The Rhodes Scholar.

A fine scholar, an athlete of excellence, a man of high moral perception and withal a leader among men, such were the qualities deemed unsurpassable by Cecil Rhodes when he so nobly bequeathed his vast fortune for the better education of the world. Qualities such as these are to be found only in such few men as that great benefactor himself, or among those old Greek heroes of whom we read in the legends. "When some one possessing these qualities appears among us, truly can we say "Here is a man." It is longsince a New Zealand Rhodes' Scholar qualified to such an extent in all these traits as the Scholar for 1922.

George Aitken entered Victoria University as a first year student with but a fresher's ordinary preeminence—a scholastic attainment unheeded by fellow students but a noticeably good athletic reputation. In his University course he has gained supreme honours' by a courageous application to work, by an aptitude in sport equalled in brilliance only by his modesty, and through the influence over all those with whom he has come in contact, of a moral suasion powerful because of its altruism, but doubly so by reason of its unassuming penetration.

In the attainment of Ms degree Mr. Aitken is not to be described as a brilliant scholar, but rather as an energetic and conscientious worker, exhibiting a marked originality and an aptitude for inspecting a subject from all points of view for the betterment of his own: a student who, loving sport, has applied himself to study with a vim equal to his love'of athletics. And is not this the true benefit to be derived from education? The increase of one's mental horizon corresponding to the fresh heights of learning scaled by the individual, attained by selfdenial. Mr. Aitken is a scholar of the true educationist type—one who studies man and his environment for the betterment of both. We cannot say that he has been a specialist in any particular branch of study, but we may rightly acclaim him a scholar who has imbibed all that is expected of an ideal citizen and this with entirely conscientious application to "Palma sine pulvere."

To be a scholar and an athlete is rare, but to be an excellent scholar and a brilliant athlete is a unique honour. In the latter role Mr. Aitken has without doubt proved himself superior, including among his activities all branches of sport. While being an excellent tennis player, a keen cricketer, a fine swimmer, a good rifle shot, he has been of invaluable asistance to the College as a runner and a hurdler at the Easter Inter'Varsity Tournament, while New Zealand herself can claim him'for her own as an exponent of the page 48 national game, Rugby Football. While a representative of the Colege in all these activities, it is as a footballer that the University has derived so much from his services. Among Rugby critics the reputation of the 'Varsity team has been one of intermittent brilliancy and weakness, mostly the latter—a team that perhaps has always had some good material but has been very unsteady. During the five years that Mr. Aitken has been connected with the Varsity Football Club the First XV has, mainly through his efforts and example and those of a small band of others, attained a position in the senior football of Wellington which has gained for it the admiration and goodwill of the public, and that friendly respect which is somewhat akin to fear of all its rival teams. Mr. Aitken having acquired the rudiments of the game on the West Coast of the South Tsland, where he represented his province at the early age of sixteen, came to College in 1917, and since then has played in the First XV, being the captain of the team for three years. Those who have been keen followers of the fortunes of our team will have noticed that its star has been in the ascendant contemporaneously with Mr. Aitken's own, an extremely significant fact. But his honours have not stopped with the team he has so faithfully served. A representative of Wellington province, New Zealand's Rugby stronghold, captain of the New Zealand Universities' representative team, he received his just reward in being selected to play for the All Blacks in 1921, and, above all, to captain that team against the redoubtable South African Springbok team. Never was service so faithfully rendered so appropriately rewarded.

But we'cannot pass by his distinction in athletics by mere reference to his successes on the field: it is in the sphere of sport off the field of glory that Mr. Aitken has proved himself to be more than a selfish athlete striving for fame—he has exhibited those qualities of management and leadership which always go towards making the true statesman, who considers the welfare of his country before Ms own. President of the Training College Students' Association, Chairman of the Haeremai Club, Captain of the Football Club, an executive member of the University Students' Association, and of the committees of the Tennis, Boxing, and Athletic Clubs—all these positions Mr. Aitken has filled nobly and well, and to each of these bodies has been a very strong acquisition. As a member of any committee he has that excellent power of fitting a part within the whole and of attuning the common mind to his own way of thinking —truly a powerful quality, and 'extremely fruitful when directed along the right channels. Surely as a director of man's thought and energy along the right course Cecil Rhodes could have had in mind no man better suited to adopt the leadership of a community than Mr. Aitken has proved himself to be. His powers of leadership as exhibited by the manner in which he has fulfilled the duties of many authoritative positions have been tremendous—their strength lies in that subtlety derived from strength of character, altruistic purpose and the modest Avay in which his leadership has been imposed.

We all know Mr. Aitken's possibilities, and it is because of this that we expect so much of him as a representative of our Alma Mater when he takes up his work at Oxford; but it is because of his charm and modest bearing that we extend to him our kindest thoughts and appreciation as he speeds across the seas, and our well wishes we skall continue to send him, in thought if not in word, not

page break page 49

only in his times of triumph hut also in those periods of trouble which must occur as tests of strength in every man's life. May he return to New Zealand having acquired glory in the Mother country equal to that with which he is invested on his departure from the shores of New Zealand.