BRAIN OR BRAWN.

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1414, 11 October 1923, Page 6

BRAIN OR BRAWN.

WHICH I>o WE WANT. A SCIENTIST'S VIEW. (By Professor W. A. Osborne;. That there should be an effective quarantine to shield the Dominion from diseases which might take root or spread epidemically no one will deny. Nor will anyone challenge the propriety of refusing to assist the admission of those who are dependent invalids or likely to become so. But that our regulations should limit immigration to those who can pass a severe and inelastic medical examination is something worse than an attempt at an unattainable perfection; it is wrong in principle and must be mischievous in its results. What sort of people do the immigration authorities want —men of muscle or men of moral and mental vigor? There are some folk who have weak minds in strong bodies. They are allowed admission. There are some other folk who have strong minds in weak bodies —they are refused. Can there be any doubt which is the preferable type? There was a time in human history when physical robustness was the one essential for existence. But with the rise of agriculture and commerce and the development of government and all that makes for high civilisation. other qualities secured leadership. Is New Zealand still in the nomadic age? At the present time nations are swayed by ideas rather than by high average chest measurements. Rousseau by one book, nay by one single sentence in a book, did more to mould the history of Europe and America than could be effected by an army of Carpentiers. These \\v Would Reject. But oni' immigration experts think otherwise. If a Julius Caesar of today were to land in New Zealand I without his army, mind you) he would be deported as a physical undesirable. If a. young Pasteur, whose great brain in a semi-paralysed body was able to pay off the otherwise crushing indemnity imposed by Germany on Prance in 1871, and to whom humanity owes a debt too huge for proper assessment, were to apply he would be turned down without hesitation. Robert Louis Stevenson travelled as an emigrant to California; he

could not travel now as an emigrant to Auckland. At one critical phase of her history, the withstanding by Britain of the hostile ambitions of France, stronger in men. money and organisation, depended on .one whom Macaulay has called an asthmatic skeleton. Fancy this asthmatic skeleton applying to our High Commissioner for an assisted passage! We should forbid entry to Keats for his illness; Byron and Walter Scott, who had each a limp; Pope for his hump back; Sam Johnson for his scrophula; Goethe because he had haemorrhage from the lungs in youth; and Dante for defective eyesight. Were an encyclopaedic scholar 'like Emily Bronte to escape by accident the vigilance of the inspectors. the detection of his or her poor constitution would lead to letters in the press furiously abusing those who were betraying their trust by admitting weaklings. Nor is the danger of our system limited to the loss of those who might come but cannot; it also includes the loss of the progeny of such. Do not let us be led astray by a misnamed eugenics that professes to be "based on the laws of heredity, a science still in its infancy. Two (';)>»'* in Point, 1 would not like ii to be thought that 1 am basing this protest on generalities alone. Let me cite two cases which came immediately within my notice. A Yorkshire farmer, intelligent and energetic, was desirous of emigrating to this Dominion with his wife, five sons and one daughter. All were in good health, but one of the hoys had ii very minor deformity in the shape of a wry neck. He was noi allowed to emigrate and the parents found their hopes shattered, as they did not want to leave their boy behind. The lad insisted on trying what surgical treatment could do; a small operation was made on the offending muscle, and as lie kept his head straight at the next medical examination he was passed as til. The family are now in Taranaki and pleased with their new country. The second case is that of a hoy of fine character and attractive personality. He worked hard by day and in the evenings took on other duties to help his mother—a soldier's widow. He was passionately desirous of getting to this Dominion and as he had farming experience and was strong in body he looked forward to the chances which the new country could give. His moiher gave her consent to the project. Alas at the medical-exami-nation ii was found thai one leg was slightly shorter than the other, and lie /.a- informed that his application cou:d not he entertained and that appeal would be useless. [ do n )! lay the blame for this preposterous rigidity of inspection on the officials at Home. They act in

obedience to instructions from Wellington, and in constant fear of the stinging rebuke which will be thrown at them if amongst the thousands who are chosen there is one in each hundred not quite physically fit. Fortunately for this country there was a time when this tyranny did not exist, and to that tolerance we owe many of our leaders