FREE SPEECH

Greymouth Evening Star, 31 August 1934, Page 6

FREE SPEECH

> OXFORD MAN’S ADVICE. n —, e [FEB PBESS ASSOCIATION.] AUCKLAND, August 31. Since he returned to New Zealand, ” ho had read and heard a good deal 3 about academic freedom, said Mr. 1 Ronald Syme, Fellow’ of Trinity Cols lege, Oxford, w r ho left to-day for EngY land. , He expressed the opinion that in a t sensible, sober democracy like New - Zealand, there was no need for any repression of academic freedom. Personally, he thought that much of the ; political theory expounded under the . right of this privilege of freedom was 3 either platitudinous or fallacious, but i the people should be allowed. so to 3 talk, if they wanted to. To forbid a t thing was to make it attractive. For . example, there was far too much fuss ) about Russia. The character of Rus- . sia, and its problems, were so very [ different from those of New r Zealand i that it was, perhaps, not the most pro- > fitable object of study, and those who ’ discussed Russia under privilege of > freedom of speech, would find that freedom was not present in Russia. Finally, he remarked that both Oxford and Cambridge received large Government subsidies, but the Government had the wisdom to leave them unhampered. If at any time any Go'vernment wished to restrict the liberty of thought and inquiry, the University, from the Chancellor down, would be in firm and unanimous resistance. A TEST CASE. AUCKLAND, August 31. With the object of testing the validity of the Auckland City By-law, restricting open-air meetings, a meeting under the auspices of the Free Speech Council was held on the Domain on Sunday, August 30. To-day, Roy Stanley, who addressed the meeting was prosecuted for holding a meeting without a permit. The police said that Stanley spoke for about ten minutes on the question of the City Council’s authority to prohibit street meetings and processions etc. The meeting was quite orderly. When the solicitor for defence intimated he proposed to submit legal argument that the by-law was unreasonable, the Magistrate (Mr McKean) said, the proper course was to test the by-law in the Supreme Court. The roundabout way that had been followed appeared to him as unnecessary. The hearing was adjourned.