Youth of Vision

Students could, and should, be a force in this city.

From time to time, the chance has presented itself in many ways.

The most recent success has been the reduction of cable car fares—a concession earned by student effort and with student money. The public should be grateful.

Students have responded to charity appeals with time, work and money.

Students have been the backbone of the political conscience of Wellington. Sometimes feeble in effort and effect, often over-ridden, but always present.

The university has spoken out when an apathetic public has been silent or unaware.

The university has brought a suspicion of culture into the antiseptic suburbia of New Zealand.

Now, students are planning to enter the sordid world of local body politics, here and in Auckland.

Here, it is a world of thankless effort, personal vituperation, and power politics at their most sickening.

The courage and vision of the students involved is to be commended. We know they are offering themselves as a political sacrifice not from shallow sectional interests but from a conviction that Wellington has a place for young men and women of ability and imagination.

It certainly needs them now.—H.B.R.