NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19447, 1 October 1926, Page 12

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

RHODES SCHOLARS AS LEADERS. "The note of disappointment regarding the small part in public service taken by Rhodes* scholars, which was recently expressed in the New Zealand University Senate, has been echoed by educational leaders in Australia. The subject has also been discussed by the Argus, which says:—"For 22 years Rhodes scholars have been going to Oxford, and it must bo admitted that so far as a class, they have not distinguished themselves by attempts at unselfish public leadership. But there are no grounds for a settled pessimism. The oldest cf the Rhodes scholars is only 45, and many of the younger men have the years which prove motives and abilities still ahead of them. Yet the want of evidence of aspiration is disquieting and should provoke serious questioning among those responsible for selecting them. Tho fourth heading of tho section defining tho qualities desired in a Rhodes scholar reads:—'His exhibition during schooldays of moral force of character and of instincts to lead, and to take an interest in his schoolmates, for those latter attributes will be likely in after life to guide him to esteem the performance of public duties as his highest aim.' Tho test of the realisation of tho founder's aim lies in the answer to the question: To what extent have tho scholars shown signs of esteeming the 'performance of public dutios as their highest aims ?' What are the reasons for the disappointment expressed ? May one bo found in tho fact that, as this fourth section is the most difficult to state on paper, the selectors unconsciously give it losis weight than the much more tangible evidence of success in competitive examinations and competitive games ? Neither the athlete nor the student, however, is the man whom Rhodes hoped only to equip. Character, in his suggestions, fills two of the four sections, and is allotted 50 per cent, of tho marks. The other two sections define its equipment for efficacious service.

"MEN SET APART." " The success or failure of Rhodes' ideal depends upon the temper and spirit in which men who are given Rhodes scholarships accept their opportunities," the Argus concludes. " The founder of the trust has made plain his intention that they should regard themselves as in spirit full" members of his trust. He makes no attempt to bind them by legal obligations ; that was foreign to his whole idea. But his historic will is the call to the high enterprise of leadership by men selected to that end. Rhodes scholars, therefore, should accept their scholarships with a deep sense of moral obligation. They become in a sense men set apart. Greatness cannot be expected of all, but it is asked, of them that they accept this superb opportunity as a dedication to the service of their day and generation. As Dr. Parkin puts it in his interpretation of Rhodes' will:—' The majority of tho Rhodes scholars will doubtless bo ordinary, men, doing with considerable advantago of preparatory training and with widened outlook the world's ordinary work. Probably Rhodes did not expect more. But the inspiration of a great idea gives significance to any work or any worker, and he will bo a poor scholar who, after enjoying for threo years what has been provided for him, is not touched with some spark of the divine fire, the devotion to world service, which burned in the spirit, of the founder. And wo may fairly hope that once in a while there will be found the exceptional man in whom that flame will be brought to a white heat, helping him to lift the world's heart higher.' "

MODERN MARRIAGE. That militant individualism has done good work in freeing women from male subjection, and particularly in opening careers to unmarried women, is admitted by Mr. Meyrick Booth, in an article in tho Nineteenth Century. But he contends that it has not brought to light any positive ideal of life large enough to include in its scope the relationship of the sexes. The girl of to-day absorbs a freedom-loving and egocentric conception of life almost from the time she is able to walk. The hooks she reads, her social milieu, her companions, her school, often the home itself, all conspire to impress upon her a view of life which leaves out of account the social and functional aspects of womanhood. Nature urges her toward union with the opposite sex, but the general tendency of her mental outlook causes her to cling tenaciously to personal freedom. The serious aspect of the matter, says Mr. Booth, is not that the modern girl refuses to marry, but that she is unfitted to be the companion of her husband, who looks to her to be complemented in mind with characteristics and interests different from his own. Moreover, men cannot marry modern girls until they are in a position to free them from housework and domestic drudgery. The modern girl is not capable of absorbing herself in tho work of homo and children. This means that mori in educated circles cannot marry till they are middle-aged, which is bad for them and for tho State, and loses them the years when marriage should mean most. The whole circumstance constitutes a vicious circle. We are told that girls must go out into tho world and compete with men because their opportunities of marriage are so small that it is usel«ss to prepare girls for marriage. But ono of the main reasons why so many men do not marry or do not marry early, is just because the girls arc not prepared for marriage. Mr. Booth pleads for an education for women which, while not aiming to restore the conventional outlook of tho past, will yet inculcate a saner philsophy of sex and reveal the possibilities of happiness and self-fulfilment in the companionship of marriage. At present, looking at marriage from without, girls can see in it only the drudgery and loss of liberty.