LORD NUFFIELD

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 351, 4 February 1937, Page 7

LORD NUFFIELD

Has Given Away Over ! £6,000,00’0. 7 7 I I Australia has been astonished at ' the- liberality of Lord Nuflickl, who - is on a tour there before coming to ;■ New Zealand an,l h giving large j .sums to deserving causes in each j St; te,. Lord Nuffl Id gave av.‘ay £6,340,000 j last year out. of the profits of Morris ] Moton Limited. ' H? has taken a. con I siderable risk. It is unlik ly, never- j .theless it is possible, that Lord I Nuffield should die within a. year. ; In this event his (stale 'Mould I have to bear a 50 p r cent, death j duty, which is chargea-blo on ail [ estates worth more than £2,000,000 1 in Britain. Assuming, that Lord ; Nuffield has kept only £6,000,000 j more for his personal needs in th,? I 12 months, he might leave his execu- I tors in the, unhappy situation of hav- i ing to find £6,170,000 death dnt’ s. In other words, a vast estate would be’ insolvent. Howeyrr, Lord Nuffield is a good enough business man to have provid- I ed even against this eventuality, and, in any case, hif estate is well beyond the £12,000,000 mentioned in the suppositious cas°. The figures, however, do suggest the heavy toll which death duties take upon millionaire estates. If Lord Nuffield’s gifts had been to private people instead of to i public institutions or charitable concerns three years would have had to elapse if the death duties were to be evaded. When Lord Nuffield sold his quarter-share in the Morris Motors Company he was. the only shareholder. There are now aibout 16,000 Morris shareholders. The proceeds of the sale more than cover the £6,000.000 of benefactions. Lord Nuffield is fortunate ;n having two women associated with him neither of whom values wealth for

its own sake. H married Laly Nuffield in 1904„ when he was a cyc7e repairer in Oxford. His wife was a school t'acher. and the daughter of an Oxford furrier. The couple made their first home in a small house next door to the building which was eventually to .b.ecome the Morris works. Eight years ago I.ord Nuffield present'd his wi)j? with Huntercombe golf course, and turned a wing of the clubhouse into a new home. Here he retires when he wants freedom from publicity. In the days of struggle Lord Nuffield owed very much to bis mother, and when she died be gave £lO,OOO to St. Peter’s College, Oxford, in her memory. The bronze bust of Mrs Morris, is her only puiblic memorial. , Blessed as Lord Nuffield is among millionaires, he has his trials. He viiited the circus at Olympia recently, enjoyed the show, and when it ended went to retrieve his hat and coat from the cloakroom. There were many other men in the room, and no one seemed to take any interest in the quiet, silver-haired peer. “Won’t anyone take my sixpence?” moaned Lord Nuffield, after ho had waited for 14 minutes. Then came the master mind. “Look here.” he said. “I ll make it half a crown.” The attendants recognised someone out. of the ordinary. Lord Nuffield got his hat and coat, and the cloakroom attendants their unexpected reward.