Rhodes Scholarships Not Sought After

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 173, 25 July 1939, Page 6

Rhodes Scholarships Not Sought After

EE ST STUDENTS NOT CANDIDATES The fact that the best of the students in the University of New Zealand were not putting themselves forward as candidates for Rhodes scholarships was mentioned by the former registrar of the New Zealand university. Air E. T. Norris, to the Palmerston North Rotary Club yesterday. Air Norris was for 21 years secretary of the New Zealand Rhodes Scholarship Committee. There was no doubt that our record in connection with the scholarships had been an excellent one, said Air Norris. When the former secretary of the Rhodes- Trust at Oxford had visited New Zealand he had told him, although he would not say that the New r Zealand scholars had been superior to the others, that they were equally as good. During his association with the scholarship committee they had never sent forward a scholar who had gained a third-class pass; they had always been first or sec-ond-class.

From the contents of the confidential reports that had been sent out for the information of tho committee he was able to say that they had selected some very fine men. He had pointed out to the trustees that New Zealand University was really the equivalent of four universities and as a result the number of scholarships had been increased to two. Towards the end of his term in the service of the committee he had begun to wonder whether that had been a good thing because the suggestion had been made that the best men were no longer seeking scholarships, because of the doubt as to what they would be able to do after being away four years. Here was New Zealand offering nothing but school mastering. If it was a fact that tho Government was not providing openings, then it was a doubtful blessing. One of our own post-graduate scholars who had obtained a doctorate at Oxford University had come out here on a holiday and said that it could not be expected that New Zealand could absorb all the scholars who went overseas. In English universities the training was considered to fit them for important administrative posts. The cream of the University of Oxford went into the Civil Service. It followed that there was a definite need for a reorganisation of the New Zealand Civil Service. Returning scholars could not be expected to accept comparatively junior posts in the Civil Service, one of those who had come back applied to the Education Department for an addition to his grading marks on account of the four years he had spent at Oxford, but not one mark would they give him so he had gone into business and Was still there. So it was that the best material in the university would not seek the scholarships, added Air Norris. Postgraduate Scholarships were possibly preferred, because the men might be able to do all they wanted to in two years and there would not be such a break in their New Zealand life as would be occasioned by the four-year stay at Oxford under the terms of the scholarships.