‘The wizard is tantroid’

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33794, 17 March 1975, Page 18

‘The wizard is tantroid’

Three bright young! men from Oxford arrived in Christchurch during the week-end ready to do verbal battle l tonight with the Canterbury Speaking Union in ; the Town Hall. , The one-night performance . has been fully booked for , some time, and if. the three . members of the Oxford Union , perform as well on stage as /they did for a solitary reporter from “The Press” yesterday the audience should be well entertained. Messrs Simon Walker, ' aged 21. Jonathan Marks, "aged 22, and Simon Carr.i ' aged 22. agreed that their' public behaviour was little ’ different from their private behaviour, and that thev en■ijoyed talking, even if only 1 to” each other. Their topic tonight will be ' “That we are ale and arty.’ The Canterbury team will : consist of Mr Jim Hopkins (leader). Mr David Round, a ■ lecturer in law. and the • Wizard (Mr lan Brackenbury Channell). I Although they are members

| of a university group with a long history of debating (the Oxford Union is 152 years old) they are not expecting their Christchurch contest to be a pushover for them. In fact, they admitted that they were apprehensive about the opposition. There were more better debaters in New Zealand than in England because debating was more competitive here. “You have debates organised into national, regional and city contests, but in England we have only one national contest,” said Simon Carr. “Most debates in England are just for the sheer hell of it.” The main cause of their apprehension appeared to be ; the Canterbury leader, Jim Hopkins. “1 have come up against him before.” said Jonathon Marks. “He is a very clever speaker but a nice person.” They were more worried by the wit of Mr Hopkins than by the wizardry of Mr Channell. “The Wizard tends to be illogical." said Mr Marks, who had heard him in Melbourne. “I think he is tantroid. I don't care if there is no such

i word, I want to see it appearjc 21 in print,” he said as the other I si two rushed for a dictionary. ’ “To me it means that he has 1 t tantrums.” j Also, acording to Mr< t Marks, the other member of IJ t the Canterbury team was “a j ? fellow named Round, a law- j i yer. who wants a place in - Christchurch named after j s him — Round Square.” { Jonathan Marks, who < - graduated in law last year j 1 and who is now reading for ( - his Bar finals, said he was j 3 usually extroverted but suf- . 1 fered from a touch of para-/ ’inoia. He liked intelligent r women but did not intend . marrying a lawyer. He found / > women architects and interior ) ' designers particularly excit-1, ! ing. j Simon Carr, who has had , /experience in acting and was < editor of “Isis,” the Oxford ? University magazine, said he ; j did not particularly like the , . idea of marriage but he had ; r a high opinion of New Zea- j land girls. “They are wonder- t ■ ful. They dress appallingly I ’ but thev are witty and ’ I beautiful. | ti “They have a fresh-faced.'

country quality,” said Mr Marks. “I delight in stupid women. I don’t have a single female friend who can read.” said Simon Walker, who writes speeches for a Labour peer and studies part-time for the Bar. He admitted to several hates, including religion, the Queen, sport, flies, beer and South Africa (where he was' born). He said hate was one of the most human qualities. It was the purest, most valuable and most fundamental emotion. “I love to hate passionately. I’m a thoroughly screwed up person, a product of a post-Freud era. I’m quite pretentious.” They all said they hated • people who did not have a sense of humour. Whatever their hates, Messrs Carr and Walker have decided to return to New Zealand to work. Mr Walker has been accepted as a television interviewer in Wellington and Mr Carr will work initially for-the organiser of the Auckland Festival but he hopes to get theatre , work.