Forum at Congress

Owing to the large number of motions placed before the forum this year, It was necessary to hold a second meeting on the final day of the NZUKA Congress. These meetings at Congress are the only opportunities for students to meet on a common ground and discuss items of both national and International importance, apart from the NZUSA Council meetings which are confined to the College representatives. It has been the custom In the past to forward to the Easter Council meeting of NZUSA any motions which have to be dealt with at a higher level. Much concern was voiced at the forum this year at the apparent lack of attention paid to these motions by the delegates. Two reasons have been given for this: one, that the motions were not discussed with sufficient seriousness at Congress and were passed in a spirit of levity; two, before a motion is discussed by the Council it mat first be token up by one of the Colleges present, and this support has not been readily forthcoming, probably because of the first reason.

Whether these arguments were valid in the pant or not we are not sure, however, as an attempt to bring the Congress motions closer to the eyes of our College executives and through them to NZUSA Congress has appointed representatives to the various colleges and also to NZUSA. All those who attended the last Congress will hope that their efforts will bear fruit, as much thought was put Into the phrasing and merits of the motions.

New Act May Mark Stage In Development Of University Colleges

The new Curriculum Committee Act, giving University colleges de facto power to become separate colleges, would probably be the final stage in the long process of the colleges becoming autonomous, suggested the Vice-Chancellor of the University of New Zealand; Dr A. G. Currie, in an address to the students congress at Curious Cove.

The trend, said Dr Currie, was for the colleges to become unitary universities in fact and in name. The real need was for the University to act as a focus in Wellington for financial and building needs and for contact with the Government. There was no need for the University to be an examining body, as the colleges already performed this function.

There was no need for the University to control course prescriptions—professors at the colleges were the best-qualified to do that. The proper place for the supervision of studies was the colleges.

Dr Currie considered that university college buildings in New Zealand were 30 years out of date. Every college library had a good supply of books but the buildings containing them were nothing short of calamitous, he said.

Communism Not For Germany

A System of government under Communist principles would not be accepted by the Germany of today. Dr H. Dietrich, secretary of the German Legation in Wellington, told students at the university congress at Curious Cove.

He said that wherever Communism replaced democracy it had always been a retrograde stop.

German hopes for unification were pinned on peaceful negotiation, he said, but past experience had shown that this could not be achieved between East and West unless there was strength in the background, said Dr Dietrich. It was for this reason that Bonn favoured strengthening Germany's defences by Joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.

Dr Dietrich outlined modern European and German history, and dealt at length with the progress his country had made on its return to prosperity.

A stimulating discussion on Germany and Europe took place among the students, following which Dr Dietrich was thanked for his address.

Repid Development Of Past Decade Described to Students

Probably no other decade in history had seen development of nations as rapid as that since 1945. said Dr W. B. Sutch, Economic Adviser to the Department of Industries and Commerce, in an address on international affairs to the University Congress at Curious Cove. The talk was an analysis of the underlying economic basis of the world events. Dr. Sutch said that international affairs since 1945 had been predominantly connected with the founding of new nations, which, in the main, were former colonial countries such as India. Pakistan. Ceylon, Burma, Israel, the Philippines and Indonesia and also the changes in such countries as China and those in Eastern Europe.

"Probably no other decade in history." said Dr Sutch. "has witnessed such rapid development.

Common to all international strains since 1945 had been the rise of nationalism—also in other areas, including Africa.

The huge productive resources of the United States made this development possible. One problem to be faced in the future, said Dr Sutch, was that of repaying the interest and capital by supplying Imports to the United States.

Hectic Discussion

An address which aroused great controversy amongst the students present at the N.Z.U.S.A. congress held at Curious Cove, was given by Professor W. Airey, associate professor of history at "Auckland University College.

Professor Airey's address was called "some problems of peaceful co-existence." Professor Airey said that the main cause of distrust was the attitude of the West to the East. The West tended to regard its values as if they were valid for all the world for all time. Actually, they were the product of the particular position of the West, which had been in a privileged and dominant position towards the rest of the world.

The West ignored the fact that in other areas with different conditions, democracy might take other forms. The East had inclined towards Communism because people had to fight against the internal oppression of feudalism and foreign imperialism with little middle-class development as in the West.

Professor Airey depreciated comparison of one country with another. The proper comparison was between the present and the past in a given country, with regard for the future prospects.

He referred to the danger of what was called "subversion" being made the basis of intervention under the terms of the Manila Pact.

"Subversion." he said, "is part of our glorious heritage," and stressed the part that it had played in the tradition of Great Britain, the United States and France.

He made a plea for the right of a people to settle its own future by peaceful vote or revolt and civil war if that could not be avoided. The United Nations was based on the idea of peaceful co-existence and could operate only on that basis.

"The Geneva Conference," he said, "has been a great triumph of this principle which is being endangered by such blocs as established by the Manila Pact."

Professor Airey concluded: "The struggle for peace is a struggle for meeting, for discussion, understanding across frontiers, not merely geographical, but of the spirit. We must learn to be modest regarding our own ideas, patient and open-eyed for the ideas of others. The task of mutual understanding is today before all of us working for peace whatever our viewpoint or organisation. If we do not succeed, the fault will lie not with those procuring war, for we are stronger, but with ourselves."

For the next 2½ hours in heated and hectic discussion, the students and visitors contested Professor Airey's [unclear: viewpoint] and each other's without an [unclear: ultimate] conclusion being reached.

Dr U. B. H. Howard summed up the discussion and thanked the speaker.

"A Poverty-Stricken Continent"

Some Views on Africa

Professor K. Buchanan, professor of geography at Victoria University College, addressed the students at Curious Cove on the problems of the Commonwealth in Africa. Professor Buchanan deprecated the picture of "Happy, happy Africa."

"It is a poverty-stricken Continent," he said, "pervaded by a deep torment of the spirit, an unease that affects all the people of Africa, black and white."

Introducing his subject, he traced the changes in British colonial policy towards Africa up to the present time, and showed that the present problems facing the Commonwealth in Africa were political, economic and social. Britain was applying the concept of the national state to the plural societies of Africa. This concept produced difficulties both in the communities dominated by white settlers and in those solidly African, but comprising a variety of cultural or ethnic groups. Nigeria, he said, was the typical example of this.

The major economic problem of Africa was the urgent need for capital from outside and equipment for developing Africa's resources.

It was essential, said Professor Buchanan, that Africa should receive a fairer share of the Commonwealth sterling and dollar funds. The transition of the African people from a state of primitive self-sufficiency to an urban industrial state, a process that had taken centuries in Europe, was being telescoped into a lifetime in Africa, he said. How to ease the transition of the African people during this period of rapid change was one of the major social problems facing the Commonwealth today.

Social Life

We sometimes wonder whether or not many of those who attend Congress (especially the girls from whom little or nothing is heard from during discussions) do no because of the much publicised social life. Those of us who have studied the notices advertising Congress note with amusement the list of activities included on it, as follows: Addresses, Moonlight Cruises, Varsity Olympics (Discussions), Fish Fries, Swimming, Dancing, Picnics, Rowing, Walks. Above and below this list there appears two photos, one showing students clambering irreverently over the Cook Memorial in Ships Cove and the other, a view of the Beautiful. Entrancing, Sunbaked Bay of Curious Cove. (With apologies to James Fitzpatrick and Mr. Manning.) Is it the thought of this which draws students to Congress, and if so is it right that it should be so? However be that as it may, social life at Congress was the usual mad whirl. There were many occasions for students from the four New Zealand colleges represented to meet Australian students over here on student exchange and also three Malayan students who are studying at AUC usually between the hours of 2 and 5 in the morning. The trip to Ships Cove (although missed by several students who were engaged in carrying down from the hills behind the Cove a Malayan student who had broken his ankle while on a tramping trip), was from all accounts very successful.

The Congress Olympics were held on the final Saturday. Rowing and swimming relays, archery, volleyball, table tennis and indoor bowls were all competed for. Victoria once more carrying all before (even if it was at the expense of having Kath Slocombe tossed off the end of the wharf).

The final "academic" function of the Congress was the conferring of degrees and awards of prizes by the "University of Curious Cove." whose officers, "chancellor" (Ian Free) and the two "deans." preceded by a mace-bearer and a pre-chancellor entered the hall with an accompaniment of solemn music.

University Head On Students' Need Of Community Life

"We students and staffs are not knit together as a community as we should be and so we miss an essential part of our education." said Dr R. G. Soper, vice-chancellor of Otago University, in his address when he opened the seventh annual New Zealand university students congress at Curious Cove.

Dr Soper said that he had often heard criticism of the New Zealand university graduate—that he did not pull his weight in the community. If this was so, said Dr Soper. it was directly attributable to the fact that New Zealand students lived so little of their time in a community.

"I trust that buildings for students unions can be taken out of the list of priorities of university buildings and a start made with them as soon as labour and materials permit. I regard them as the really essential parts of the university, and the expenditure on such buildings will be returned in full to New Zealand from more community-conscious University graduate," he added.

Earlier in his address, which was called "Some University Problems," Dr Soper pointed out that the awareness of the problems of the university was a comparatively recent development, but they were nonetheless real. These problems, he Mid, arose from the very nature of the university. The function of the university was difficult to define, but it could be broadly said to have three main aspects. In the first place it provided professional training for its graduates, the doctors, lawyers, architects, etc. Even the arts student. Dr. Soper added, was in some measure receiving a professional training, as most arts graduates became teachers.

In the second place the university, like the medieval Church, kept alive the heritage of knowledge and learning.

The third main function of the University was to extend the boundaries of knowledge by research.

Central Education

"The first problem that faces the University." said Dr. Soper. "is that of general education. Should there be for example, in a science degree course something which would enable the graduate to see the personal and national problems of today against the background of the past and against the problems of other countries?" Dr Soper emphasised that the solution would "not come through more spoon feeding."

The increasing content of the degree courses was the second problem. Dr Soper pointed out that courses were now so full that they left little time for the relating of the individuals special fields of study to the broader background of knowledge. He proposed three solutions. Firstly, that some units be eliminated from the present degree or at least made subsidiary to the main subject of the student: secondly, to divide the degree course into a pass and honours system as in some Australian and many of the British universities; thirdly, a modification of these two, namely "those pupils from the high schools who pass at a sufficiently high level on the entrance scholarship list would be accepted for the honours degree course and be excused the four units of their first year at university. They would thus proceed immediately to stage 2 subjects, and would be required to pass all the other units required for a degree in arts or science."

Dominion's Liquor Problem

New Zealand's liquor problem and New Zealanders' attitude to it was a subject dealt with by an informal Brains Trust of visiting students and lecturers during the annual student congress at Curious Cove.

After lengthy discussion the Brains Trust reached the conclusion that a grave problem existed which might be ameliorated by an improvement of the licensing laws, the provision of pleasant and civilised facilities, and a general re-education of New Zealanders to forms of alcohol other than beer.