New Governor-General

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 834, 30 November 1929, Page 1

New Governor-General

LORD BLEDISLOE APPOINTED Noted British Agriculturalist Press Association WELLINGTON, Friday. HIS EXCELLENCY the Governor-General has received official advice that his Majesty the King has been graciously pleased to appoint the Right Honourable Lord Bledisloe, K.8.E., to be Governor-General of New Zealand, in succession to General Sir Charles Fergusson, Baronet, G.C.M.G., K.C.8., D. 5.0., M.V.0., whose term of office will expire early next year.

FARMER AND ADMINISTRATOR New Zealand is to have its second “farmer” Governor-General. Lord Bledisloe, whose appointment is announced from Wellington, is one of Great Britain’s most noted agriculturalists, Lord Liverpool was the Dominion’s first “farmer” GovernorGeneral. Lord Bledisloe is a practical farmer and has spent a good deal of time abroad studying conditions there and obtaining information which has been of great use to him in his activities in England. Last year he visited the Argentine to investigate diseases of cattle and sheep. The new Governor-General has six farms in Gloucestershire, on which he personally supervises operations, and another of 2,500 acres in the county of Wiltshire. He has a bacon factory on one property and this is supplied from the' 2,000 pigs which he keeps on one farm. Included among these animals are 750 pigs, accommodated in the largest Danish pig house in England. On his Gloucestershire property Lord Bledisloe also has a cheese factory, which is supplied with milk from his own estate. Wheat, potatoes and milk are the principal commodities produced from Lydney Park, his largest estate. Th milk comes from three herds of Shorthorn cattle and one of pedigree Red Polls. Lord Bledisloe is a firm believer in Red Polls and early this year he was made president, of the British Red Poll Society. ACTIVITY DURING WAR The new Governor-General never mixes his personal activities with party politics and on several occasions he has not hesitated to speak his mind. ! His political career lasted from 1910, ; when he was elected Conservative | member for the South Wiltshire I (Wilton) Division, until 1917, when he ! was elevated to the peerage. During the war, in 1916, he was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the speci-ally-created Ministry of Food. In 1917 he was appointed chairman of the Royal Committee on the Sugar Supply and Director of Sugar Distribution. The Wealth of agricultural activity in which Lord Bledisloe has taken i part can be gained from the following ; position and appointments he has j held: Parliamentary secretary, Minis- ! try of Agriculture, 1924-1928; president of the Central Chamber of Agriculture, 1915; president of the British Dairy Farmers’ Association, 1919-1921; president of the Bath and West of England Agricultural Society, 19201921; president of the Central Landowners’ Association, 1921-1922; president of the Agricultural Section of the British Association, 1922: chairman of the Farmers’ Club, 1923-1924; chair-

man of the Imperial Grasslands Association, a position he now holds; and former chairman of the committee of the Lawes Agricultural Trust (Rothamsted) and of the Agricultural Research Committee, Bristol University. Lord Bledisloe, who is the first baron, was born in 1867 and was educated at the famous Sherborne School. Later he went to Eton, the Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester and then to Oxford. His first wife was the Hon. Bertha Susan Lopes, daughter of the first Lord Ludlow, and in April last year he married the Hon. Mrs. Alina Cooper-Smith, a daughter of the first Baron Glantawa, of Swansa. Lady Bledisloe, before her first marriage, was a famous beauty. She has always interested herself in philanthropic work, and the promotion of Welsh home industries. Lord Bledisloe’s heir is the Hon. Benjamin Ludlow. Bathurst, who is 30 years of age. He also has another son and a daughter.