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Salient: Victoria University Students' Paper. Vol. 30, No. 3. 1967.

Shand comments

Shand comments

When a person walks into a coffee bar, has his coffee, and leaves having set the table on fire, there is something drastically wrong with his value perspective. When this person is a student and chooses the university coffee bar for his misdeeds, his values are so out of joint that one wonders if he should be accorded the privilege of remaining a student.

Just this did happen in our own coffee bar. It is certain that the table was purposely set alight—the table-cloth was set on fire only after it had been firmly stuck to the table by melted wax. As the attendant was returning a group of students made a hurried exit.

There is a possibility that the table will have to be replaced out of coffee bar funds. A loss the account cannot stand.

Add to this regrettable tale the reports of increased stealing from satchels, pockets and library desks. It seems the very ink in the student's pen is threatened.

Perhaps it was this type of irresponsibility that the Minister of Labour (Mr. Shand) had in mind when he pleaded with the delegates at NZUSA council to do their utmost to keep "way out" behaviour to a minimum. If it was, then we heartily endorse his remarks.

There would be little point in doing a university course if one did not question the accepted values of society. But this does not give a licence to completely disregard those values.

There would be little point in coming to university without objecting to the staid conformity of our society. But again this does not permit replacing conformity with blatant destructiveness.

Let us hope that Mr. Shand's comments find their mark (though we fear it is a futile hope) and that we, as students, do come to realise that we maintain a privileged position in a society already freer than most. Our academic status must not become the victim of our own excess.

Excess does raise its putrid head when a coffee bar, run by students, for students, at a nominal cost, suffers the abuse wrought upon it at Victoria. G.P.C.