The day Lincoln College students 'kidnapped' the NZ Prime Minister

The day Lincoln College students 'kidnapped' the NZ Prime Minister
"Kidnapped" Prime Minister Keith Holyoake en route to Lincoln College in 1970. (Image: Lincoln University archives)
Greg Hurrell
Throughout the 20th century, capping stunts were a feature of graduation week in New Zealand.Wikipedia defines a capping stunt as “a New Zealand university tradition of student pranks wherein students perpetrate hoaxes or practical jokes upon an unsuspecting population".Or it was. In 2021, Massey University’s student magazine Massive lamented the death of the capping stunt, blaming crackdowns on the student drinking culture and a loss of funding for student organisations. Massive quoted some obscure old guidelines from Vic...

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