BRAINS IN NEW ZEALAND.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 56, 7 March 1934, Page 6

BRAINS IN NEW ZEALAND.

For some reason, practical or occult. 1 inspired or uninspired, but at any rate not 1 easily discernible, the important subject of 1 "Brains in Xew Zealand," for which a good 1 opening for discussion was given by our daily 1 paper, fizzleel out like a damp squib. Some > may argue that this was because we have such an important type of brain here that we 1 cannot bring it down to the level of such an • unimportant subject. Others may argue that our brains are unable to grasp its importance. As raised, the question ought not .to have - been yoked to the commercialisation of brains, 1 and I will endeavour to show that its original form of "Are brains wanted in Xew Zealand?" can be answered strongly in the affirmative and not by implication ill the negative as the original article leel us to believe. To <lo this it is necessary to take a cursory glance at our history. 111 the nature of things it is obvious that our extraordinary material and social progress in the past was due entirely and nlmolntely to brains imported from the (then) Uniteei Kingdom. X'ew horizons and new difficulties acted 011 them as an inspiration and a spur to action. With the growth of a native-born generation and its advent to the administration <>f our affairs, both the freshness and the impetus of this outlook have been greatly modified, if not entirely lost. We have become obsessed with the unimagina-1 1 ive idea that 0111- greatness and our prosperity 1 depend 011 exporting everything and importing little or nothing. The word "export" has become a monomaniac shibboleth, and we measure intellect and vision by the price e>t butterfat in London. Quite naturally our "native" outlook has become limited to this commercial aspect. We look with suspicion, if not contempt, at any view of things which is not measured by money. If some observant and thinking individual were to announce the doctrine that our future as a people was being jeopardised by a too subservient connection with England, he would be advised by a "Ssh, ssh, you must not let the police hear you say that, old chap, or you will be arrested as an anti-social, perhaps as a treasonable person, and certainly as an atheist." • So people with brains gasping for freedom to use them, like a fish out of water, escape as promptly as they can to some place where they can breathe and live and not be smothered in an atmosphere made mephitic by a too insistent farmyard outlook. Do not let us deceive ourselves by running away with the idea that the first object of "brains" is to make money. It is the modern New Zealand idea, I know. But it is quite wrong. The first object of "brains" is to find a means of expressing itself. Money comes to its possessor as surely as iron tilings come to the magnet, because there are always people ready to pay for them. But we elo not, I think we dare not, have "brainy" ideas published in Xew Zealand. People might begin to be "heavy with thought." And our one ielea, fostered by our educational system, is to keep people from thinking. Unfortunately, we confuse "brains" with scientific or mechanical training. The term really connotes a practical imagination as apart from any intellectual qualities which may accompany it. Mechanical perfection may be attained by mental alertness and training. That sort of "brains" we may commercialise as much as we like. Indeed, flie end of its being is usually "a good job." But brains with an intellectual bias are hardly 1 likely to find a "market" here, as it takes | braitio to appreciate brains. j —•DIOGENES JUNIOR. :