LOSS OF SCIENTISTS FROM NEW ZEALAND

Press, Volume C, Issue 29503, 3 May 1961, Page 22

LOSS OF SCIENTISTS FROM NEW ZEALAND

More than 150 trained and experienced scientists have been lost to overseas competitors in the last 10 years, according to a statement by the New Zealand Association of Scientists and the New Zealand Institute of Agricultural Science. The statement, published in a recent issue of the "New Zealand Science Review,” includes a list of scientists, many of them aged under 35, who have left New Zealand since 1950. Of the 150. 71 have gone to Australia. 37 to Britain, 20 to the United States, and 13 to Canada. The list is certainly not complete and many more names could be added. "The crisis has arisen primarily in Government-con-trolled science groups,” says the statement.

The crisis showed itself by the loss to other countries of trained, productive scientists.

Other signs were the failure to recruit trained scientists from overseas, the loss of top honours graduates from the universities, the shortage of science and mathematics teachers in the schools and universities, and the sense of frustration among those who stayed in New Zealand and faithfully carried on work they knew was vital, but was unappreciated. "It ean be solved only by a vigorous new policy of scientific expansion,’’ says the statement. "If it is not solved, we cannot expect to maintain our place in a competitive world.

“New Zealand, through ignorance or apathy, is not making a real effort to develop her scientific potential.

“Not Only Salaries’* “Salaries are not the only cause of the crisis. The lack of expansion of scientific effort in a period of comparative prosperity, inadequate accommodation, and slow progress on important projects all imply a lack of recognition by successive Governments of the vital role of science in a modem economy. “Over the last decade, the Governments 'of Britain.

Canada and Australia, among others, have recognised that a higher proportion of their wealth should be spent on science. New Zealand Goverriments have shown no such appreciation of this need. “New Zealand cannot regard science as a luxury, but must see it as indispensable to national survival.”