KEEPING OUR BEST

Evening Post, Volume XCIX, Issue 77, 31 March 1920, Page 4

KEEPING OUR BEST

In welcoming Professor P. W. Robertson at the New Zealand Club luncheon yesterday, Mr. W. E. Spencer made the happy observation that the first and second Rhodes Scholars from New Zealand, Dr. <X Allan Thomson and Professor Robertson, had now returned to take up work in their native land. There will be general agreement with the satisfaction, he expressed that New Zealand held out sufficient inducements for such men as these to return. In the past it has not always been so, for some of our best and brightest have been lost to us by the short-sighted policy of those in authority. Of course, the Dominion may not hope to retain all its men of talent whose work is of world importance. With some it is essential that their activities should be conducted nearer to the hub of affairs, but there are many "to whom New Zealand offers a wide field for the exercise of talents in research or development, and who yet have been compelled to acknowledge that a prophet is not without honour save in his owj country. New Zealanders are naturally drawn to their native country, and desire that their work shall, if possible, be identified with the land which saw the commencement of their careers.' It is for the Government or university or other authorities to see. that such men shaE be assisted to return and work here. . In doing this New Zealand will be working for its own benefit, for, as Professor Robertson said, the country needs men of light and learning to direct its affairs, and what men of light and learning should work better or more earnestly than those who axe bound to the Dominion by powerful natural bonds? .