N.Z. APPOINTMENTS

Hokitika Guardian, 29 August 1931, Page 2

N.Z. APPOINTMENTS

The following is an extract from the address delivered at the recent graduation ceremony in Dunedin by professor Arnold Wall: With regard to the appointments to professorial chairs, I would say that a time, will come when such appointments will be made without any question of the candidates’ country of origin; when there is a vacancy the very best man than can be induced to apply in the world will be appointed. We shall hear no more of “New Zealand for New Zealanders.” That time has not yet come. Of the .present professors, quite a number have been appointed without any competition- at all, aaid there have been other appointments | that I will not criticise. One instance i must -suffice. A few years ago, when a vacancy occurred in one of the four colleges (not in Otago), a man of nvorld-wide -reputation, a New Zealander born and bred, resident in England,. was asked to assist in the rel'ection. He recommended an applicant of great distinction and promise,: a man who was certain, in his op in- , ion to go far and to do brilliant orig- - inal work. The other two candidates in his short list were not more than | very competent teachers; neither' waslikely to make a great name or to do important work (the subject was scientific). The appointing body at this end, however, passed over the brilliant candidate, whose appointment woud have been of inestimable value to the University as a whole, find to the Dominion, and selected the third of the three offering, this man being n New Zealander. Admitting, of course, that, other things being equal, it is most right and fitting that the New Zealander should be chosen in such a case, it must be obvious that so great an insistence upon mere rat iona'lity, to the exclusion of all other considerations, must react unfavourably upon the whole status of the particular subject concerned, and. that the standard of efficiency, both in the teaching and in the examinations, must inevitably suffer in the long run. This case does not by any means stand alone. I mav add that I -have the very best authority for the details here, given. The whole question is a delicate one, and the general principle involved is far wider than the confines of the University. I have dealt with it, I think honestly and impartallyv, thouah I am not a New Zealander myself. I regard it as a most insidious danger, partly because the motive at its back is so often acknowledged by those who act upon it, and is even, perhaps, sometimes not quite clear to their own minds.