NEW ZEALAND’S GREATEST SON

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 882, 28 January 1930, Page 8

NEW ZEALAND’S GREATEST SON

TO Nelson and its sunny farmlands must go the honour of producing the greatest New Zealander of this or past generations: to Nelson College and Canterbury College must go the credit o* planting seeds which have developed so fruitfully. Sir Ernest Rutherford, described by admiring contemporaries in a conservative land as “Britain’s master scientist,” and, with an all-embracing acknowledgment, as “the greatest experimenter in the world,” lias won for himself an imperishable name. Though this country has produced many personalities of importance in their day, and within the more or less limited hounds of their colonial orbit, a critical survey discloses, inevitably, that the first century of New Zealand’s modern history has produced few names which will live and be honoured in world records of .even a hundred years hence. But, without question, that small list, selected by the acid test of time, will he headed by the name of Rutherford. Since 1914, when Sir Ernest was knighted as a just reward for his already distinguished services to science—services which were given generously and consistently despite the responsibilities of such positions as professorships at McGill University, Montreal, Manchester University and Cambridge—he has gone from success to success, his honours thick upon him. Yet he has remained the plain, studious New Zealander that left these shores many years ago for Trinity College, Cambridge. Except for his tour as a lecturer, his career has been marked by a conscious or unconscious avoidance of the public eye: rarely has he taken prominent part in scientific discussions of passing public interest, but, from time to time, the sheer merit and importance of his work has placed his name before the Empire and the world. The distinguished New Zealander reached the zenith of his career when he was admitted to that greatest and most exclusive of orders, the Order of Merit, an essentially democratic recognition of human achievement, set above all standards, of birth or influence, wealth or social position. The success that earned that reward has continued unabated and now, at the age of 59 years, Sir Ernest contimres to receive tlie recognised tributes of his fellows. The latest, the Faraday Medal, is the eloquent tribute of practical men to one whom they consider to be, apart from his other accomplishments, a peerless electrical experimenter.

Sir Ernest Rutherford’s career may be cited as an outstanding example of success built on inborn, native ability, and the will to succeed. The fact that he is a New Zealander who received the foundations of his training in a New Zealand school and, later, a New Zealand University College, makes his life story an inspiration to all New Zealanders.