FREE SPEECH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 102, 3 May 1933, Page 6

FREE SPEECH.

The Auckland District Court of Convocation has solemnly debated whether members of "-the: University staff should have the right of free expression or whether their statements of opinion should be subject to the control of a University governing body. The fact that a resolution in favour of freedom was eventually carried matters little. The bitter facts remain that the resolution was seriously contested and that the present policy may conceivably be reversed in the future. Dr.*Ranston said' that freedom of speech should be allowed only when a professor is speaking on a subject in which he is fully qualified by long years of study. Miss Crookes agreed with him. She claimed to know of a case where a lecturer talking outside his subject said things considered by many to be unworthy of University traditions. She appears to be blissfully unaware that her own remarks in this connection will he held by many to be quite unworthy of the same traditions. Professor Anderson said that academic freedom was possible only in a thoroughly academic atmosphere. Fortunately, the accuracy of his statement can be tested. He says that complete academic freedom is impossible. In my innocence I have always thought that not onlv was it possible but that '..it actually existed in the University. At all events, it exists now in Auckland. The passing of the resolution makes that a certainty. May I ask Professor Anderson a question ? If the University carries on successfully under present conditions and nothing dreadful happens, will he dissociate himself from Dr. Ranston and Miss Crookes and join up with lovers of freedom who declare that the thing called liberty exists and shall prevail? G. M. CLEGHORN.