Starving' Students Need Early Cash

Sir,—Here it is, a week from the end of April, and we have not received any bursary money yet. All over the university, there are students whose bank balances are steadily diminishing with the cost of books, board, food, clothing, entertainment, transport, and all the other things that combine to make the financial side of student life a strictly brown paper and string affair.

"Now, Your Majesty, may I present that peculiarly New Zealand phenomenon, the starving intellectual — of course, there are some who aren't intellectuals, but they're all starving. Now. if they joined the Army . . ."

We are not getting our money soon enough, and of course, we are not getting enough of it any way. If the Government will not increase the value of its bursary payments, it should be prepared to arrange vacation employment for students in the fields which they intend to enter after graduation, and if necessary, to subsidise wage levels to ensure we are not exploited.

There must be many students here who are engaged in creative literary work— poetry, short stones, plays, even song-writing, and who display genuine talent in these fields. Are publishing firms and magazines making any effort to tap this store of creativity? I think not. But small fees for literary work can do a lot to supplement our income, and give encouragement to those who will eventually form the bulk of our creative artists.

We do not expect to be passengers in society. We are prepared to work. But we should be given the chance to use our minds and not just our hands and backs.

It is up to our representatives in this university to show a bit of initiative and stir up a bit of enthusiasm and a feeling of responsibility in Government and business circles, to bring about some solution of the bursary and vacation-work problems of students. Perhaps we need another demonstration, but a better plan would be to organise selected groups of students to canvass business interests for some show at co-operation.

If we have no inclination to: support some sort of scheme with these objectives, we are only going to prove once again, what a pack of gutless individuals we are when it comes time to stop dealing in abstractions, and get behind something with everything we've got. I am one student who thinks it is time to show a collective spirit, and a willingness to act. There must be at least 20 others who aren't affected by the general! apathy—come forward and be counted!

RHYS G. PASLEY.

[We regret that this letter was received too late for inclusion in our April 29 issue.—Ed.]