwi self-reliance provided a good import substitute. A stinky film produced its own fragrance to get us truly alienated. Many wise ones left before the 2½ hours were up.
So The Green Berets has happened, and soon will be forgotten. Don't let is miss you. You never had to keep your mouth shut in the movies; this time you just can't help it when the Cong flag is run up.
The Detective (20th Century-Fox) is probably Hollywood's most critical look at the forces of law and order since the Bed era. Well-written by
Sydney-side. Noisy and certainly a race between all the hot-headed one-way drivers. Taking nearly half a bucket of saliva to flag a cab, and stand on shop-closing-time corners amidst a million of commuter-customers, watching the sun rise over their heads in a golden trail of back-projection.
Strine is served daily, and Luna Park has mysteriously closed down, to make room for more friendly and noisier dismemberments, no doubt. Newspapers belong to the comic world with their Mr Big and Mr Sin controversies. Morning editions arrive before bed, evening editions during the morning shopping. Great bundles of Greek, Spanish, French and occasionally New Zealand (Herald costs 35c!) papers flap on wire trellises on every corner, I was forced to purchase a London Times for 50c after opening it from its tissue-ironed virginity wrapper, and refused! The harbour to harbour ramp on a clear day (20 in 1) affords any visitor, if he can manage to stop a bus or unit (impossible) a perfect view of all the lanes. The opera house looks like a piece of angel cake banished forever.
The underground trains give me a fair chance to see what the curious green liquid thing was I've just swallowed, by spreading the wrapper on the spittooned floor of the mile-long elevator up, up, up to the Town Hall.
Dogs are allowed in most of the Cross's shops which means many things and the art of steady-poodle carrying is not to be overlooked. Blindmen lose great amount of newsprint by selling it for the noise of 5c, and limbless members of the Cross are tied into automatic commodes, like the comely fruit sellers, and shout megaphone nonsense all day.
The facade of the Cross is sometimes a great bourgeois cover with 90% of the people there to look at the other 90% causing a 1007c traffic jam eternally. The customs are busy reading Myra Breckinridge by
Recently, however, in a performance of the play America Hurrah, the cops raided the theatre during the "Motel" sequence. Several of the cast are still missing. Obscenity, it would lead one to believe, does not, in refrain, seem to be manifest in the glorious Aussie public's entertainment. And so, inevitably, it has lead to an expurgated edition (or version) of the new American play The Boys In The Band by
Cinemas are nearly at all times deserted and unjustly costly. The ads now take on an entire concept and length. After interval, everything dowsed, I saw yesterday something's fine drink sponsoring a 6 minute load of crap on the Metamorphosis of Chrysalids. Curtain across, darkness before main film. This is the height of absolute insanity. There's a 5 minute Craven A using Grand Prix stock, a Dubonnet where the femme-fatales looking like anaemic fish spout phlegm-scandale, and the Astro fuel teaser is straight out of a Lelouch bowser wowser.
Not that the Australian censor is no mean back. Not being fully up to date with his fresh disasters, I have noticed with distaste his banning of nearly every Corman film, entirely mutilating the fabulous Leone Italian westerns and outright banning The Penthouse, Dutchman and The Incident (how thoughtful) and am not sure yet about The Detective. No films are restricted, just SOA (Suitable Only Adults) which was flashed during The Graduate. The St Valentine's Day Massacre appeared in a reconstructed version and no doubt For A Few Dollars More as a trailer.
The Gala is the most interesting cinema. While the degenerate 17 clogs up the NZ circuits for many months, a beautiful, but boring little Swedish epic Elvira Madigan would be more in the line of honest distributing. Its extraordinary colour, repetitive Mozart, Vivaldi and non-happenings, make it the pleasantest snore-off in years. It contains (for me) my first movie chunder, and it wouldn't hurt a fly.
Out or sheer boredom Mike Nichols's The Graduate seemed yet another hit and run, with hardly any hit and it runs too far. An oddly sombre little film, its commercial bearing has been staggery-plus. It stars Midnight Cowboy) who makes the most marvellous terrier whimpering noises. It is very sad and wants to make you cry, and only at the end does it really sparkle, but then it will remind you of another film.
Re-runs(?) of Jean-Luc Godard's have been Vive Sa Vie (which I missed), Bande A Part (which has been to NZ) and recently I saw the science-fiction op-pop-plop-arty farty Alphaville. It is the most "intellectually dumb and unprofound load of bullshit I have ever seen. Taking for granted the neglect this now jet-set anarchist of the coming 70s has had in New Zealand (he has made 16 full-length features plus, recently, his first film in English One Plus One with the Rolling Stones) and the amount written on him (let's face it he is the most written about today) by the almost ritualistic devotees, I cannot really see myself bothering about all the others, for I know they won't be as bad as Alphaville now.
The most refreshing film I've seen is Michael Winner's I'11 Never Forget What's 'is Name, shortly to be seen in Wellington, I hope. Refreshing because it is so competently outspoken with a wise and beautiful script by
There have been and still are some famous people in our midst. I could mention actor Rod Taylor's homecoming to launch a bilious thing called The High Commissioner and gave some poor Tumbarumba virgin a night on the town by naming Taylor's films in order of aescetic-puke, and then there was the Maharishi who preached with the usual bunch—of flowers—and giggled away on what he called his last trip (giggle) to Australia. Spike Milligan's here, living with his parents out at Woy Woy, and contributed a halfhour television programme that contained according to critic
Film director (Deadly Companions, Guns In The Afternoon and Major Dundee) arrives here this week to start talks with various people about a film based on a gold rush quest in the 1910s, provisionally called The Ballad Of Cable Hogue", starring Herald) quotes
To me the most profound encounter with a rare artist was that of meeting young English mezzo-soprano
Unfortunately I was not here to hear her sing solo, a concert in which Australian critic Wolfgang Wagner wrote: "Janet Baker's one and only Sydney recital last week was one of those rare occasions when it feels good to be alive and to be able to enjoy music. One could just not help to fall in love with this glorious voice and her winning personality".
On the first night Miss Baker sang Brahms's Four Serious Songs with such a majesty of tone and deeply profound enunciation I have never heard anywhere by anyone before.
The song "O Fod, Wie Bitter" was one of the most noble and moving experience of a lifetime. She applies this easy concept of delighting and shoping registers with a clarity and loveliness usually not associated with contemporary singers. 83-ycar-old Otto Klemperer's new version of the Bach B Minor Mass contains arias by
The second night I heard her in the Brahms Alto Rhapsody, overcoming the wide leaps with a translucent subliminal tone and rising like a sonorous bird over the male choir. Artistry that manifest as intense as this is only served once in a lifetime. I do sincerely hope you hear her
In the opening dream sequence of Inadmissible Evidence Bill Maitland a middle-aged and mediocre lawyer is accussed … The nature of the accusation is not clear, but this is a dream and Maintland is accusing himself of personal failure. Here his mediocrity, his inability to make a decision, to fully understand the technocracy he lives in (he talks of it glibly but doesn't understand it) and the facile nature of his love affairs are all hinted at. The dream comes to an end with Maitland asking if he will be allowed the last word at his trial—a question the judge doesn't answer but which adds to the tragedy of the play's final moments.
The play follows from the dream sequence to demonstrate the Failings of Bill Maitland. We see his incompetence in his work and in conducting his love life. His conversations with others have been reduced to crude sexual banter and anguished appeals to what might have been. As a man Maitland has been reduced through his own folly and inability to cope with his world to a rude physical slate. His mind is not as quick as it was and his body survives on pills. In the second act his nymphomaniac secretary admits she can survive on an illusion of love: "I love you" appeases her guilt. Maitland attempts to survive on illusion but the illusion of love and of competence is frail and as it breaks so breaks the man.
In grasping at the straws of his life he loses his ability to communicate with others. He talks to himself; his colleagues and clients act as spurs to his thought but he does not reply to them, rather he continues the declension of his failures. He does not really hear these people, but an occasional word or phrase from them begins an introspective train of thought for him. This is excellently realised in this production when Maitland is talking to various clients who are seeking divorces. Their sexual and emotional problems recall his. Just as the clients are wrapped in their thoughts so he is in his. A pattern is formed of separate conversations moving across each other thus revealing this other problem of failure to communicate. Later when Maitland makes phone calls to his wife and mistress something similar happens—he stops talking into the phone and talks at it; the conversations become monologue. When he meets his daughter he does not allow her to reply to him and the accusations he directs at her are really directed to himself.
Just as Maitland can give no answer to the female clients who seek divorces, so he can provide no answer to his own failure and incompetence as a man. He is bewildered by his predicament and this is mirrored in an intelligently written scene where he interviews Maples, a homesexual client, accused of importuning.
Maples is a man who did not become aware of his homosexuality until after marriage and the discovery of his sexual inclination has placed him in a position he can neither understand nor cope with. His arrest for importuning has brought his dilemma to a head.
It is Tony Isaac's interpretation of Maples that struck me as the one flaw; while his performance is excellent 1 could not help thinking his Maples was too "queer". If the mirror image of Maitland's situation is to be maintained then it is essential that we see Maples as an "ordinary" man who did not find himself to be homosexual until after his marriage
At the play's end Maitland has lost everything: his self-respect, his daughter, his mistress, his wife, his business. Maples was unable to change his sexual nature and he did not want to. For Maitland it is too late to change. The inevitably of his last action, the fact that there is no last valid word he can offer to his mistress or his wife that can in any way diminish his failure to cope with his world, is an indictment that extends far beyond this lawyer.
This play would have been 2½ hours of tedium if the actor playing Bill Maitland had not been one of considerable strength. Downstage are fortunate that
William Austin's accomplishment in producing this complex play in such an intelligible form is considerable.
Arianthe Garland as "the other woman" reveals her ability as a dramatic actress. To each of her characters she brought an understanding and she was able to support and work with Mr Henwood making the most of their scenes together.
The Right's blunders appall, the Left's depress. It is easier to believe capitalism a blind, sterile and ultimately catastrophic economic mechanism than to accept that the main opposition to its is weak, confused and stupid. May Day Manifesto is frightening because it compels one to realise that every important left-wing initiative in Britain since 1957 has led to a dead end. This is a hard and probably a sectarian conclusion, I would prefer not to believe it. But the Manifesto, regrettably, speaks for itself.
Before letting it speak lor itself, let's make brief comparison betwen the Manifesto and Desmond Donnelly's Gadarene '68, which was quite rightly severely criticised in a recent Salient review. Donnelly is as naive and prejudiced a right-winger as the authors of May Day Manifesto are naive and prejudiced left-wingers. But on so many issues Donnelly is right where the left was wrong; he was right, consistently, about the need for British entry into Europe, when both the left and centre of the Party were wrong; he was right about devaluation where only Kaldor and later Balogh on the left were saying the same. On these two issues it is arguable Britain would be in a far better position than it now is if Donnelly's advice had been taken. On both these two issues Donnelly stood for change while the 'left' stood for the status quo—the Commonwealth connection rather than Europe, the 'defence' of sterling rather than devaluation. The left in the last five years, has simply failed to make the running on the major issues. Yet half of the Manifesto is a complaint about the left being ignored in the Press and politics. It does not seem to have occurred to Mr Williams's friends that they might have earned their irrelevance.
Perhaps the real problem of the post-Wilson left was best expressed by London Sunday Times: "Dismay (about the prospects of a socialist policy) springs from the knowledge that a good, coherent programme for modernisation existed, even exists, which has been abandoned without even being tried."
The basis of this untried plan is quoted in the Manifesto from Wilsons speech to the 1963 Labour conference:
" … Monetary planning is not enough. What are [sic] needed are structural changes in British industry and we are not going to achieve those on the basis of preelection spurts every four years in our industry, or on the hope of selling the overspill of the affluent society in the highly developed markets of Western Europe. What are [sic] needed are new industries and it will be the job of the next Government to see that we get them … When we set up new industries based on science there need be no argument about location on costly bribes to private enterprise to go here rather than there we shall provide the enterprise and we shall decide where it goes".
This is exactly what did not happen. The Manifesto is right to comment "the very institutions that would be forced to give up their private interests to the will of an elected government were the only institutions through which the economy could be managed; unless of course socialist institutions were created to replace them". This last option Wilson did not take up; but, then, neither does the Manifesto. It rejects the politics of modernisation because "all programmes and perspective are treated instrumentally—not about what sort of society qualitatively is being aimed at". Welfare, it argues, must come before growth. Discussion of how welfare programmes are to be afforded is "penny-pinching". Although "what is evident to all" is "the increasing cultural and ideological penetration of Europe by the US" this is "not, we can only repeat, a conspiracy" even though "the authoritarianism of the sixties does not come with knuckledusters and revolvers but with political sedatives and processing" and "our political and intellectual life has been penetrated in a hundred discreet areas by Cold War agencies like the CIA". We cannot afford welfare because of "the direction of our own economic and political policies, not only by the Americans, but specifically by the international instittuions of monopoly capital".
This kind of paranoid rhetoric obscures the Manifesto's failure to say what socialist planning institutions are necessary to modernise Britain and the fact that it would manage the British economy by protecting the smaller (that is, least efficient) firms to "neutralise" them against "American imperialism" (Yes, you may have read something like this before in New Zealand). The brave new 'socialist' programme comes down, after the routine jeers at Trotskyism, to another prescription for managed capitalism. Faced with a non-democratic central government the left ask for a return to the grassroots away from the centre, not realising the grassroots are not where they were, that the centre is no longer where it was before that democracy has to combine with radically accelerated centralisation to survive rather than retreat to an anti-technological advocacy of de-centralisation, in its implications Luddite. Social democracy is warned off the search for "democracy and personal freedom"—as if these were too easy optionsl
The left is always faced with two responses to economic and technological change; to condemn and contract out, because of the "human cost" of innovation or to reorganise less. The first way is Utopian socialism, the second Marxism. In spite of lip service to Marxist nostrums, the Manifesto finally plumes for Utopianism.
Raymond Williams (ed.): May Day Manifesto, 1968. Penguin, 60c.
The year didn't really get under way until the arrival of Bonnie and Clyde on a wave of acclamation and success. Violence, once the staple of the B-movie, was now a central theme in the big league. When first seen Bonnie and Clyde did seem stylish, original and new, but later it looked transient, emphemeral and forgettable. Other films from America depicted violence with true cinema style, but likewise they lacked content and staying power. Of these the most notable was Briton John Boorman's first Hollywood film Point Blank which showed what a skilful and resourceful director could do with mediocre material.
Larry Peerce's second independent feature, The Incident went further than most in achieving effect and shock in the audience. A claustrophic inertia became the catalyst of violence. The indictment of non-involvement was underlined. In Cold Blood examined a true act of violence, and displayed concern but focussed on the actions and motivations of the two killers rather than on the society around them. Such criticism was implicit but keenly felt.
Science fiction was boosted by the allegorical Planet of the Apes and 2001: A Space Odyssey (primarily British but brainwaved by Beach Red. The collector's item from Hollywood must be shared by Games from
In Britain, dominated as it is by American film companies, several popped up beyond mediocrity. Best would be Albert Finney's first feature, and in which he starred, Charlie Bubbles. Not yet seen in Wellington, it has a freshness and charm that would rank with the best British films in the last decade.
Detachment and rigour is the strongest feature of Bergman's Persona, a deeply penetrating and disturbing study of identity and communication. Beautifully acted and photographed it must rate as one of the best films of the year alone with that masterpiece from India, Shakespeare Wallah. The gentle irony, the warm evocation, the preserved nostalgia, were all a far cry from the swiftly-moving general run of films.
The second Bach Choir concert for 1968 proved to be of high musical standard. It included a number of little known work such as Bach's motet for double choir, "Kom-in, Jesus, Komin" and Michael Tippet's "Magnificat and Nuno Dimittis", a colourful choral work in the contemprary English style.
The concert opened with the motet "Salvator Mundi" by
The choir achieved more of Bach's essence in the Four Chorales and their preludes than in the infrequently performed motet "Komin, Jesus, Komin". The organ preludes were expertly played by
The highlight of the concert, was Benjamin Britten's superb, cantata "Rejoice in the Lamb", with a deeply spiritual yet delightful text by the mentally deranged 18th century poet, Christopher Smart. Credit must be given to the conductor,
Tippet's "Magnificat and Nune Dimittis", a trite though attractive work, came off extremely well, with sensitive work both by the choir and soloist.
The Bach Choir showed once again that a youthful enthusiastic conductor supported by an equally youthful group of singers, can produce exceptional quality.
This year Vic sportsmen and sportswomen were awarded 56 Blues. The only double Blues were
Below is a list of those awarded Blues and their respective sports:
Swimming:
Water Polo:
Smallbore Rifles:
Golf:
Yachting:
Men's Hockey:
Women's Hockey:
Harriers:
Rugby:
Fencing:
303 Rifles:
Women's Outdoor Basketball:
Skiing:
Athletics:
Soccer:
Badminton:
Rowing:
There was not one typographical error in a recent God article. Guess who's side He is on.
• • •
"The National Council of Women wants urgent legislation to suppress the 'evil' of drugs, both nonaddictive and addictive" (Newspaper report) "Marijuana is less addictive and dangerous than tobacco or alcohol" (Doctor).
"Mr
"Mr
"The Crown would also show that Couth had in his possession three bottles of 'beer' a drug whose effects are to release inhibitions, break up homes, and create further difficulties for those, like this Court, whose duty it was to force the youth of today to believe that the moral code of its elders was in every way better than its own…"
• • •
A government committee is examining illegitimacy. Peltipoint postulate—we have a more responsible attitude towards marriage than did the previous generation, who would marry to avert the illegitimacy of their child. I have (English) figures suggesting that about half of the married women now between 50 and 60 had sexual intercourse before marriage. Wicked old people.
• • •
For those who are not on Council, and expected to be —( )
• • •
"Hello. Here's a danger to democracy, the NZ way of life, the Family. God, Rugby, our daughters, the Empire, and everything else the younger generation should hold as good and true, like us. Here's a publication by school pupils. Here's a publication which comments upon their school. Here's a publication which isn't under the control of the school staff. You wouldn't have that in the Army, now, would you?
And look at these dangerous heretical critical views. It calls a prefect a Radioactive Fink. Horrors. It says the prefects don't do their job of expressing grievances. How ridiculous. They were appointed for that very purpose, and would be demoted if they failed in their duties. Like suppressing small maverick critical magazines.
After all, is it not the natural reaction of any decent person, when confronted with a magazine whose opinions differ from one's own, to assault and rob the sellers?
Of course it is. Thai's what what the Headmaster said. Who are we to argue with the Headmaster? He's just doing his job, educating us as responsible citizens."
• • •
To stop graffiti — search everyone for pens and pencils when entering VUW.
• • •
There was no fire alarm in Rankine Brown the day copy closed. Usually well-informed sources attribute this to neurotically circling fire engines, beating vainly against the little black door.
Many students no doubt will want to take up an out-door activity during the long summer vacation.
At present there are nine clubs at Victoria catering for a diverse array of interests.
Many of these play a prominent part in Wellington's sporting life and deserve the fullest possible support from students.
Outlined below are the various clubs and the people to contact for further information.
The Tennis Club has four hard courts and a fine pavilion. Club afternoons are Saturday and Sunday.
The main event of the year is the Club Championship from which players are selected for the Easter Tournament teams.
Teams are entered in interclub competition, with the Senior A team usually doing well.
Club captain,
This is a game of skill teamwork, played throughout the year.
A friendly club, it welcomes all types of players, male and female, beginners and experts and has players of all nationalities.
Coaching is available.
The .303 Rifles Club has a small but active and experienced membership and new members are welcome.
Club shooting takes place on the Trentham Rifle Range over all distances up to 900 yards.
The season extends from October to May, participation at Easter Tournament being a highlight.
A limited number of club rifles are available to newcomers, and the ammunition is at a nominal cost.
This is a relatively new club formed in April '67. It is open to all, experienced or not and surfboards are available.
Monthly competitions are held, and there are periodic social events such as beach parties, film evenings and weekend trips to beaches further away.
A distinctive club Decal transfer is available and a club newsheet is sent out once a month.
John O'Leary, 8 Burton St., Lower Hutt, ph. 65-466.
The VUW Cricket Club usually fields six teams, in all grades.
Practices are held at Kelburn Park on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights, with Monday nights in the gymnasium.
Club nights are held during the summer on Mondays, 7-8 p.m. at the Thorndon Pool as from the end of October.
Competitions are to be held at Thorndon Pool probably on Wednesday nights.
Facilities are available for swimmers, divers, and water polo players, men and women.
Water Polo is an excellent game for rugby players wishing to keep relatively fit over the summer vacation without formal training.
Trips to other centres are arranged, and for anyone interested in competition in a social atmosphere this is a must.
A women's water polo team could also be formed, if sufficient interest is shown.
The Club encourages and provides an avenue for any people interested in competitive swimming on local, provincial or national scale.
Last year Vic fielded a women's water polo team in the Wellington water polo competition and had an extremely successful season.
This competition will continue this year and the Swimming Club wants interested people to join the ranks.
Competition is due to start either on 9 or 16 October and will continue through finals.
A game occupies only 15 min on a Wednesday night and is good relaxation from the grind of swotting.
Knowledge of the rules is not necessary although it is advisable to pick up a few basic facts before the season is under way.
Games are played at Thorndon baths.
Women's water polo will be played at Easter Tournament at Canterbury next year for the first time.
Any girl interested is asked to contact
For other swimming information contact
The Athletics Club has always been near the top in provincial competition and promises to do well this season.
In spite of its good performance, the club relies not on its individual champions but on those of average athletic ability who enjoy the sport for its own sake.
Socially, the club is very active and weekend trips to other parts of the country are frequent.
An early trip this year is the one to Hastings on the weekend of 7 December which promises to be most enjoyable, sport and socialwise.
Club night is Tuesday, on the Boyd-Wilson field.
Thursday night training is held at the all-weather track at Evans Bay.
The opening club night is 12 November.
The Rowing Club compromises a band of rugged enthusiasts whose activities begin during the summer vacation.
It welcomes all those with previous rowing experience and needs young enthusiasts to remain the top rowing university in New Zealand.
Limited facilities are available to train novice oarsmen.
The Yacht Club is now based at, and affiliated to, the Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club in Oriental Bay.
Students may compete in their races and utilise the excellent facilities available.
A number of students now own boats and the club itself possess two yachts.
The aim of the club is to promote a regular sailing programme for a substantial fleet as soon as possible and urges all enthusiastic students to join as soon as possible.
Karate is not a sport but a way of life.
Derived from the Zen religion, it is a search for enlightenment and perfection, achieved through meditation and very hard physical training.
One of the most active clubs on the campus all year round, it meets two nights a week and Saturday afternoons.
Karate is based on focus— an assimilation of the mental and physical powers to enable the exponent to put maximum effort into any one action.
To the casual observer this is most evident in tameshawari (breaking techniques) where the concentration involved is apparent.
However, breaking materials, although spectacular to watch, is not a major part of karate and is rather a means for the exponent to test his ability.
The club is affiliated to the Kyokushiakai Karate-Do and follows Japanese training methods as closely as possible.
It was largely due to the initiative of
Membership cards are available from Committee members
Several trips are planned for after finals.
One will be held on the weekend of 23-24 November, somewhere in the Wellington area.
Another is to be held from the 23 November to I December of this year, probably at East Cape or Coromandel.
Between Christmas and the New Year a trip to Coromandel could eventuate.
Kit suit wet suit at a cost of $25 (trousers, jacket, boots and hood) can be obtained from the United Kingdom.
Committee members are to contact club members about trips away.
Anyone requiring further information is asked to get in touch with
Sir I have had it.
I can't stand any more. The mind, I'm afaird, can only take so much of the follicks of this world, and believe me, we have taken so much. God and presumably Louise only know what prossesses this curious young lady to write letters whose (apparently) sole purpose is to carry to the ears of the world the words: coek, bullshit, Frenchies, gutsache, balls, crap, (and occasionally through a mental aberration) twit.
Why a thoroughly nice girl from a nice home, having just left a nice school (bright, forward-looking Onslow College), should find herself compelled to mouth 1950's angry-young-man platitudes in the language of a lower-sixth schoolboy passes my comprehension.
I've just been reading the latest missive, some sort of mountaing in the wake of a God/morality question that was flogged to death in the seventeenth century. Like all the writing of the lady that I've read, it posits non-arguments on a non-question simply because it is her belief that this sort of rubbish coincides with the majorityof student opinion (—and, Heaven knows, she may be right).
I think possibly it's not always necessary for hackneyed left-wingish, libernlish, radicalish opinions that students are meant to have, to be constantly reiterated by some srange bird with an axe to grind. If, on the other hand, she is being "outrageous" only to make me turn the "Letters to the Editor" page very hurriedly every time I see her name there, could I possibly ask her, through this letter, to give it a bit of a rest, Yours in the bowels of Christ.
Sir—In the light ol (i) the overcrowding at the present BNZ facilities and (ii) proposal of the ANZ to extend limited loans to third year students, I suggest that the BNZ monopoly on the campus bo ended. If this monopoly is based on a previous Executive decision then perhaps some energetic execian can reverse the move.
Sir—I was stupefied to read some reactionary drivel in your last issue from a certain Cathy Wylie about the proposed Secondary School Students' Union. Miss Wylie who proudly advertises the fact that she represents an abomination of a critical journal, has obviously no contact with the broad masses of H.V.H.S. or any other secondary school in Welling ton: for if she had she might realise that there is an over-whelming feeling of support for the Union and revulsion against authoritarian Education Department School Board/Staff dictatorship.
For too long, sir have the pupils of our secondary school been oppressed and tricked by the illusion of School Councils and School magazines! For too long have we seen our cherished ideas crushed before our very eyes and our comrades grow bitter and cynical! For too long have the exploited classes been deprived of true democratic representation and democratic ideas! Give us smokes in our classrooms! Give us liquor in our cafes! Cast away our caps and berets, baubles of class exploitation! Discard our school uniforms, symbols of our slavery! Let the dictatorship of the Third Formers reign in peace and happiness, for ever and ever!
Miss Wylie, as an agent of the Oppressors, rejects the fraternal assistance offered by our university comrades in forming our Union, as interference. But the leader of the masses and the oppressed, our great Helmsman Chairman Mao Tse-Tung has brilliantly pointed out to us the importance of cadres in guiding, educating and helping the masses in revolutionary development. Thus our university comrades are clearly only doing their correct socialist duty. I commend a perusal of Chairman Mao's works to Miss Wylie.
Chairman Mao has also described reactionary elements like Miss Wylie in his essay "The Orientation of the Youth Movement": 'How should we judge whether a youth is a revolution-ary … there can be only one criterion … whether or not he is willing to integrate himself with the broad masses … and does so in practice.' Surely, sir, this exposes Miss Wylie's unmittigated gall in attacking the Secondary Students' Union.
Sir—Cathy Wylie's attitude may be appropriate within the context of her own school—not that pessimism is going to achieve anything there, either—but since it is reasonable to assume that not all boards ol governors, headmasters, teachers and pupils are the same everywhere, hope, optimism, and persistence in the spreading of our ideas and enthusiasm must be the programme for any nondefeatist.
At the start of her letter Miss Wylie seems to be a defeatist, but at the end she shows herself to be a fully-fledged part of the static establishment. I am happy for Cathy in her admiration for her headmaster—I wonder if this feeling ever lets her disagree with him? Censorship, except for the prevention of what in law passes for obscenitv and libel, partial democracy and establishmentised pupils official positions must be deplored.
I don't know what scientific survey informed Miss Wylie that "You can have just as much (my italics) success with words un-published as words printed", but it must be obvious that once all Other avenues have failed, the still unsatisfied grievances-surely she does not deny that some remain unsatitfied—must be aired in print as one means to the end.
One wonders, when noting Miss Wylie's confident use of the word, "we", whether this is an editorial "we" or if she thinks she is an editorial "we" or if she thinks she is speaking for all the pupils of Hutt Valley High School, or of New Zealand. One wonders.
I would maintain that there will be a large amount of apathy as well as resistance, and we shall try to overcome both. The amount of actual resistance appears. I think, disproportionately large to Miss Wylie, as her companions would be sixth-formers, jealous of their privileges in some cases, especially if they are prefcts.
Nevertheless, Miss Wylie is obviously concerned, and lacks only optimism, in my view.
Sir—I think it would be a good idea if Mr
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• 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.
• Mixad drinking—all facilities.
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Long-standing connection with University sport. Every one of Vic's 24 sports catered for.
Members Wellington Stock Exchange
National Mutual Centre
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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
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Owen Gager is planning to go overseas. This column is opening a Gel Gager Going subscription campaign. Contributions to kick off:
U.S. Embassy…$10
Not often you get all these people on the same bandwagon, is it? Further contribution should be addressed to Outside Left, c/-. Salient.
• • •
The Coms are at it again. You'd might have thought they would have better things to worry about than poor
• • •
They're selling pictures of all the cult heroes at Sweet and Maxwell's now at 65c a pop. Featuring along with
• • •
They left out of Outside Left last time round the pictures of Blossom and
• • •
Somebody called for three cheers for
"They are probably one of the few contented people left in the world."
Mr McEwan of the Maori and Island Affairs Department summed up his general impression of the Tokolau Islands and people.
He, with Dr Evans of the Wellington Hospital Medical Unit and Mr
Applications for the position of Orientation controller 1969 has been called by the Securetary of the Students' Association, John Lenart.
The position involves the organisation of Orientation activities and functions for the first two weeks of the first term, 1969.
Applications colse at 4:30 p.m. on Friday.
Mr McEwan gave general details of the Tokolaus — their position, size, population, and products.
He then outlined their possible problems in the future.
In particular this involved overcrowding — the islands cover only four square miles of land and have a population of 1,900.
This was being met with emigration to Samoa, to the Cooks, but particularly to New Zealand.
Mr McEwan outlined the pilot scheme of assisted migration, under which 252 people have come to this country.
The scheme has met a great many problems, he concluded, particularly with the economic recession but the Tokolauans were rapidly integrating and inter-marrying into the rest of the New Zealand community.
Dr Evans outlined the aims and work of thc recent medical team in the islands.
This had had two aims he said: Long term halth surveillance of the islanders and scientific study of the social, physical and mental effects of the transition from a simple to an urban society.
As part of his study at the University. Mr Boardman mentioned that he was interested in the migrant Tokolau communities in the Wellington area.
He had found that the islands had had remarkable close-knit communities, where communication between people was extremely easy, and where money was only peripheral to the main business of life.
Any problems they had after migrating lo New Zealand stemmed from these characteristics of Tokolauan society.
In particular these included difficulties in handling money and of communicating with their New Zealand neighbours.
"They do not want to be 'instant Kiwis,' " he said, "but they are proud to Be New Zealand citizens, and are trying to follow our patterns of life."
The Minister of Education has described the Involvement of pupils in college newspapers as a "delicate matter".
The Hon.
He said: "I'm not quite sure what reforms your group intends lo discuss but I would hope that the many developments over recent years in secondary education are not overlooked—developments affecting curriculum, buildings, training of teachers end implementing of most of the important recommendations of the Commission on Education.
"It is important also to keep (n mind that not only In New Zealand but in most countries in the world secondary education has had to face demands of industry and commerce for graduates, Increasing needs of tertiary education for qualified staff, end various problems associated with increasing secondary school rolls.
"The involvement of pupils in college newspapers is a delicate mattes. It should be understood that when parents send their children to school they place them in the charge of the controlling authority of the school for the purpose of education. While pupils are in their charge teachers are in loco parentis to them.
"This is a different set of circumstances from what will exist later when pupils leave school and make their own way in the world.
"The controlling authority of the school is responsible to the parents for all activities during the school day and therefore must decide on the degree of pupil participation in the type of movement you suggest.
"Yours sincerely,
The university branches of the BNZ and the Post Office will observe normal office hours during the long vacation.
They will both close for ten days over Christmas, opening again on Monday, 5 January.
After the last exams the library will open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays, and on Saturdays from 9 till 12.30.
It will close over Christmas from 24 December, opening on Tuesday, 5 January.
Holders of BNZ accounts are reminded that they can pay their fees through the bank.
The Australian National Students' Union (NUAUS) has invited New Zealand students to take part in an Australian Work Camp in January.
The work camp, which will last for three weeks, will allow students to work with an Aboriginal community in South Australia. Further information is available from NZUSA's Travel Director.
Bookings for travel to Australia on NZUSA charter flights already total 370, and are still increasing. This compares with a total of 340 over the entire vacation period last year.
Facers: a Conference on Man" is to be organised by religious clubs over Christmas.
It Is to be held at Paerata, near Auckland, from Saturday, 28 December, to Friday, 3 January.
Discussion will be about the crisis, turbulence and anxiety about the scientific, religious, political and sociological facets of man.
The purpose of the conference Is "to relate more effectively to the fast-changing environment which is endangering world stability through man's failure to understand and thus control the disturbances which a technological revolution and a humanistic reaction brings to life and custom", according to a club notice.
Speakers include Professor
A series of working groups will Investigate such contemporary problems as education, power and responsibilities In the universities, the churches and social change, the mass media, the realities of underdevelopment and poverty, conscientious objection and effective forms of active protest.
Studies in creativity (architecture, music, poetry, visual art, photography, drama and dance) will be guided by competent artists.
The conference is being organised by a committee comprising representatives of New Zealand Student Christian Movement, New Zealand University Catholic Society, and Interested others.
A reading list and some preparatory material are being compiled end these will be distributed as enrolments are received.
Registration forms are available from Stud. Ass. office.
An Aid to America Society has been formed with VUW.
The chairman of the Student Action Committee American Poverty.
"There is an overproduction of food problem
He says a collection will taken up in the foyer of the Student Union Building Thursday.
A cheque will be present to the American
f/8, 1/25th second. H.I (ASA 400) film.