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In this connection the attention of the Committee was drawn to the white-paper (Cmd. 6679) entitled " The Scientific Civil Service." This included the following provisions, which have been adopted by the British Government: — (i) The scales and system of promotion of the scientific classes should ensure that the best scientific men should have equal prospects of pay and promotion with the best men in the administrative class, at least up to the top of the Principal grade. (Op. cit., page 15, para. 18 (i).) (ii) The outstanding man should be able to reach the Principal Scientific Officer grade (£750-£l,020) in the early thirties. (Rates for London are £BOO-£l,100.) (Op. cit., page 15, para. 18 (v).) (iii) The number of posts above the Principal Scientific Officer level to be increased to provide for the promotion of individual research scientists without expecting them to carry administrative responsibilities. (Summary of statement in op. cit., page 4, para 10.) (We had evidence that appointments had been made to such posts in Great Britain at a salary of £1,200 to £1,400, and were informed that in New Zealand it is rare for a scientist to receive such a salary without taking over administrative duties.) In 1947 the Australian Council for Scientific and Industrial Research adopted a scale of salaries for principal research officers and senior principal research officers which is almost identical with that implemented by the British Government. In this connection the Committee realizes that it is admittedly difficult to compare the purchasing-value of salaries in Great Britain and New Zealand, and that a similar great disparity of salaries occurs in other branches of the Public Service, but there appears to be no doubt that there is a real difference, sufficiently great to have attracted a disturbing number of the most brilliant New Zealand graduates to both Australia and Great Britain. It is pointed out, too, that there is a very real disparity between salaries paid to senior scientists in the New Zealand Public Service and those paid to scientists of similar status in other organizations largely financed by Government funds. XI. LOSSES OF SCIENTISTS THROUGH EMIGRATION OR THROUGH ABSORPTION IN ADMINISTRATIVE OR NON-SCIENTIFIC WORK The question of losses of scientific man-power through emigration has received brief notice earlier when the quality of scientists was considered. There is a very real loss of scientists overseas comprising approximately one-third of our honours graduates in science ; this is to some extent countered by the selection of overseas scholars for posts in New Zealand, particularly in industry and the University and, to a lesser extent, in teaching and research institutions. Accurate measurement of this is difficult. It would appear, however, that one-third of our honours graduates proceed overseas and do not return, and that approximately half this number are replaced by scientists from overseas. We have not attempted to measure more exactly the number of scientists " imported and exported." We are of the opinion that there will always be a flow of scientific workers to and from New Zealand and that this is of considerable benefit to us. This opinion is supported by a majority of leading scientific workers and administrators in New Zealand. It is, however, desirable, particularly in respect of those sciences relating to animal, plant, and soil problems peculiar to New Zealand, that the staff be predominantly New Zealand trained. The honours graduate in science can familiarize himself with work undertaken in New Zealand while at the University and would be able, particularly in the applied sciences to appreciate fully the local problems in all their ramifications. If some means cannot be found of retaining the majority of the best graduates, the country must import its brains from overseas —a procedure accompanied by some difficulty at present as was shown in the previous section.

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