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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 13, No. 11. June 8th, 1950

No Man's Land

No Man's Land

Elections

Sir,

In view of the small percentage of students who have exercised their right to vote in the past (33 per cent, last year) wider publicity should be given to this election by sending a circular to every member of the Association stating the dates of the election and the AGM and urging him to, vote. This could be done at the expense of the Association.

Secondly that a proper polling booth with facilities for secret voting be provided e.g. in the Lower Gym, and that the voter be required to record his vote at the same time as he receives the list, as in a Civil election. This would put an end to the haphazard way in which the elections have been conducted in the past, with half of the students grabbing a voting paper and rushing over to the photographs of the candidates to record their votes.

I hope that the Exec, will see fit to take these points into consideration.

Cato.

(The first suggestion on the face of it may seem good, but the plain point is that people don't refrain from voting because they don't know the voting is on, but because they aren't interested; and we question whether spending £10 on stamps, plus that money it would cost to buy cyclostyling paper (at a fantastic price) and envelopes, together with the time it would take to get well over 2000 of these sent out, would justify the result. It' might have some use if the paper were punched before hand with a little hole in the top comer; people would then find some use for it.

The second also is good, except that having the polling booth in the Gym would probably lower the voting by—we'll say—50 per cent. We agree on the photo finish voting; it's iniquitous, but mostly because the final Exec, (especially the women) tend to be chosen for shapeliness rather than ability.—Ed.

* *

Athletic Club and "Runner Mortis"

Sir,

As a club member I support the committee in their attitude to the deprecatory article in question. We are assured by the Editor that the person who wrote the article was more than competent to pass the comments he did; perhaps the anonymous gentlemen will have the courtesy to make himself known.

The slogan the writer finishes his article with, viz. "We should all get fit to train, not train to get fit." is, to use the Editor's words, "Sheerest nonsense." How can anyone get fit without training? It seems to me that this "more than competent" expert does not understand that fitness is the result of training whereas training is the process of getting fit.

The Editor when commenting on the article says, "this . . . (the article) is of considerable value as a guide to understanding Tournament results." Fox points out, and the Editor agrees, that the Athletic Club gained more points at Tournament than any other VUC club. Perhaps the Editor can reconcile this slight disharmony of thought by the exercise of his obviously brilliant intellect.

R. E. Blazey.

The fact that the Athletic Club got more points than any other club doesn't mean that runners were at the peak, of their form. Considering that VUC was well and truly bottom, it wouldn't have taken a great number of points for the club to get more than all the rest put together. If the club didn't do absolutely as well as it possibly could have, then the writer's original contention stands. O.B. E. (Obviously brilliant Editor).)

* *

Any offers?

Sir,—I shall be very thankful if you would kindly find me some pen friends from there . . .

Herbert de Silva, 803 Gangpdawila, Nugegoda, Ceylon.

* *

Caf complaint

Sir,—"The Cafeteria is run with your money—patronise it" is a notice plastered on the walls of the College at present. I patronised it last night—May 24. There was a selection to choose from—tripe, pie or saveloys; how inspiring! I chose the tripe. For this, no soup, no sweets, I was asked for 2/-. My first mouthful nearly made me sick; the sauce was burnt to a bitterness that was far from appetising. I tried to eat a piece of swede, but found that my fork would not go through it—it was so hard. I made one more attempt to eat a piece of tripe, and I can eat most things without turning a hair; but the sauce was too much for me and I handed my plate back practically untouched. Two shillings for two mouthfuls.

Knowing from experience that the coffee in the Caf tastes like water an oily rag was washed in, I decided to have a glass of milk, only to find that the milk was sour.

May I through your paper, ask Just now the Caf is run We are told that it is our money that is being used; we are also told that all profits are returned to the Caf., and we know that rent, one of the highest costs of a Caf in town, does not enter into its expensed. And in addition, it is apparently given a subsidy from the Students' Associaion. Yet we are given inferior food, the cheapest kinds of meat that can . . . (cut) . . .

G. M Foden.