“FREE SPEECH” PROFESSORS

Evening Star, Issue 21819, 7 September 1934, Page 13

“FREE SPEECH” PROFESSORS

ATTACK IN THE HOUSE i ■ [From Our Parliamentary Reporter.] WELLINGTON, September 6. “I don’t wholly agree with taking away the right of free speech, but some people ought to have that right taken from them,” declared Mr Smith (New Plymouth) in the House tonight, as the preliminary to a strong attack on some of the opinions expressed in university circles in the dominion. The Auckland, Otago, Canterbury, and Victoria University Colleges obtained from the public funds grants and national endowments an annual income totalling £64,200 in addition to the income of their own endowments, and what, he asked, were most people saying about the teaching at those colleges? A Member; That it is out of date. Mr Carr (Timaru): It is educative. Mr Smith: “On what standard?, It is in the minds of many people that atheism, agnosticism, and revolutionary Socialism are tho chief products coming out of those universities.” He instanced speeches at the “ free speech ** meeting at Auckland, declaring that university professors referred to the time when Sovietism would become established in New Zealand. Several Labour members interrupted to assure Mr Smith that this was not said by any university officer. Mr Smith retorted that they ought not to have associated themselves with people expressing such sentiments. They should not keep such company.