OUR RHODES MEN.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 122, 25 May 1928, Page 9

OUR RHODES MEN.

It is now common knowledge that the Rhodes Scholarship Selection Commit tee prefers younger men. And thai ; preference is merely a recognition of th« ! fact which so many of us have knowr for so long—that the Rhodes scholar lias been accepting a handicap which? in al probability, it would take him main years to overcome. It is a bald anc unpleasant fact that in the past then has been little for the Rhodes scl.olai in the Dominion. These men, presumes to be the best combinations of musel* and of brain in our university, and wel endowed with gifts of leadership, found nothing waiting for them on thei; return. One such man held a house mastership at one of our big collegebefore his departure for England, his return was told that he might have the position back, with a negligible increase in salary; in his own words that he might start where he had left off. Others have gone into Workers' Educational Association lecturing, which is good work in its own way, important work, but not a career for our finest minds. Some hold small practices in country districts. One was curator of a Qiuseum, one head of an important college, one a professor of chemistrv. Most of them have slipped from sight. And with whom does the fault lie, with them or with the country! There were a number of factors which led up to the present situation. There has been, for instance, the existing glut on the academic market in England, the turmoil on the Continent, which cut off so many fields, save from those who were lucky enough to get in earlv. men such as one New -Zealand Rhode* scholar who relinquished his scholarship to take advantage of the special facilities given by the Imperial Government to soldier students immediately after tj le war, and who now holds a big posi-j tion in Czecbo-Slovakia. There was the! fact that in New Zealand, despite the! enormous increase in the number <«f undergraduates at our university eolleg<-> since 1918. there has been a dearth of intermediary positions on tlie lecturing staffs sufficiently well paid to attract men returning from Oxford. , Scholars Too Old. This question of age has probably been! the most important of all. Our candi-j dates for Oxford have usually been men

• THEIR SUBSEQUENT CAREERS POVERTY OF LOCAL OPPORTUNITY.

HANDICAP OF AGE.

(By QUENTIN POPE.)

jwho have at least completed their .Arts idegree, who have been three years at a jUiiiversitv college. Sometimes they liave 5; been there for more than that. Until recent selections, the only mail who received a Rhodes scholarship while still an undergraduate was Arthur Porritt, and he was nominated in an off year, though he was undoubtedly qualified in •every way for the journey. This means jtliat our scholars, who go into residence at (Oxford in the year following their selection, were quite a lot older than the majority of freshmen. They have been taking a second degree with men who have just left a secondary school. They have been more mature and better is workers than most of their fellow t .jstudents, and this explains the anxiety of the Oxford colleges to get New ZeaI danders. I The system, has meant, also, that Iho Hjmen have come back to us at the a;:« Lsjof 25 or 26, a time when most men hav® jjiput in four or five years' work at their J chosen profession and are beginning t._» - ifind their feet. At that age. in law. a. 'man is being entrusted with bijrper e and is thinking of practice on ""his own II account or of getting a partnership: iu 1 medicine, he has completed the houseInsurgency stage, and is casting round f..p 'j 1 somewhere to put up his plate: in ._jeducation he is about to be paid a, lr .reasonable salary; in. commerce, he is ? ~jnicely dug in. Now, ours is a'small !S l country, with no super abundance of big n , posts. It offers plenty of chances < f e moderate success, but few big plums, so e the Rhodes Scholar has returned to find that his fellow undergraduates i:jio swamped all the positions whi< !i jjbeen offering readily, and that his c«>uu"jtry has a j>eeuliar distrust of the unher-•-Jsity man. He was not getting younger, tjand he was not free from the pressure «>f n ]the pecuniary valuation of a man's worth a j which is current. A salary liecaiue iiuportitant to him, he took the flr>t job to hand r -jwith a figure reasonably attractive, and t-jno one can blame him. He wa« scarcely h at an age to begin at The bottom of the jladder and leel cheerful about it. 11.? lidias been handicapped in most professions unless family wealth and iiilltirn e iijhave been behind him, seniority has be< a e all that counts in the Public Service, and t education seemed the only field that \*;is u open to him. That ha~ lieen the irony l'of it. A foundation designed to providu =jmen of action and brain, and which h;>s • ended in the production of s-chool - ! teacliers! ij Perhaps our best men have not gained "ißhodes Scholarships, because a first-c;:;-s j brain an<l good athletic ability seldom ■jgo together. Perhaps, too. our best uj«i> ; have been a prey to modesty, wbi-lj would not allow them to take the fir»t ; step towards Rhodes Scholarship selection, that of nominating themselves to ' their student body. Yet our scholars, as a class, are most valuable, and we cann' t afford to lose them. If our present nuitude it will not be loni? w u„ e the example o! one of o„r 1..-kno» u I scholars is follows, and for . Khodea [man to remain in England * ill be rule and nut the exception.