The annual Student procession or 'Procesh' was held at midday on the Monday of 'Capping Week' and was a highlight of 'Town and Gown' relations between Massey University and the City. Sometimes courting controversy with its 'student humour', the parade usually consisted of floats, clowns and trick cyclists. It attracted large crowds, stopping traffic along Broadway and around the Square and usually ended with a ceremonial ducking in the Butterfly pond after speeches by students representing 'Lord and Lady Massey' and the Mayor.
This float appears to be Massey's English department reading 'historical hysterics', with signs for banned novels such as Lolita. It likely comments on the creation of the Indecent Publications Tribunal which ran from 1964 to 1993.
Keith Roland Hamblyn was a photographer with the Palmerston North Hospital Board for many years. In a private capacity, he documented a wide variety of public events between 1958 and the early 1970s.
