Mervyn has a go

Turning to lighter things there were the constituent reports. These are memorable for the expressive power of the presidents, if nothing else. Mike Pratt from Massey: "The Chaff cottage is no longer erect. At the moment it is a sandpit." Mike Lee from Canterbury: "March 8 (International Women's Day) seems to be going fairly well. I've had quite a few feminists into my office in the last few days." Mervyn Prince: "Abortion's running smoothly. As a matter of fact everything's fine up in Auckland." Lucky Merv.

Prince took the limelight late in the day when it came time to discuss a proposed money deal. Student Service Holdings Ltd., which runs the student travel scheme, is urgently short of money, while NZUSA actually owes it some. NZUSA will be able to pay off its debt gradually through the year with moneys coming in from ISIC sales, but SSH want a lump sum now. So Victoria and Otago are going to lend NZUSA $15,000 a piece at a healthy interest rate. This money will be held in trust in a separate account by finance wizards Peter MacLeod (NZUSA) and Steve Underwood.

Says Prince: "It seems to me two constituents are making a killing at the expense of the rest of us." In actual fact, all constituents were offered the opportunity, but only two took it up. Says MacLeod: "I would do it myself if I had the money. It's a good deal." Prince wanted NZUSA to mortgage its building instead. This would be an unnecessarily extreme measure, and from our point of view we are being given "a means of replenishing our investment portfolios without touching levies" (Cassidy). The motion was passed with Prince continuing to express grave doubts on our behalf which nobody else shared. Could it be that he wants in but can't figure out why he isn't?

First indication of Lincoln's reservations about NZUSA came in a discusiion on Bastion Point. The people up there are reaching a critical time, so a speaking tour has been suggested, to be funded by the North Island constituents. However as Lincoln President Guy Macindoe put it, the issue which concerned them was, "not the loss of land to the Maori, or gain of land to the government, but the loss of land to Auckland." They wanted to "stay out of this sort of thing." Feeling in the North Island is that it should be kept a national issue. In the outcome the tour will go ahead.

A little later came the SIS campaign, (see page 9 for details) Some constituents are no longer so staunchly opposed to the act as they were a few months ago, when most campuses voted for NZUSA to defy certain of its provisions. Prince, for one, said the issue had changed and urged caution against protests which "are not seen to happen". Doug Drever from Waikato, Pratt and Cassidy all strongly objected to this. Said Drever, "We are committed to civil liberties, and this is the natural progression." Canterbury and Lincoln joined Auckland in voting against NZUSA's proposed involvement, but did not say a word during the debate.