Must Talks for Electors

New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 376, 6 September 1946, Page 28

Must Talks for Electors

LL over New Zealand candidates for election to the legislature are-or soon will be — holding meetings, and /many of us are carefully weighing up the various statements of policy in order to exercise our right of franchise most effectively. In the final Winter Course talk series for 1946 from 2YA, entitled Tke Citizen and His Vote, four speakers will trace the stormy evolution of the franchise and will show just how important an element of our democratic system it really is. The opening talk,""Democracy in the Ancient World," will be’ given on Monday, September 16, at 7.15 p.m., and it will describe the birth of democracy in Greece, and its development in Roman times. The speaker will be the newlyappointed Professor of Classics at Victoria University College, H. A. Murray, M.A. (Aberdeen), B.A.. (Cambridge). On September 23, Professor F. L. W. Wood, B.A. (Sydney), M.A. (Oxford), who holds the chair of history at V.U.C., will discuss "The Re-birth of Democracy" in Europe, including the story of the origins of the northern popular assemblies, the foundation of the Swiss Republic, and the development of British democracy down to the end of the Stuart Period. The third talk, which will be given on September 30 by F. A. Ponton, B.A., an honours student at Victoria College, is entitled "The Struggle for Freedom." It will cover the absolutist political forms of 18th Century Europe and the reign of the Whig oligarchy in (Continued on next page)

(Continued from previous page) England, with the attendant features of rotten boroughs and intimidation of voters, down to the Reform Bill of 1832. : The story from that time to the present day will be taken up by F. B. Stephens, M.A., B.Com., of the Internal Affairs Department, Wellington, formerly lecturer in economics at Auckland University College. His talk, under the title "Universal Franchise," will complete the series on Monday, October 7.