LORD NUFFIELD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 48, 26 February 1937, Page 10

LORD NUFFIELD.

AUSTRALIAN GIFTS. GREAT PHILANTHROPIST. TELLS STORY OF HIS UFE. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, February 18. Lord Nuffield has been in Australia considerably less than a month, but within that brief space of time he has managed to give away about £90,000. Of course, like the punctilious business man that he is, he had carefully arranged his programme before he reached our shores. This is his fourth visit to Australia, and with his personal experience to guide him, and the help of the highly competent agent representing him here, he has succeeded in drafting a schedule which, while it amazes everybody by its generosity must satisfy the most critical and exacting on the score of impartiality and equity.

When Lord Nuffield got to Perth he distributed £9500 among various public institutions; at Adelaide he gave away £10,000; he left £25,000 behind him in Melbourne, and £5000 in Tasmania. Long before he got to Sydney it was known that he intended to assist our principal hospitals and child welfare organisations, but no one seems to have anticipated munificence on quite such a magnificent scale.

It should be explained that Lord Nuffield had chosen population as the fairest basis for distribution of the large sums that he had decided to donate in Australia, and this should explain the large share of his gifts that this city and State have received. On reaching Sydney he announced that he would donate £40,000 to various institutions in New South Wales —mentioning that in his selection of the recipients and the graduation of their needs he had received help and advice from Mr. Justice Halse Rogers, who voyaged from England with him on the Orion. Prominence to Hospitals. The principal hospitals, in Sydney and Newcastle benefit by Lord Nuflield's generosity to the extent of from £1000 to £5000 apiece, and similar large sums are given to the Far West Children's Health Scheme, to the Bush Nursing Association, to schools for the deal, dumb and blind, to the Rhodes Fairbridge Homes and to the Kindergarten Unions of New South Wales. In this list, as in all other similar programmes drawn up by Lord Nuffield, it will be noted special prominence is given to hospitals and to all institutions devoted to the care and training of children, and this is one of the most characteristic features of all Lord jNuffield's benefactions throughout the I Empire.

It should be remembered that even these splendid gift* represent but a very small percentage of the large sums that

Lord Nuffield has distributed at Home and abroad for various deserving objects. Last December it was estimated that his total benefactions had already reached the enormous total of £8,000,000. Of course, included in this stupendous sum is over £'2,000,000 given to his employees in the form of shares in his various companies. and £2,000.000 donated to Oxford University. But during the last ten years he has given away over £5.000,000. and the whole of his career since he became really affluent has been punctuated with periodic outbursts of this lavish generosity.

But always lx>rd Nuffield"* prejudices have leaned in favour of hospitals, school* and institutions intended to

improve the health and ameliorate the lives of the young and this fact explains the general character of the donations that he has scattered so widely since his arrival in Australia. Always Public Spirited. It i* noteworthy that Lord Nuffield'® munific«nt'e is always essentially public spirited. As he puts it himself, he "has no time for" private individuals who attempt to explok his reputation as a philanthropist in the hope of finding him "an easy mark." When he reached Fremantle in the Orion he found hundreds of appeals awaiting him from the poor and needy, from speculators and investors and from cranks of every conceivable description, all clamouring for sympathy and help. Since then his mail has swollen to thousands of letters weekly and his secretaries and agents find their hands full in trj'ing to ward off applicants who want to make their appeals personally. For all such people Lord Nuffield has laid down certain definite rules, from which he will not budge. He will give no personal interviews and he will make no gifts or advance no money to private individuals. But the public announcement of fcis intentions in these matters has not had the effect of disheartening the writers of such communications completely, and they have made themselves so much of a nuisance that Lord Nuffield in disgust has threatened to go away from Australia and never come back again if they will not desist. It is unfortunate, though perhaps inevitable, that he should have been subjected to such annoyances here. Cheered at Cricket Match. Naturally the splendid generosity that Lord Nuffield has displayed here has made him a highly popular figure, and when he appeared on the Sydney Cricket Ground as a. spectator at the New South Wales-English match last week the Hill "rose at him" and gave him three hearty cheers. There is certainly much in the man that makes a strong appeal for sympathy and respect, even apart from his philanthropy. Carping critics may regret the rather ostentatious "shout" on the Orion when the whole ship's company drank at his expense to the extent of about £400; or they may quote Biblical aphoriuns about right and left hands when reading notices of his latest gift in the newspapers. But a rfian in his position c;»nnot avoid publicity even if he wishes to do so, and in any case it is quite indispensable for his purpose. For, as Lord Nuffield says, "giving money away is hard work." and though he is' an exceptionally robust man he has at last been forced to "go into smoke" and rest for a time so as to free himself from such importunities and recuperate after his strenuous efforts during the past few weeks.

When Lord Xuffield was in Australia before he was treated a little caustically for making suggestions to our people and our Government in regard to our fiscal policy. He has profited by that experience; but his reticence on public questions has not saved him from the "Labour Daily," which treats his belief in the value of immigration and hie donations to the Fairbridge Schools a* proof of his complicity in a scheme which they attribute to Mr. Lyons and his colleagues for "flooding Australia with Britain's unemployed."

Purists on such questions may regret that Lord Nuffield'® interest in trade impelled him to mention publicly that the British motor industry is extremely prosperous and that its products are equal to any in the world. But it is ungracious to dwell on such minor features of conduct and character in view of the magnificent generosity that has marked Lord XuflSeld's visit and the admirable personal traits that all his public utterances reveal.

In one of the few interviews that he has granted. Lord Nuffield on his arrival in Sydney gave a sketch of his career since the day when 16 years old and penniless, he started work in a cycle . shop; and the meaning of his

whole life is compressed into the aphorism with which he closed the interview, "Hard work is the only real road to success." The "Sydney Morning Herald" greeted this maxim as advice which should prove of inestimable value to our young men, who are often too ready to imagine that success and wealth come by luck or chance, and not through self-sacrifice and toil.

Yesterday, speaking at a dinner tendered to him at Canberra by the Commonwealth Government, Lord Nuffield spoke with the modesty and sincerity which might perhaps l>e expected from a self-made man. but which few ruen of any type or class could under euch circumstances so well display. He dinclaimed any special credit for what he has done for England and Australia. "Surely every man should do what I have done." he said, "if he is in a position to do it. I cannot see how any man in my position could go into his 'box' feeling that he has left m> many unfortunates unprovided for."

But it is remarkable how few rich people feel that they are "public trustees" for their wealth and act accordingly, and Australia is grateful that Lord Nuffield has shown himself so striking an exception to a far too general rule.