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Salient. Victoria University Students Newspaper. Vol. 38, No. 15. July 2, 1975
and fourth ..
and fourth ...
Dear Salient,
I was distressed to hear that the White Sports Coat Society voted at their last meeting against the proposed amendment to the Crimes Act as put forward by Dr. Gerald Wail. I am writing this letter in support of Dr. Wail's amendment as a practising member of the medical profession and a now non-practising member of the White Sports Coat Society. For too long certain undesirable people have been indluging in their perverted practices and undermining our moral principles—laying us wide open to corruption and inevitable infiltration by corrupt alien elements such as communism and glitter-rock.
The bleeding hearts who cry out that this amendment is in violation of freedom of thought, speech and action are obviously unaware that there are no such things written into any constitution common to this country. This myth of freedom only results in a feeling of dissatisfaction in an otherwise happy little country and can completely destroy the tranquility we all cherish if allowed too loose a rein.
Taking the example set by my colleague Dr. Wall, I have drafted a bill myself having been disturbed of late by the nefarious habit of tobacco smoking that threatens our community by destroying the health of our youth. It is a well-known fact that a healthy body builds a healthy mind so if the body weakens then the mind will also weaken and will as a consequence become exposed to the moral destroying elements that Dr. Wall, myself, and all other right-thinking people recognize.
The bill as I have drafted it reads:
| (a) | wilfully smokes, inhales, chews or otherwise assimilates tobacco in any form or |
| (b) | offers to, sells, forces on or leaves in a position likely to entice any person, any tobacco in any form or |
| (c) | grows or in any way produces tobacco or any tobacco substitute other than that grown for export by the Government of New Zealand or |
| (d) | wilfully says, writes or does anything to any person under the age of 103 years that leads to |
I realise that with the acceptance of this bill a good many people will be open to prosecution but one must view the idealized goal rather than the practical consequences.
My friend and colleague Dr. Wall has admitted to smoking 20 small cigars a day (Sunday Times, June 8) so I sincerely hope he will begin to act like a normal person before my bill goes through in order to save embarrasment to himself and his fellow MPs.
I suspect that some selfish members of the community will not view my bill favourably but I feel that someone must risk being misunderstood if it benefits society ultimately and therefore I do not let this sort of thing worry me. Society is justified in protecting its young from bad influences and tobacco and homosexuality both need damping down before we have a country full of anaemic short-winded pansies.
I hope then that the stout hearted will take up the cry 'Down with fags' and support both bills.
Yours sincerely.
Dr. Y.W. Ganeh (or something like that—Typesetter)