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New Zealand Listener, Volume 18, Issue 457, 25 March 1948, Page 5

Sir,-Your correspondent Professor V. J. Chapfhan complains that few university teachers are able to run yachts or launches, or to frequent racecourses. If he will consult the statistics he will

find how few people earn more than university professors and senior lec-turers-not nearly enough to account for the throngs at race meetings nor the boats in the Auckland harbour. There are probably few luxury craft in New Zealand waters. When Professor Chapman knows Auckland better he may find that most of the yachts and launches are jointly owned by their crew, who have learned seamanship in smaller boats and worked thriftily upwards; and that many of us think it more important that everybody should have a chance of being an amateur sailor, than that any

one class should have the right to begin at the top. In this we may be influenced still by a former GovernorGeneral, Lord Jellicoe, who raced around here in a swift and perilous but inexpensive 14-footer and incited many others to do the same. But if yachts and launches and racecourses are mysteriously denied to university teachers, other wholesome and innocent pastimes are not. The professors who lectured to me at A.U.C. included a national’ bowling champion, a distinguished mountaineer, an elderly tennis ex-champion who could still keep

us all on our toes, the town’s most indefatigable amateur ’cellist, and its most tireless writer of letters-to-the-editor. Many people in other walks of life would be thankful for enough leisure and sarplus vitality to maintain such efficiency. Professor Chapman would have dene greater service to science in New Zealand if he had confined himself to the: cause of many other scientific workers who are much less fayoured than those in the university. As it is he has drawn an editorial footnote which shows that university salaries are higher than the public probably imagined. And he

makes me wish to mention that to these must be added considerable examining fees, and fees from broadcasting, journalism, outside lecturing and consultation. The salaries are paid during very long vacations, during frequent or prolonged illness, and during sabbatical leave. There has been a healthy bias towards appointing young men to senior posts, so that these incomes are drawn in many cases by people in their thi:-ties-a material point. Moreover, in New Zealand the university teacher’s children are not handicapped by accept-

ing the free education provided by the State, which is far from being the case in some of the countries where salaries are sometimes higher, i ped I am by no means complacent about the position of intellectual workers in this country, but we get nowhere by general statements about New Zealand’s inability to retain her gifted sons. The nature of qa man’s talent, as much as its earning-power, may lead him to change his country, He may require to work in a team, or to accept different conditions for specialisation. Does the flow of talent from the universites move only _ outward? For every senior post advertised here, overseas New Zealanders apply. Eng‘lishmen apply, too, and many have been appointed lately. Are we to believe that they are not gifted, these sons that England has failed to retain?

GRADUATE

(Auckland),

Sir,-You published recently several letters on the subject of the ‘salaries paid to New Zealand scientists, I hope you can find room for one more on a subject very similar. In the most recent Education Gazette ‘applications are invited for the posts of Women Vocational Guidance Officers at Auckland and Christchurch. The. applicants are expected to hold a University Degree and a Diploma in Education and to have some experience in teaching. Anyone who is familiar with the work done by these women knows that the post demands knowledge, experience, tatt and personality of a very high order. The Vocational Guidance Officer must be a person of mature judgment, able to mix on terms of equality with the leaders of the community in every walk of life. The salary offered for these posts. in

Auckland and Christchurch, is £315 to £415 per annum, and that’ is not merely the commencing salary, but the salary. I have no axe to grind: I am not a woman and I am not in the Civil Service, and I am not connected with anyone doing or seeking this work. But I have seen something of the work of these women and have the highest regard for it. How long can we expect to command the services of able women in work of national importance if we pay them hardly any more than a halfeducated boy or girl can earn within a

#ew months of leaving school? Is it fair to exploit the spirit of service like this? Can we afford as a nation to have such @ poor sense of values? I have written to your paper on this subject because it covers the whole Dominion, and because I believe there are many people among your readers who care about these things and who may not know what a low value we set on ability, experience and a sense of public service. I know a school of 16 who earned £15 a week plus tea money for easy unskilled work during the last holidays! : =

C .N.

MACLEAN

(Wanganui),