Mr Lange in cutting form

Press, 26 February 1983, Page 6

Mr Lange in cutting form

Strange electronic music played as the leader of the Labour Party, Mr Lange, mounted the outdoor stage in front of about 400 University of Canterbury students yesterday. He was there to open Orientation Week, and a blue ribbon was drawn ceremoniously across the stage before him. “It is the wrong colour, mate,” shouted someone in the audience. “It is all right,” said Mr Lange. “I am going to cut it.” That set the tone for an ebullient speech in which Mr Lange spoke nostalgically of his university days and criticised the “bank feller” image of today’s students. He said non-conformity was encouraged when he was at the university, and be was inspired to debate issues and to rebel. “Now it is almost obligatory for students to look like bank tellers,” he said. A tall, thin youth with crew-cut hair, wearing rolled-up jeans and big boots

then mounted the stage, fell over, then knocked over a few microphone stands before stumbling off again.

“At least there is someone with a bit of style,” said Mr Lange. “I think he was a refugee from Muldoon’s think tank.” He went on to lament the passing of student radicalism, and to describe the people, issues, and “conflict of passion” that made his university days “the most uplifting part of his education.”

“I get no pleasure from most of the work I do. I still get my kicks from looking back on those extraordinary days,” he said. He urged students to take advantage of orientation. “There is a place for young New Zealanders to celebrate. You can forget all the wankers who talk about G.N.P. and percentages and energy and all our political battling. Forget it,” he said. “I want to slash anything that is blue, and I am going to do it,” he said, and with that, cut the ribbon.