N.Z.E.F. SCHOLARSHIPS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17688, 28 July 1919, Page 6

N.Z.E.F. SCHOLARSHIPS.

) TO THE -SasiTOß. Sin, -A fortnight ago I wrote to your paper desiring to learn something of tho i, munificent scholarships which were recently awarded in Kngland to a few for- > tunate members of tho N.Z.EJ. Since lu 11 avo endeavouring to discover i. toe manner of the selection of the soldiers wuo are to bo so bounteously favoured. > iteso scholarships may not be of great puhlio interest, but, as an injustice has . been done, I beg the hospitality of your l oolumns to present a view of the matter 1 "J 1 ? , w , 1)0 supported by all university students who served with our forces in the early days of the wiar, and who sick or > wounded, returned to New Zealand before • scholarships for soldiers were ever thought 1 of. > I quote from official statements the following facts: (I)" The scholarships win be awarded to specially selected members of the N.Z.E.F. as a gift from New Zealand • , er soldiers." (2) "The value of the ' scholarships will be between £175 and £250, . according to the university or college and subjects selected, and the financial means of the scholars." (3) "Scholarships will be tenable for a period of three years, such ■period to bo extended in individual cases at the discretion of tho Minister of Education, New Zealand Government, and on the recommendation of the governing - 'body of the university or college at which the scholarship is held." (4) A portion of the scholarship is to bo awarded in February, 1919." " As you can see, such scholarships offer a magnificent opportunity to ambitious young New Zealanders who are preparing to take up a professional life. Had they been awarded by competitive examination in New Zealand they would ha.ve been fought for with the utmost keenness.

It is well known that at tite outbreak of war the students of all our university colleges made a ready and ungrudging response to tho call to arms. A great many enlisted in August, 1914, thereby missing the November examinations and sacrificing their chances of a university career. Others followed soon after. While with tho N.Z.E.F., I met dozens of these fellows -who enlisted without giving a thought to their future, and who were "doing their bit" without lamenting the chaaices that wore lost. There were at the universities some, however, who were prudent enough, or selfish enough, to leave the fighting to the other fellows until they had obtained their degree, or at least a section of it "just to go on with." A few waited to be called up in the ballot, and, even then, asked for, and often received, a period of exemption to enable them to continue their studies. Some of these tardy gentlemen, who thought of eelf first, self eecond, and self all the time, with never by any chance a thought of their one-time fellow students then in the trenches, are to be rewarded for their devotion to self by a " gift from New Zealand" of a £25G-a-year scholarship at Oxford, tenable for three years. I should like to know how .many students who left with the Main Body, or at any time in 1914 or 1915, were in Engkmd in February, 1919—i.e., when the first of the scholarships were awarded lam of the opinion, and very strongly of the opinion, that these valuable scholarships should Iravo been available for competition by anyone who had over served with the N.Z.E.F., whether ho was in England when the selecting was done or had by then returned to New Zealand. As a pre-requisite to eligibility every candidate should have been required to show a. record of meritorious service for the cotmtry which is to reward him so generously. Sinoo the scholarships are each to cost the country from £525 to £750 the pufclio which is to pay tho money should have the right to demand that they be given only to men who had done war service meriting such handsome treatment. It is now too late to deprive the heroes of th& 36tk. Reinforcements of their bounty, but could not some of our local M.P.'s even now make an effort to induce the Government to offer to returned men the same opportunity as they would have received had they been in England last February? It is to bo regretted, but not to be wondered at, that when men of the early reinforcements get together, one of them is certain sooner or latex to remark: "What 'mags' we were to join -op before 'Bill' Massey made us!"—l am, eta., Sqttabe Deal fob Diskum soldiers.