Salient

Social Cocktails

When we applied for the Editorship of Salient we mentioned the fact that although the newspaper was not the official organ of the Executive it would be to the advantage of the whole Association if Salient and the Executive co-operate to the fullest extent. No one could suggest, under the circumstances, that Salient should, or ever could, voice only the views of the Executive but there are many times when events occur that the Executive is possessed of such information as to provide Salient with a news-worthy story and is in a position to make Salient more readable. Examples of this are the Debating Tour and, more recently, the dinner for the winning football team.

The Editor had access to the first plans of the Debating Tour as the President of this College was the organiser. He was in close touch with the progress of the tour until the visitors actually arrived in Wellington. Then the value of the information he had gained was completely nullified by the lack of co-operation between Salient and the Executive. Salient was not even given the chance of an interview with the American debaters.

The question of the football dinner, which arose recently, was discussed at some length amongst the Executive members even before a recent Exec. meeting passed various motions organising a dinner in their honour. At no stage did it occur to the members of the Executive that such information and tentative arrangements might be of some news value to Salient. It is useless to expect the Editor of Salient to make news from something that he did not even know was about to occur. In this case the Editor had even gone so far as to write a lengthy acrid editorial condemning the Executive for their seeming lack of interest in the Rugby team's success. Only we can really appreciate the furore which would have arisen had the offending editorial been printed.

Another important facet of co-operation between the Executive and Salient is outlined by the fact that whenever Salient wishes to report an event organised by the Association, such as, for example, the Under-gradates' Supper, Tournament and (probably) the Football Dinner, it has to figuratively go down upon its knees and plead for an invitation. This naturally is not conducive towards any particularly friendly feeling between the two organisations, especially as we feel that it is the Executive's duty towards Salient at such times to provide it with ready access for news purposes of the events mentioned and others like them.

—T.H.H.