Getting To Know Us

But the Summer School lasted only a month, and the academic year had not yet begun. The foundation given by the School will rapidly be undermined if the overseas student cannot rapidly get into Victoria student life with New Zealanders. He has come with an Intense desire to know New Zealanders. Is he going to meet them at Vic? He would get to know a few at the Summer School, but not many. Most New Zealand students are working long hours to earn money during the vacation. Others are away on holiday. Again there are other overseas students at Victoria—students from Asian countries not associated with the Colombo Plan; students from the Pacific Islands and Fiji, for whom some course such as the Summer School is equally necessary. These students must not be excluded from further courses.

I am not agitating for a friendship campaign. But I would ask the overseas student to assert himself as an individual. I would ask New Zealand students to recognise the difficulties of an overseas student here at Victoria and to realise the opportunity, available to all too few for too short a period, for frank and open discussion. What is needed most is the tolerance which is the basis of friendship.