POLITICAL JIBES ABOUND IN STUDENTS’ PROCESSION

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30126, 9 May 1963, Page 17

POLITICAL JIBES ABOUND IN STUDENTS’ PROCESSION

Gaol-breaks, sewage problems, and the Hagley Park road supplied most of the local colour among the 70 varied floats which made up the University of Canterbury students’ annual procession through Christchurch yesterday. Political jibes abounded, the most notable being a large octopus labelled “Nordy Takes Over,” which won the Rolleston House students the £lO first prize in the groupeffort section of the procession.

Near the head of the procession, a large “Teach Yerself” book, "How to Escape,” by George Wilder, emitted a choking smoke-screen. A “television camera” and the Flintstone Fire Brigade squirted water on the just and the unjust, but there was no other direct discomfort to the thousands of spectators who lined the route. “Ban the Pong” placards were borne proudly by students with varied suggestions on the cure for the sewage farm’s problems. Best Individual Effort

The prize for the best individual effort was won by a float canvassing support to “Build the Beerly,” described as the Canterbury University Tramping Pub. A float commenting ort the sex-crime problem carried two courting couples in a haystack. Their cuddling

was rudely disturbed when a horse in the procession, ridden by a muscular Lady Godiva, sejeoted the haystack for its morning-team break.

The prize for the best performance en route was shared by the University Jazz Club’s float and an alcoholic commentary on the “University Spirit.” A crisp comment on the loss of New Zealand graduates to overseas jobs was provided by a “Chancellor” driving a header-harvester. The machine’s chaff chute was labelled “Brains —For Export Only.” Rejects were reserved, for the home market.

After the procession, crowds gathered to hear the annual address from the balcony of the United Service Hotel. The guest speaker was Sir Cedric Cystern, of U.N.E.S.C.O. (United Nations Elimination of Sewerage Contamination Organisation) who had been requested by a local M.P. to investigate the odours coming from the Christchurch Drainage Board, “that is, their oxidation ponds.” Sir Cedric Cystern described. the work of his organisation during the 1956 ‘‘Suez crisis,” and gave a graphic description of a machine similar to a giant vacuum-cleaner, which, he said, would solve the present “smell crisis.”

A poetic rendering closed his address:—

“I must go down to the sea again, to the salt sea foaming free,

“Where the green-banked Avon river meets the Heathcote estuary,

‘‘With the healthy smell of ozone, that ties the sailor’s bonds.

“And a taint of hydrogensulphide from the oxidation ponds.” Weirdly - garbed students collecting for the Multiple Sclerosis Society seethed through the watching crowds, and afterwards descended on city offices and suburban centres.

City- workers on their way home were halted by the sight of a large, life-like stork which had descended on the river island near the Hereford street bridge and stared through the trees like a science fiction creation. Sulky Race Before the procession, the trotting sulkies which had engaged in a three-day race from Nelson and the Hermitage sprinted to a finish in Victoria street, and were declared a heed-heat. They shared the prize—a cardboard T-bone steak. During the day a team of Otago University students started for Dunedin driving a motor-mower. They regard their “moa race” as a serious technological test of the machine, which has been specially lent to them by the manufacturer.

Today at 2 p.m. the graduation ceremony in the King Edward Barracks will signify the serious climax of capping week. The graduation ball will begin in the Winter Garden at 8 p.m.