Loss of Eric Watson could turn out to be our gain

By RUSSELL STONE*

The announcement that high-profile entrepreneur Eric Watson was moving permanently to Europe and would conduct his business operations from there caused a flutter in business circles.

What did this signify? Following on from the departure of other members of the so-called Rich List - Sir Michael Fay, David Richwhite and Douglas Myers - did this show a lack of confidence in New Zealand's economic prospects, or perhaps a failure of the Government to encourage innovation?

To misquote Oscar Wilde, to lose one entrepreneur may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose four looks like carelessness.

A more balanced response to Watson's departure has now (rightly) emerged. It runs something like this. The decision of influential business people to live abroad implies no great loss to us. In fact, their becoming expatriates could be as rewarding for New Zealand as it could be for them.

But this episode opens up a more important general question. Is the export of the financially successful or the talented - by no means necessarily the same people - to be deplored? Our history suggests otherwise.

For New Zealanders, the practice of beginning a new life in Europe (most often in England), or of resuming an old life there, is as old as the country itself.

Moreover, the past tends to tell us that the reasons for such a move are usually complex. They are often personal, can be political, and (more rarely) involve the taking up of a fresh business challenge.

There is ample proof, too, that old personal, business and cultural links with New Zealand endure, as does a sense of loyalty.

It seems you can take a Kiwi out of New Zealand without necessarily taking New Zealand out of the Kiwi.

While in colonial times there were spectacular examples of notable southerners "going home" - three-times Premier E.W. Stafford, of Nelson, and Henry Sewell, of Canterbury, come to mind - Aucklanders seem to have done it more often.

That's why I now look at Auckland to see why people in earlier times decided to become expatriates.

New Zealand's first two Chief Justices, Sir William Martin and Sir George Arney, and civil servants such as George Graham and harbourmaster David Rough all chose to spend their years of retirement in their homeland.

In contrast, the bitter taste of local politics helped to drive Aucklanders such as the partners William Brown and Logan Campbell out of the colony, just as it had driven Stafford and Sewell.

Admittedly, Campbell returned to become the city's most honoured pioneer, the "Father of Auckland". But he came back reluctantly and only because he had found that the resident partners of his Auckland firm could not be trusted to fund it at the high level of profit that would allow him a permanent leisured existence in Europe.

And after his return, he acted as soon as he could to send his daughters indefinitely abroad, so they would learn to become "ladies both in mind and manners".

A former business associate of Campbell and Brown, J.T. Mackelvie, made so much money from goldmining and land speculation, all within the space of six years, that he was able to quit New Zealand in 1871 at the age of 41. He never returned, pursuing a life of civilised leisure in the Old World. But he continued to invest in New Zealand companies.

Neither did he lose interest in Auckland affairs, above all in its cultural life. From London he sent paintings, artworks and collections of books to the city. After Mackelvie's death in 1885, his estate provided for a new art gallery to house his own art collection, which he bequeathed to the city, and for a fund to finance purchases of artworks.

James Farmer, another associate of Brown and Campbell, who was enriched by goldmining, returned to Scotland. Part of his wealth was used to buy a country estate near St Andrews to set himself up as a Fifeshire laird. But the bulk of his fortune was used not to satisfy his social aspirations but to maintain investments in New Zealand.

The brightest of Auckland's business luminaries in the 19th century, the dashing lawyer-cum financier Thomas Russell, also went to live in Britain.

Russell, who was the driving force behind the formation of a number of great financial institutions, such as the Bank of New Zealand and the New Zealand Insurance Company, chose in 1874 to perform on the larger financial stage of the London Stock Exchange.

Yet he never forfeited his interests in New Zealand in landed estates, financial institutions and goldmining. He was the founder of the fabled Waihi Goldmining Company.

His contributions to New Zealand from afar were a mixed blessing. His farsightedness brought benefits to the young country, his recklessness hardship.

The last of the eminent Auckland expatriates, whose fortunes had been won before World War I, is Sir Arthur Myers, the grandfather of Douglas Myers. With Sir John Logan Campbell, he was the founder in 1897 of the great brewing combine of Campbell & Ehrenfried, of which he quickly became the managing director.

The mayor of Auckland by the age of 38, he became a notable municipal innovator. His drive led to the construction of both the present Town Hall and the single-span concrete Grafton Bridge.

Entering national politics in 1911, he became a highly regarded minster in the wartime Coalition Government. Yet in 1920, at what seemed the peak of his career, he decided to leave the country.

His motives were complex. He found the tone of postwar politics distasteful. But he also saw in London educational and social advantages for his family. His firm was now in the safe hands of Alfred Bankart (another Auckland notable). Why should he stay? That's why the last five years of his life were spent in London.

The process of exporting our able, especially to Britain but increasingly to Australia, has continued since. Most of our gifted expatriates are no longer mainly business people but younger men and women following callings in the learned and artistic professions.

The past has shown that this represents not a drain of talent but a beneficial two-way traffic that, in the long run, benefits us no less than the host country to which these people have gone.

* Russell Stone is Auckland University's emeritus professor of history.

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