Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Tiger pants

I spent an absorbing two hours this afternoon in 1968,
scrolling through the New Zealand Herald files for June
and July of that year. These news reports caught my eye.
SCHOOLS EXIST ON PARENTS’ GENEROSITY—a lament
from the Auckland School Committees Association,
backing claims by principals and PTAs. CHILD ‘RIOTERS’
STORM COLLEGE GROUNDS
—a demonstration by 50
children aged between eight and 11, who, protesting at
the proposed closure of Mt Eden Model Country School,
said they were imitating events in Paris. TIGER PANTS
LOSE TO PROGRESS
—Cabinet decides to end the long
tradition of ministers being required to change into
striped “tiger” pants for their weekly meeting with the
Governor-General. DEFIANT MOB BLOCKS STEPS OF
PARLIAMENT
—thousands of demonstrators disrupted
the opening of Parliament for the year (on June 26) by
chanting and waving placards like “No Omega bases,”
"Scrap Seato” and “Alfred E Neuman for Prime Minister.”
There was also a report about a stipendiary magistrate
being acquitted of peeping-tom charges, notwithstanding
testimony that he'd been seen peering into neighbours'
windows at night. Notable also, apart from the number of
ads showing women exclaiming rapturously about
vacuum-cleaners and soap-powders, was the absence of
hysterical nationalism in matters of sport. Achievements
overseas by Kiwi sportsmen and women were treated in
a low-key way. As indeed was New Zealand's place in the
world generally. There was more analysis of British
politics than there was of our own.

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