LIBERTY SHOULD NOT DEGENERATE INTO LICENSE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17039, 12 May 1923, Page 8

LIBERTY SHOULD NOT DEGENERATE INTO LICENSE.

It is with great regret that we turn from the jubilee of the College to the procession of students which took possession of the city yesterday. We feel compelled, in the interests of decency andi good conduct, to protest against the behaviour which disgraced the occasion, and we know that our protest will be endorsed by all decent men and women. Tbe public has not been taught by the students to expect either good taste or subtle humour in these displays. The wit of the students displays more of the bludgeon than the rapier, and the humour is of the crudely obvious kind. These things are tolerated because they are expected, and because there is a limit which must not be over-stepped. Yesterday the students went beyond the limit. Vulgarity gave way to indecency, and in some cases intoxication displaced sobriety. Acts were committed which the perpetrators {should blush to recall, and which it is impossible for a decent journal to describe. Women and girls were held up by almost naked youths, and kissed and mauled in a way that was cruelly outrageous to modest womanhood. We protest with all our force against the students’ gross abuse of the privilege which is granted them. The College authorities should be informed by the City Council that unless a definite guarantee is given that the students will behave themselves the annual procession must he abandoned.