LORD BLEDISLOE'S PARTING GIFT

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21404, 21 February 1935, Page 9

LORD BLEDISLOE'S PARTING GIFT

O A PORTRAIT OF LORD RUTHERFORD "NEW ZEALAND'S GREATEST SON" Ii"BESS ASSOCIATION TELEGBAM.) WELLINGTON, February 20. The gift of a well-known picture of Lord Rutherford of Nelson has been offered to the Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes) by the Governor-General for hanging in the National Art Gallery. The announcement of the offer was made by Lord Bledisloe in his reply to the valedictory addresses of Professor R. Speight, as president of the Royal Society of New Zealand, and Dr. P. Marshall, as president of the Philosophical Society of Wellington, at a gathering of representatives of scientific societies in every part of the Dominion. He said: "I have offered to the Prime Minister, as chairman of the trustees of the new National Art Gallery of New Zealand—as a parting gift to the nation—a portrait of Lord Rutherford of Nelson, the Empire's most distinguished scientist, painted by the eminent British artist, Oswald Birley, himself of New Zealand. "It is an exact replica, by Birley himself, of a portrait which he made three years ago at the request of the Fellows of the Royal Society for presentation to the Royal Institution of London, where it now hangs. I trust the trustees of your National Art Gallery may deem this portrait of New Zealand's greatest son to be worthy of a place upon its walls."