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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria University College, Wellington N.Z. Vol. 20, No. 11. August 1, 1957

The Thing

The Thing

Giant Weta

(New Horror in the Name of Science - See Pages 4 - 5)

House Committees Established

A recommendation to the new Exec. from the recent A.G.M. was:

This recommendation was in line with suggestions already being considered by members of the Exec. and at its first meeting the new Exec, amended the regulations, to establish a house committee: 'to consist of five persons.'

Mr. J. R. Martin was appointed chairman of the Committee, with the remaining four members to be appointed by the Exec. from persons nominated by students. The Exec also endorsed a recommendation from the outgoing Exec. that the President address a lunch time meeting in the Common room on the establishment of the House Committee.

Mr. Marchant accordingly spoke to a meeting of students on Thursday, 4th July, and explained that the House Committee had been established, not primarily as a disciplining body but with the object of preserving and improving the various student amenities in the College, in particular, the Common Rooms and the Gymnasium. Although the Committee did have "power to report actions infringing the rules of conduct in and around the College, and report names of the person or persons concerned to the Executive" it was hoped that its duties would be wholly constructive. Finally, Mr. Marchant said, it was hoped and expected that the students should convey to members of the House Committee, any suggestions for the improvement of facilities.

At its meeting held on 8th July the Executive, on nominations received, appointed Misses Gay Meyer, Margaret Newton, and Messrs. S. B. Robinson, and P. V. O'Brien, to complete the membership of the House Committee.—J.M.

Helpful Motions from Exec.

"That Salient give the reasons for our decision on H-Bombs." "Salient" was not aware that there were any—other than the fact that the sub committee had bungled and the Exec. were faced with a job undone only a few days before the A.G.M. (which was a fair time after the S.G.M.). The sub-committee was set up to handle the recommendations of S.G.M. which called for a petition to be circulated and forwarded to the P.M. The committee immediately got into action and got out the petitions. But from there on the affair was mismanaged. The petitions were not recalled until after the vacation, by which time some had been lost and others mutilated. The committee did nothing more for another few weeks and then finally, after pressure from "Salient" and some Exec. members it was brought up at the tidying up meeting of the retiring Exec. The committee recommended no further action—despite the explicit directives of the S.G.M. The Exec. decided accordingly—anyway the A.G.M. would be held in a few days and it was quite easy to pass the buck—although certain members vigorously protested at this "disgusting" non-action.

At the A.G.M. the President squashed the later motions on the Agenda by calling on the Secretary to count the attendance, knowing that there was no longer a quorum. (Note the usual procedure, unless the president dislikes the motion in question, is to continue until a member of the meeting raises a point of order.)

A book recently on sale in Wellington—"Mine Were the Trouble"—is the memoirs of one Peter Kemp in his part in the Spanish Civil War.

At Cambridge. Kemp was regarded as too Tory for the Tories. Like many of his contemporaries, he went to fight in the Spanish Civil War—but unlike most of them he fought on the side of Franco. Hitler and Mussolini.

Now this old soldier of Fascism was one of the few British journalists in Budapest during last October and therefore a major source of the news we received.

This doesn't prove anything, but it makes you wonder.

—Communard.

More on the Cable Car

It is now months since the then Exec. decided that the Association should accept responsibility for the April Fool actions on the Cable Cars and premises. Recently the Exec. finally received a bill from the City Council. But it was referred back for itemisation. Then the last Exec. meeting decided that in view of the fact that the Council had not charged as much as they had grounds for doing, the Association pay the whole £62. 10.0 charged. Actually, however, the culprits will pay over £5 each as damages and the Association will pay only the few pence balance required.

Phone Tapping—New Zealand too

Since the British admission, the New Zealand Government has stopped its solid denials and finally admitted that it taps telephone conversations.

But those who intend pedaling narcotics to schoolchildren or hawking aphrodisiacs, or committing the most outrageous crimes, need not worry. This abuse of our rights as individuals is applied only to cases of "National Security". This however, is defined in odd ways. Mr. Nash has told Parliament that he knows of a case where the police tapped a telephone conversation between a Hutt Valley man and the Wellington Trades Hall.

He added that he had suspicions that his own telephone was tapped in 1951.

(Information from the P.V., 19/6/57.

Asian Seminar

A decision on the venue and date of the Asian Student Seminar is likely to be made by the I.S.C. Supervision Committee, meeting either before or after the Nigeria conference. The N.Z.U.S.A. delegates to the conference have been given authority to submit suggested venues and dates for the committee's consecration. Subject to any preferences expressed by the committee or by Asian unions likely to be attending. N.Z.U.S.A. considers the ideal proposal to be Auckland late in the summer vacation. The delegates were directed to suggest Auckland as the venue and "the first quarter of 1958" as the time.