Enter mediocrity?

However, that is a battle yet to be fought; and it must be fought very largely by attacking the current public opinion which favours egalitarianism (dare one soy it?) mediocrity.

For it is mediocrity against which the battle for higher university salaries must ultimately be aimed. The University of New Zealand has up till now been well served in the quality and devotion of her teachers. Her students have held their own in the universities of other lands and have carried off their fair share of the highest honours.

But competent authorities assert that the competition within the English speaking countries for university staff will be greater during the next ten of fifteen years than it has ever been before. In that competition the University of New Zealand cannot afford to lag behind. If she does, the drain of the best people from the existing staff will increase, and the inflow will inevitably be of people at a lower level of competence.

It is against this simple truth that the other factors that have been mentioned must be weighed.

If New Zealand is to choose mediocrity in her university system for the future, it is up to everyone to see that the choice, if it is made at all, is a conscious one, and that the Government, the political parties, and the public, have the consenuence of the choice placed fairly and squarely before them.