The Press Saturday, January 4, 1930. The Future of the Rhodes Scholar.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19818, 4 January 1930, Page 12

The Press Saturday, January 4, 1930. The Future of the Rhodes Scholar.

The Report on the Rhodes Scholars now in residence at Oxford, which was summarised in The Press two days ago, raises certain points of the greatest interest concerning not only the success of the scheme as a whole, but also its effects in each of the particular countries which send the scholars. What courses of study are being followed by them? At what age is it best for them to go into residence? Do they or do they not generally return to their homelands after the completion of their tenure of the Scholarship? Do they succeed, as a whole, in receiving the impression which Oxford alone, in the opinion of the Founder, can give, or in absorbing the distinctive spirit of the University? And, finally, do the conditions in the countries of their origin permit of their making such use of their advantages as the Founder would seem to have hoped and desired? All these questions are not answered in the Report, and some of them can only be fully answered after many more years of experience. Some of them may be touched upon here. The figures supplied in the Report show that about half the Scholars are studying law (about 30 per cent.) and natural science and medicine, which are rather unfortunately grouped together (about 18 per cent.). The Rhodes Scholar mnst make his own way in the world, and law and medicine are the gateways into lucrative professions—hence this choice by so many Scholars. A relatively large number, nearly 15 per cent., are taking English Literature, and the remaining courses in classics, mathematics, modern history, philosophy, and economics account for small groups of about 5 per cent. each. It is often regretted that the Scholars show this strong predilection for "bread-and-"butter" studies, and that so few of them, in comparison, devote themselves to pure scholarship, particularly to the classics, through which, it may be agreed, the traditional spirit of Oxford learning has been most successfully communicated and expressed in the past. If we are to consider why this is we have to look for the answer to a very puzzling question—puzzling, at any rate, to the smaller Dominions like ourselves —less difficult, of course, in the case of America, which claims nearly half of the Scholars. ' If the Rhodes Scholar feels, as no doubt nearly all of them do, that he owes it to his country and to the spirit of the Founder to return to his homeland on the completion of his course, there to make the fullest use (in the interests 6f that homeland of his) of the treasure which Oxford has presumably given him —to spread the "Oxford spirit" as fruitfully and as usefully as he can—then he must have clearly before him some sort of career in his own country which will make it possible for him to live and at the same time to bring his knowledge and experience to bear upon its public mind and institutions. Can the lawyer, the scientific expert, or the doctor be said to be favourably placed for this purpose? Hardly; yet, in our own case, what profession should the Scholar choose if not one of these? Politics, which might seem on some counts to be the best, is precarious, ill-paid, and , not in very high repute among us, further, no one special course of study is necessary, or perhaps even desirable, as a preliminary to it. No kind of influential position is open to the classical Scholar, or mathematician, or philosopher, or even the economist, in a community like ours. These and the students of literature or history must become schoolmasters if they are to make any use of their special knowledge, and we cannot but think, noble as this profession may be under certain conditions, that the returned Rhodes Scholar is more or less wasting his time in it or in such kindred employment as is offering in Training Colleges for Teachers, Technical Schools, or the W.E.A. This, however, is what some of our returned Scholars have been compelled to do in the absence of any better opportunities in the University or the Public Services. It would seem, then, that New Zealand cannot at present find the ideal position for the returned Rhodes Scholars, the finished product of the great scheme, and it is not surprising that some of them do not return at all. A certain number have been fortunate enough to obtain fairly important appointments here—one thinks of Professor Robertson of Victoria College, Mr Gilray of Otago, and the late Dr. Allan Thomson of the Dominion Museum —but these are not typical cases. The question of the proper age for entrance into Oxford has an important bearing upon this. The Rhodes Trustees some years ago requested the Dominions to send their Scholars at an earlier age, most of them in the past having spent three or four years at the local Universities before selection. The problem involved is a hard one. On the one hand if the Scholar is quite young his mind and nature are at a more plastic and impressionable stage and he takes his place more naturally among the youths of his own age from the English schools, and thus, it is argued, he has the best chance of getting the full benefit of what Oxford has to offer; on the other hand the older man, while too prone to join others of his standing in a state of

segregation from the younger men—a very noticeable tendency, it is said, among Rhodes Scholars—is nevertheless not so likely to be tempted elsewhere, having already taken the stronger and deeper impression of his country of origin. He is more likely than the younger man to remain a good New Zealander after Oxford has

done her best for him. Time and experience are required to solve this and kindred problems. Meanwhile Oxford herself is changing; her spirit, like that of Cambridge, is becoming more practical; the students whose leisured future is assured form no longer so great a proportion of the mass, and no longer so exclusively lead and dominata her intellectual and social tone. This change, though bitterly resented by some at both Universities, seems to us of good augury for the future of the Rhodes Scholarship Trust, since, even if Oxford is fated to lose some part of that spirit which so strongly appealed to Rhodes, the general effect of the change will be to bring that spirit more closely into harmony with that of the new countries whose citizens are called upon to enjoy and use it. It would be of great interest to the public, and possibly of great value, if a full report could now be given upon the whole body of New Zealand Rhodes Scholars, with particulars of their careers and the positions they now hold. In the light of such a report something might be done to improve the prospects of those who return to us.