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Salient: Victoria University Students' Paper. Vol. 27, No. 10. 1964.

Letters to the Editor

Letters to the Editor

Letters to the Editor

Bairding the Lion

Sir,

The function of the student is to set an example in tolerance and free thinking to the rest of the community, which is more prone to reactive thinking and stock responses, and nowhere in New Zealand is this need greater than in Wellington.

I would therefore support your criticism of Mr. Baird and Miss Benefield in relation to the Max Riske issue. Mr. Baird's statement could almost have been lifted from the correspondence columns of Time magazine.

I wonder if Mr. Baird really knows what he means when he says he "must oppose Communism at every opporcunity"? If he is going to publicize his life-mission I suggest that he attempt to substantiate his philosophy and explain to a very interested reader why a "Christian" should be opposed to a thoroughly practical method of raising the living standards of underdeveloped countries.

Has Mr. Baird forgotten the zeal with which 19th century Christian missions attempted to disorganise such countries? I am sure I would prefer Communist assistance to Christian assistance, on the basis of the total failure of the latter.

I am etc.,

Ian Mitchell

Please Make Your Letters Short and Pithy . . .

Editor

Few too Many?

Sir.—

Your article writer. Julian Rayner, hath written in Salient No. 8 that many are blamed for few. What he or she, fails to appreciate is that the few are blamed by many for what the latter only presume to be "dubious activities." Usually the basis for their judgment (if we do not too much abuse the term) is provided gratis (and swallowed en mass) by such fair arbiters of justice and learned truth-seekers as the lads of the popular Press who are quick to indulge to absurd lengths their incredible anti-student prejudice. They provide both stimulant and excuse for such outbursts of Ignorant smug hypocrisy as typified by Rayner's article. We, of course, would not begrudge stone-throwers the warmth of righteous anger their activity gives them: never-the less (although we may well spoil their fun and faith in the bourgeois Press) we recommend any such person to read chapter XI of Thouless's "Straight And Crooked Thinking."

—We are etc.,

I. North

M. Van Wyngen.

D. R. Thomas

R. J. Tustin

Reach for the Sky

Sir,—

The article by Jack Richards in Salient is fair to a degree, though some of his Interpretations are controversial. The design is thirty years old and many changes have taken place in church architecture and in the use of concrete during that time.

Because of these changes, because the whole conception of Parliament Square has altered, and because the present regime feels strongly that the Cathedral, when finished, should speak to the city in its own language, the architect has been re-briefed.

His problem is to marry yesterday to today, that the result will speak to tomorrow. New plans are awaited with keen anticipation.

We see our responsibility to God to the Diocese, the City and the Country as a challenge to use what has been accomplished in the best and most meaningful way and so to complete the Cathedral that it will be a unit; a House of God and a House of the People of God both challenging and welcoming. I will look forward to the comments of Salient on our proposals when they materialise.

Walter Hurst, Dean.