Students’ Behaviour

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28559, 12 April 1958, Page 3

Students’ Behaviour

Sir,—l support Fred T. Miles in his condemnation of bottles thrown at the Universities’ swimming carnival I would add the garbage can, in Some respects even more dangerous. On the other hand, if students indulge in such vulgar tricks as the whistling and .the “cat-calling” of Miss Spooner in her diving turns, they deserve the title of “students.” This parallels a similar case I witnessed in the old Auckland baths over 20 years ago. A very talented young white woman from Malaya was giving a diving display, her first three turns to a veritable barrage of whistles, oohs, urns, and sighs. Her father stepped to the microphone and announced that if any further “examples” followed, he would cancel his daughter’s tour throughout the Auckland province. The .warning proved effective.—Yours, etc., R. M. THOMSON. April 10. 1958.

Sir,—The drunken and larrikin behaviour of the students, both here and in Dunedin, makes sorry reading. One common excuse for youth delinquency is a poor home. That cannot apply in any of these cases, for even with a Government bursary, it costs a lot of money to put one’s offspring through either medical or dental school. So it must fall back on the parents —lack of good example or control; too much pocket money in many cases, and the giving of cars to youths. Pure swank, to keep up with the Joneses, and poor mum, as well as dad, goes out to work to keep up the time payments. I look back over the years and none of the men who have made their name had a car or bicycle. They just walked to the University and thought nothing of it. I believe they had more brains and backbone than any presentday student I have come across. —Yours, etc., PAMPERED. April 11, 1958.