ROYAL THANKS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 256, 29 October 1928, Page 8

ROYAL THANKS.

SENT TO HERNE BAY HOME.

MB. READE'S PATRIOTIC GIFT.

CABLE FROM DUKE OF YORK.

It is not every day that Royal thanks eome to an Auckland resident for a gift to the Empire—a gift worth probably a million pounds. Last night Mr. G. S. Reade, of Heme Bay, received the following cablegram from the Duke of York:

"With the approval of His Majesty the King I have this day laid the foundation stone of the new Royal Navy Hospital School at Holbrook. Your gift of this lino open site is indeed a fitting symbol of your admiration for the work of the Royal Navy. It is my earnest hope that every success will attend your endeavour to inci-ease for the years to come those benefits which were first inaugurated by Royal charter at Greenwich over two centuries ago."

Although we cannot claim Mr. Reade a bom Aucklander, he has lived amongst us since 1014, when he was first attracted to New Zealand by the fishing, and is now quietly passing the evening of a busy life. Formerly a planter and merchant in India, Mr. Reade made a fortune, mainly out of tea, jute and coal, and he has very patriotically presented it to the Empire to found and endow a school to train lads on the lines of the famous naval school at Greenwich. Then years ago he handed over an estate of 850 acres at Holbrook, Suffolk, and as recently announced, he has now endowed it with a sum of money which has enabled the Admiralty to go ahead with the building of the school.

Mr. Reade is now nearly 83 years of age, but he still retains those clearheaded ideas about business which enabled him to accumulate the fortune he has devoted to such a worthy end. For instance, he has stipulated that at the end of eleven years, no matter what the fund amounts to, the suin of £100,000 is to be put aside and reinvested permanently for four periods of 14 years each. His suggestion is that the money should be invested in such colonies as Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, and other African possessions where there is a big demand for money for development purposes and where there is less likelihood of socialistic disturbances than in some other parts of the Empire. He points out that at the end of the 56 years the money quite possibly may have grown to the huge sum of £1,600,000. His idea is that the original endowment should never be lost sight of, but it should be allowed to accumulate until the principal sum produces enough to entirely support the school.

When some suggestion was made that the country might wish to show ?ts appreciation of Mr. Reade's munificent gift he made it clear that he would not entertain for a moment the acceptance of anything of the kind. He made the gift purely from a patriotic view of Eng» land's future, and that of the Empire, «nd wishes no recognition, such aa usually follows such acts.