DISCOURAGING COLONIAL TALENT. Is it False Economy ?

Free Lance, Volume III, Issue 147, 25 April 1903, Page 8

DISCOURAGING COLONIAL TALENT. Is it False Economy ?

NEW ZEALAND "turns out" many men of talent. That is to say, they get born here, and as soon a>s the talent shows signs of having a marketable value it is used for a brief space only in illuminating its native land. Not for long, however. You don't recall the names of many New Zealanders who occupy positions as highlypaid experts m this country, do you 9 They have nearly all dispersed, and wandered wheie talent is recognised, ond well-paid-for. * * Suppose an expert is badly wanted in some important branch of industry, aie there any New Zealanders to whom such a billet could be given? Why, >es, plenty of them. Where? In Austiaha, where scores of mines are under the management of New Zealand boys, vhere New Zealand railway experts aie earning salaries undreamt of here, where many excellent positions are in the hands of New Zealanders who naturally sell their talents to the highest bidder. * # *• You will find them in Africa, earning double the wages they earned here , in India, where their salaries may have increased by two-thirds , in Canada, where they consider it pays to give a good man good wages , and in America, where a God's own countryman who is smart can be proud of the colony that bred him, but sorry for its persistence in turning out it® brightest men. If w r e want an expert, then we get one from elsewhere. This is all right, seeing that the home-made article is not to hand. We don't even pay the imported expert with liberality. Mr. Kmsella, the dairy man, is off to Africa, at double his present salary. Why not prevent him going ? Illogical, as he isn't a New Zealander? But don't we tell you you can't get New Zealanders. Nobody knows anything about horses here. Wei get "vets." out from Home who do. No one denies their ability as experts in a profession the colonial does not seem to tackle. They don't get enough money to keep them interested in this country, so they also clear out. 'Twas ever thus in New Zealand.

As we' really have quit© a bewildering, number of clever people in New Zealand, it seems a pity that we don't utilise them by coming into line with other colonies and countries which appreciate p good thing when they have it. We cannot afford to let our own best brains go out of the country, neither can we afford, having obtained ai supply from abroad, and trained it to local conditions, to let a little cash stand between us and expansion. New Zealand is the working man's paradise, but it is evident that the man who does not come under that category betters himself w hen he leaves it to the horny-handed.