CONFORMITY IN N.Z. DISTURBS PRINCIPAL

Press, Volume CI, Issue 30007, 17 December 1962, Page 12

CONFORMITY IN N.Z. DISTURBS PRINCIPAL

(New Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, Dec. 16. A tremendous drive for conformity was the most disturbing aspect of society in New Zealand, the principal of Palmerston North University College. Dr. K. W. Thomson, told student-teachers, parents and friends at Ardmore Teachers’, College. Dr. Thomson, speaking at the college’s last assembly for the year, said: “We have a society where the ultimate aim of every breadwinner is to have wall-to-wall carpets. Venetian blinds and acres and acres of sand-blasted glass.” Through such people as Hillary. Halberg, and Snell. New Zealand was well known for athletic pursuits, said Dr. Thomson. “But what New Zealanders have set world standards in the more important social sphere?” Coming back to New Zea-

land society was in terms of aesthetics and ideas, like running into a piece of damp blotting paper. The mediocre was dragging the whole country down to its own level. Urging the student teachers not to accept everything they were given or told, Dr. Thomson said: “If we accept everything, any divine spark that may be in us as individuals is lest. We must battle for these basic concepts of originality and initiative. “As someone once said, better to be an intelligent invalid than a stupid athlete.” The umbilical cord between New Zealand and Britain was being cut, and the country would have to stand on its own feet. “How are we going to survive, economically, socially and politically? Are we going to devise some sort of Plunket system for our fledgling industries?”