A SCIENTIST'S FATHER

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 122, 25 May 1928, Page 11

A SCIENTIST'S FATHER

- • Mr. James Rutherford (father of Sir Ernest Rutherford, tho world-famous scientist), whoso death was announced yesterday from New Plymouth, had lived! a life of varied interest, and had many tales to tell «f pioneer aays in this country. With'his > parents and brothers and sisters, the late Mr. Rutherford experienced far more than the average hardships of life in the colony in the pioneering era. He was born at Perth, Scotland, and was three years ' of ago when his parents came to Nelson I in the ship Phoebo Dunbar, 300 tons. The voyage occupied six months and two .weeks, tho .vessel having been driven back from the Bay of Biscay to liand's End by a storm encountered soon'aftta the start. Mr. Rutherford's father had come to tho colony with tho intention of building a savitaill at Motueka, and there the family lived for a considerable time in a mud and raupo hut in the heart of a dense forest. At Waimea West, not for from Brightwater, the family later ran a small water-driven sawmill. So frugal were living conditions in that time" in the South Island that tho. .family. J. oiled trees and grubbed" the "soil"by day and in the evening would run'wheat through their fingers in order "to takeout the smut. Reaping was done with a sickle and threshing • with a hand flail, while the grain had to be: carried on the back four miles to tho .Dearest ■' fiourinill." Among incidents of tho past which tho old gentleman was "won't;- to; rqcall was tho celebration-of :;ihe fali;"of •J3ebastb-' pol—six mdiiths,(':attd; foM'iays,' after. the oyent—s6./lbi^t.;'^id:"'l i<l;i ( take' iiew's from tho outsido' "wpjJclj/tp^ioach :New Zealand in . those: times. "Schools • were few and far between, and it was" at a night school in later years that hegained most of his education. The family later moved to Brightwater, where in' 1§66; Mr. Rutherford married Miss MartbafTlioinpsori,'.whose ■parents had ,eniigrate.fl.-.froin...England some yoars before. At Brightwater they: established., the first, flaxmill_ in the. South Island. In 1877 Mr; Rutherford was fanning in a-.smalL way at Foxhill, and he also started a flaxmill at Raupaka, and thon took a contract to cut 40,000 railway sleepers for the Government. Flaxmilling at Pungarehu, in Taranaki, was his next venture, dogged by floods and market vicissitudes, but his skilled work; in .the. early ..dayf-i of fibre treatment%ißSyi6cV(W!&^v^laj^:!Jiii the industry^ySin'Ce;:i^|^iei^|(Ji||lW> retirement,at Wev/' P^ryßo'^hv^fi'd'-upil catching a chill ■a. fortnight ago enjoyed,good healtK . . , , ■ .- ■ Mr. Rutherford is . survived by' Ins wife, four sons, and five daughters—Mr. George Rutherford, of Frankton Junction; Sir Ernest Rutherford, of Cambridge University; Mr. J. G. Rutherford, who is on the-old' farm .of tlie family' at Pungare&;t&r i '-'vif,thur; Ruth-; orford, of To •Aroftai:;f.ipfi|tf&tin Chapman, of ' Wairoa,' H: a>ykes.': Bay; -Mrs. Strieff, of Te Aroha; Mrs.'.H: G. Sergei, of Hamilton; and Mrs.\L. Bell, of K&itaia. ■ . .