THE EXPORT OF BRAINS

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 54, 27 November 1929, Page 13

THE EXPORT OF BRAINS

Sir. —The New Zealand public, it would seem, has so far failed to realise the gravity of what threatens to become a national calamity, namely, the exodus from this country of talented men and women who have found that intellectual ability is given better recognition overseas. It has often been stated that not one-quarter of our Rhodes Scholars return to their native land, and the recent investigations of Professor Hunter, ViceChancellor of the University, show the general position to be even more serious. He has found that of 41 post-graduate travelling Scholars who have left New Zealand within the last ten years, nearly thirty have" remained abroad;, and, furthermore, that there are now 45 of the university’s most promising graduates who have applied for positions overseas. I myself am in a position to state that a large proportion of the qualified engineers from Canterbury College leave New Zealand to take up work in America. India. Great Britain and Norway, and, to a less degree, the same holds good in the case of our student teachers and graduates in medicine. Leaving the purely academic side of the question, we find that many of our best artists, writers, inventors and scientists —David Lowe, F. Porter, A.- Rowntree, Katherine Mansfield, Jean Devanny, Sheila McDonald, Sir Ernest Rutherford and Dr. R. Buck, to mention only a few names-—have left New Zealand to gain recognition abroad. The pre-eminence of Germany in art, science and industry before the war, and the amazing commercial prosperity of America at the present time, have been largely due to the fact that expert ability is speedily recognised there and given every opportunity, for full development. It has been truly asserted that those whom New Zealand practically ignores are welcomed elsewhere, to the material detriment of this country. So far our governing authorities have been powerless to cheek this “export of brains,” this wholesale exodus of ability, but the problem calls for immediate attention, unless New Zealand is to become known as a haven for old men and nonentities. —-I am, etc., P. L. SOLJAK. 5-1 St. Mary’s Road. Ponsonby, Auckland, November 22, 1921).