RUTHERFORD'S MISSING LETTERS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 1, Issue 16, 13 October 1939, Page 41

RUTHERFORD'S MISSING LETTERS

Appeal by Official Biographer Letters containing information necessary for a complete record of the life of the late Lord Rutherford of Nelson, the great New Zealandborn scientist, may still be in existence somewhere in New Zealand. This fact is reported by A. §. Eve in the official biography of Rutherford published on September 22 by the Cambridge University Press. The story, in Dr. Eve’s words, is as follows: " From the time of his going to Cambridge until the year of the death of his mother, Rutherford used to write with great regularity every two weeks, and give her an account of the events of his life. After her death about a dozen of these letters were published in a New Zealand newspaper without Rutherford’s consent. He did not approve of this publicity and wrote a request that all the letters written by him to his mother should be sent to him at Cambridge. They never came. On his death the trustees both wrote and cabled that the letters should be sent promptly to England so that they could be incorporated in this authorised life. The»letters were traced to a lawyer’s office, but during a move they seem to have entirely disappeared. It need not be pointed out how grievous a loss this is to the world of letters and science. Indeed this brief account is here given in the hope that somewhere or somehow the missing letters may be found and published."