The Press MONDAY, AUGUST 4, 1969. Halting The Brain Drain

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32057, 4 August 1969, Page 12

The Press MONDAY, AUGUST 4, 1969. Halting The Brain Drain

It is encouraging to learn that more Rhodes scholars are returning to New Zealand; more than half of the last 16 have returned or intend to return, compared with a third of those in an earlier period analysed. Rhodes scholarships are no longer the highest academic scholarships available in New Zealand, for most of the valuable scholarships of more recent origin require only academic distinction; but Rhodes scholars still have a pfestige unsurpassed by the holders of many of the newer, more remunerative scholarships. They are pre-eminently the type of young men needed in New Zealand professions, industry, and society generally; and it was the wish of Cecil Rhodes in founding the scholarship that these scholars should return to their native lands to contribute to their development.

The New Zealand Rhodes Scholars’ Association suggests that more of today’s scholars are returning because there are more opportunities for them in New Zealand today than previously. From the individual scholar’s point of view this may well be true; there are nearly twice as many people—and hence twice as many professional and business opportunities—in New Zealand as before World War IL From the national viewpoint, however, it is doubtful whether the country’s need of young talent is any greater today than it has been over the last 30 years. Farming, secondary industry, commerce, and the professions have developed considerably, and not always in desirable directions, in that period. Had New Zealand attracted and retained more young men of high calibre over that period, some of these mistakes might have been avoided. It is scarcely surprising that so many of New Zealand’s pre-war Rhodes scholars succumbed to the academic lures of Oxford, or that so few willingly exchanged the bright lights of London for the provincial comforts of New Zealand. The jet aeroplane has at least partly overcome the sense of remoteness from the world’s centres; and the much larger centres of population provide an atmosphere more congenial to the returned traveller. Indeed, New Zealand's three largest centres of population each exceed the 250,000 which, in England and other countries, many town planners now regard as the optimum.

Is there not a touch of irony in the reflection that the bright young men now being attracted to New Zealand in increasing numbers may be arriving at a time when it is too late for them to influence the development of the country, and when the quality of life here is declining? A recent immigrant, while deploring the increasing size, congestion, and pollution of New Zealand’s largest centres of population, can still find much to admire in New Zealand. Harry Morton, a well-educated and widelytravelled Canadian, writes of the “ integrity, “responsibility, creativity” he has found in New Zealand. He concludes his book, “And Now New “ Zealand ”, with a warning that there is little time left for recognition of the dangers of the “erosion “ and destruction ” of the New Zealand way of life, and for action to avert these dangers. Perhaps our returning Rhodes scholars feel that this is their mission; it might be a more demanding one than the development of New Zealand’s physical resources has been.