GIFT CANDELABRUM

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 July 1938, Page 8

GIFT CANDELABRUM

BOUGHT BY LORD BLEDISLOE FROM SILVERSMITH LETTER FROM NYASSALAND (Recd This Day 12.20 p.m.) LONDON, July 4. Viscount Bledisloe, in a letter to the “Times” from Nyasaland, says: “All I know about the candelabrum is that I purchased it for the church, at what I believed was its full value, from a silversmith four months ago. The silversmith stated that he purchased it at a sale and, as so many old families find it necessary nowadays to dispose of family plate, I naturally assumed that a descendant or a legatee of the original presentee had done so in this case. In the circumstances, I am requesting the Vicar of the church to send the candelabrum to Lord Kilbrocken, while promising to supply another. piece of plate as a substitute for it.” Lord Kilbrocken wrote to the London “Times” in connection with Lord Bledisloe’s presentation to the Church of St Lawrence Jewry, of a candelabrum on behalf of New Zealand. The letter stated that the presentation “might suggest that a member of my family, flagrantly disregarding sentimental considerations, sold the candelabrum which Lord Bledisloe subsequently purchased. “Godley, my grandfather, died in 1861. My grandmother carefully preserved the candelabrum until she died in 1907. In then came into the possession of my father, who was never even approximately in a position of having to sell his effects. He certainly would not have sold the candelabrum. “Nevertheless, when he died in 1932, the candelabrum was mysteriously missing. While lam not suggesting that Lord Bledisloe did not come into possession of it legitimately, I hope, when he returns from Rhodesia, that he will help clean up the mystery.” As reported in a message published on June 6, the candelabrum was originally a gift from the Canterbury Provincial Government to John Robert Godley, founder of the province and first Agent-General. The lower panels bear the arms of Godley and of the province. The upper panels now bear the arms of Lord Bledisloe, who was Gov-ernor-General of New Zealand from 1930 to 1935, and of the City of London.