Youth-Against-Hunger Campaign Opened

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31728, 11 July 1968, Page 7

Youth-Against-Hunger Campaign Opened

It was critically Important that New Zealanders should concern themselves with hunger because it was something they would have to live with for the whole of their lives, Professor K. Buchanan, professor of geography at Victoria University, told pupils of St Bede’s College at the conclusion of an- Aslan austerity meal in the college hall on Tuesday. Hunger was the symptom of a disease known as underdevelopment, and the world had to get rid of IL

“Your concern with‘hunger will not drive you to eat grass or the bark from trees, or to kill in desperation to get food to save your family from dying. It will not affect you directly, but because the people living on the margin of your Pacific world are hungry. This is an important factor shaping the nature of the world and the attitudes of these people towards you,” he said. Professor Buchanan was guest speaker at the meal attended by about 500 boys and teachers of the college. It z was arranged by a committee of pupils as the opening function in a week's Youth-Against-Hunger Campaign. Each boy paid 10 cents for a cup of water and a small helping of rice and curried mince. Proceeds from the meal and other fund-raising activities arranged for the

week will go first towards the purchase of a set of Shearing equipment for use by a Volunteer Service Abroad member in South Korea, and then for the purchase of protein biscuits. Professor Buchanan said the people of underdeveloped countries were beginning to see their situation not as one decreed by fate or ordained by God. They were persons very little different from New Zealanders. They had the same hopes, aspirations and pride, and did not want to live for ever on handouts. “What can we do about it?" i Professor Buchanan asked, i “We must realise the truth i and act on it. i “The world was given to i all, and not only to the rich. ■ We must stop fooling ouri selves about the aid we are ■ giving hungry nations.' It is : precious little. “Individual effort is criti-. i cally important to create an ' awareness in ourselves and in the community. If we paid i a reasonable price for the products of tropical countries, such as rubber and oil, they , could-afford to purchase some ' of our goods and make their ■ farming more effective. “We have got to look honestly at the world. Many ■ countries have got to change their social structure, plan I their economies and budget i wisely.” ; He said a better world for > all men could not be created

without some sacrifice by the more fortunate. Most of the world wanted to be able to be more real and complete human beings. In opening the campaign, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Christchurch (the Most Rev. B. P. Ashby) congratulated the committee on conceiving the idea and carrying it out.