"Non-Demonstration"

Last Friday night an Ecafe cocktail party was held in the Student Union. Members of Cabinet and government attended.

Proposals to stage picketing were made on Friday afternoon. A number of picket signs were prepared. However, the organisers cancelled the picket when it appeared it could have unwanted repercussions against the University and the Student Union.

As early as 4.30 p.m. police and other persons (apparently security police) were on the campus. Meantime, the picket organisers erected two signs in a small garden alongside the north entrance to the Union. Both signs were about 3 ft. by 2 ft. in size and stated the basic aims of the boycott movement.

From about 6.15 p.m. students began to appear. Some said they wanted to watch the delegates arrive, other were "watching the absence of a picket"; yet others seemed to be there out of curiosity. It was possible to recognise a number of students who had been active earlier in the day in promoting the boycott movement.

Salient's chief photographer and also a freelance photographer were present.

Ecafe delegates had to walk between two lines of students standing on the concrete borders to the path. About a quarter to 7 a lone picketer arrived with a sign carried on a broom-stick, and shortly before 7 a new sign was added "Welcome Ecafe Delegates" - making four signs in all (contrast the Dominion's report "about 100 students, many carrying banners").

Prominent New Zealanders including Tom Shand, Jack Marshall, and Frank Kitts passed the signs. As the Deputy Prime Minister passed the students, one called "Will you help us, Mr. Marshall?" Accounts of the wording of the reply varied, but it was affirmative and students seemed encouraged. The ambiguity of the reply did not strike them.

A little later a sudden bang drew the students' attention to the sight of a police constable bouncing himself off a truck bonnet with his hands. The constable had apparently been trying to stop the truck from "stalling in" across the only entrance to the cocktail party. Police immediately removed the driver from the truck and took him to the police station. While Executive members of the Students' Association contacted a lawyer, the police attempted to move the truck, which they could not start. Finally a large group of students pushed it out of the road.

By this time most cocktail party guests had arrived and by 8 p.m. almost all the students had drifted away. Several hundred delegates had passed the signs, and most read them. Although it was believed that Mr. Holyoake would attend, he did not appear.