Opinion
Helen Mcgrath

The Cultural Persecution

At A time when Club grant applications total nearly twice as much as the total financial allotment to Cultural Affairs, a revision of the Association's grant must be considered. For too lung Cultural Clubs have suffered from the Executive's lack of recognition of their value. The Executive ignores this urgent cause by jibing at such societies as the Pooh Club whom they ignorantly like to believe is a typical society, even though the Pooh Club has never applied for a grant.

Cultural Clubs have a serious, educational and creative role which is constantly undermined by the lack of Executive interest The clubs can be divided into the principal categories of Departmental, Language. Science, Religious, Political, General Cultural. International and the different music societies. Yet compared to the extravagant Sports Clubs' expenditure, the Cultural Clubs struggle to continue. There cannot be any justification for the severe imbalance.

For out of $6,600 allotted to societies, sports clubs receive five times as much as Cultural Clubs. Yet there are about fifty cultural clubs and only about twenty sports clubs. This means that the average sports clubs receives $300 whereas the average cultural club receives about $27.

There is no basis for this discrepancy. In general the membership of Cultural Clubs is greater that that of the Sports Clubs Individual clubs such as the SCM., the Folk Club and the Law Faculty Club are larger than any one sports club. Although the Sports Officer claims that most of his allowance is spent on outside affiliation fees, many Cultural Clubs can barely function because they cannot affiliate with their national counterparts through lack of finances.

Competitive clubs such as chess, cards, or debating hove the same claims for travel fares for their teams. Again, the case for a Cultural House, first initiated three years ago is surely as strong as that for a pavillion.

The wide response to the recent Arts Congress is surely an example of a latent but frustrated interest in the Arts. Many clubs do all they can to raise money—the Visual Arts pottery class costs $434 dollars, and although students are charged $9 to enrol, the necessity of limited classes for adequate tuition means that the class can only lose money. Cultural Clubs often have in pay theatre charges far more severe than field charges for sports teams.

Several new clubs affiliate every year and need money before they can begin their activities. The newly-formed Socialist Club has asked for an initial grant of $200, which is one-seventh of our total sum of money.

Unlike Canterbury or Auckland, Victoria has no Visual Arts Centre. Yet this year the Visual Arts Society, which has started a small am school is struggling against financial difficulties which the Executive could easily relieve if they were not prejudiced.

If Executive does not actually intend to persecute and ruin cultural efforts they should openly support them with the money they need for survival; they should openly declare their disdain of extra-curricular cultural activities instead of the devious and sinister withdrawal of financial support. Executive members have not been significantly involved in cultural activties within the university; they are not on the membership lists of clubs and have been indifferent in general club activities.

The financial allotment is clearly more ridiculous still when it is considered that our money must be used for the purchase of works of art. Either the money deprives cultural activties or the S.U.B. extensions will he as blank and functional as the present building. $1500 would finance four or five paintings or sculptures the value of which would surely not be lost even on drinkers, sportsmen and Exec. members.