MODERN CONVENTIONS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3889, 25 September 1928, Page 15

MODERN CONVENTIONS.

A MERRY DEBATE. VISITING SYDNEY TEAM. “ That the Tyranny of Modern Convention is to be Deplored ” was the subject of a debate in Allen Hall last week between a team from the Sydney University and an Otago University side. The members of the Sydney University team (Messrs W. S. S. Sheldon, N. C. L. Nelson, and H. G. Godsell) -are on their way to Honolulu and the United States of America, where they will debate against representatives of universities. They are all of the law faculty, Messrs Godsell and Nelson having graduated. Mr Sheldon is in his first year. The Qtago side was composed of Messrs D. C. Muir, N. S Woods, and M. W. Wilson. Dr A. G. B. Fisher presided. The motion was proposed by Mr Sheldon, who stated that these things only which were of their nature tyrannous would be opposed. The first convention which would be attacked was that by which women were regarded as belonging to the weaker sex. It was illogical, and was not based on scientific knowledge. In the past it had made men arrogant and women subservient. Enemies of modern women said that she was a revolution, but she was not so red as she was painted.— (Laughter.) The second convention to be attacked was that which compelled a man on important occasions to wear a dress suit. The convention required that in the happiest moments of his life he should be forced to wear a gown of a hue so sombre as not to be fit for a corpse. He supported the tailoring industry, and, looking at his own garments, he would say that the tailors in Australia were certainly making great strides.” A man might be an emblem of morality, but if he did not wear the correct tie he was as extinct as Vesuvius. _ The convention in regard to women’s clothes was the third to be attacked. The convention seemed to be that she should wear a little on the day and. a little less at night. The most revolting fashion was the Eton crop, which seemed to be the unkindest “ cut ” of all. A woman was required to spend most of her time in looking after her per-' penal appearance, and to adhere to the convention of being slim she was “ waisting ” all her time. The speaker then attacked the slavish following of tradition in the present system of education. In conclusion he stated that he had expected his audience to rise and loudly denounce convention.

A voice: We are all asleep.— (Loud laughter.) Mr Muir, the first speaker to oppose the motion, said that Christopher Columbus in his discovery of America had broken a convention for which the world had suffered ever since. The visitors had followed the convention of staying at Knox College, like other visiting debat-' ing teams, and had had to suffer Knox food and Knox society. It was little wonder, therefore, that they -were so much opposed to convention. Convention was like the Salvation Army. Some things that it did seemed stupid, but it really did a great deal of good. His opponents thought that convention hampered British freedom, for the benefit of which, as a matter of fact, their forefathers had just been sent to Australia. The power of convention was the power of the opinion of society.- In convention mankind had the benefit of the thoughts and experience of all its ancestors. They had devised a method of conduct, and there must be a real reason before anv one convention could be rejected. Such a convention as that of giving wedding presents was very useful. A voice: That’s sympathy, not convention.

Mr Nelson said that Australia had a magnificent system of industrialism and trades unionism, but convention had taken hold of it. Picketing was a convention of trades unionism, which had gone too far. The secret ballot system was another convention which had an entirely deleterious effect upon the community, because, it did not allow of a prope'r expression of public opinion. The wheels of industrialism were so clogged by convention that one could hardly get an industrial revolution out of them.— (Laughter.) Speaking of modern conventions as applied to women’s clothing, Mr Nelson said that there was no need for people to hold up their hands in horror at the release of the adamantine chains which formerly held women. He referred to the convention which recently had made two naval officers suffer because of the misbehaviour of an admiral. If necessity was the mother of invention, said Mr Woods, it was the grandmother- of convention, which was both a necessity' and a restraining influence. Conventions were harmful and worked evil in social life, said Mr Godsell. They rammed down a man’s throat views of which he had not expressed his approval. They formed the habit of the submissive acceptance of things. They had a debasing influence and stultified man as well. Convention required a man to like classical music, and anyone who did not was regarded as a dangerous character. Convention was based on falsehood and led to hypocrisy and conceit. When Mr Wilson rose to speak a member of the audience, remembering discussion on the convention of wearing a starched shirt front, asked, “ How’s your shirt? ” " I adopted the Knox convention of borrowing it,” Mr Wilson replied. The visitors were very conventional men and yet they were happy, he continued. They should really wear a hang-dog air. A voice: Oh, leave them alone. He had discarded the convention of regarding woman as an inferior being, said Mr Wilson, and he had not been punished. Where, then, was the tyranny of convention? As far as the dress suit was concerned, he might hold the opinion that it was. very comfortable. He was of the opinion that women’s dresses were very chic indeed. He liked them. To take away from woman the convention requiring her to be up with the fashions would be to take away her greatest happiness. Convention was obeyed without the necessity of thought. It decided for man what he was to do. It might incur a little displeasure and cause a little notoriety, but that was hardly tyranny. Convention made life easier. Without it man would be daily faced with hundreds of little problems which under the existing

conditions were already decided for him. It was the great lubricant of society. In reply, Mr Sheldon said that the visitors were being as happy as they could just now as high “shirts” were forbidden in America, which they would visit. The arguments of the opposition were like Oamaru pies. They were lacking in meat. The speaker attacked the iniquitous system of tipping, and said that stewards, instead of being tipped on board, should be tipped overboard. He had been assured that conditions were different in New Zealand, but in Sydney the only standing a woman had was in a tramcar. — (Laughter.)