LORD RUTHERFORD

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 128, 2 June 1938, Page 14

LORD RUTHERFORD

HIS BOYHOOD DAYS

PIONEER ENVIRONMENT

PROMISE OF YOUTH

(Written for ! 'The Post" by Russell Palmer.)

Genius is a thing apart—yet in the making of a man much depends on the stock from which he has sprung and the environment that surrounds him during the formative years. Ernest Rutherford was a genius, but the spark glowed-the brighter because it was fanned by a determination and capacity for hard work which came partly from heredity and partly from industrious and regular habits so thoroughly instilled in him as a boy. Natural ability could never have travelled so far along

ported by initiative and force of,will. These qualities above all were developed by the calls made upon him as one of a large family in the somewhat stern, pioneering days.of the Nelson countryside, He was fortunate too that he spent his earliest schQol days under' the guidance of a man who turned a latent genius into a path along which it travelled fast and far

To "begin with Rutherford was lucky , to have been born of such .parents, j They represented, the best in our , pioneering stock—no mean tribute , whwn the standard,.of. character/ and ] attainments of the early Nelson settlers ; is borne in mind. James Rutherford, ; Ernest's father, arrived in Nelson in < 1842 at the age of three, with his father, who had been engaged to come to New Zealand to establish, i a sawmill at Motueka. James was born in.Dundee. He grew to be a fine type of man, tall physically (as were most of the Rutherfords)', of quiet disposition, industrious, and honourable. _ He was interested in machinery, and ; showed much, mechanical .ability. It. was reported that he surprised the residents ! of the Spring Grove district, where he had set up, in business as a wheelwright, "by appearing in public on a wooden bicycletnade by his own hands after the fashion of those which had become common in England at that time. ' . FATHER AND MOTHER MEET. It was at Spring Grove that James first met?his future wife, Ernest's mother. Coincidence plays a part here, for Miss Martha Thompson had never intended to be a, Nelson resident at all. She was born at Hornchurch, Essex,'-on October 29,1842. Her father, who was employed, in a counting house, was a witty and brilliant man, reputed to be a mathematician'.much above the average, so it is easy to trace these mental qualities in; the third generation. Unfortunately he died at the age of thirty-four, soon after which his widow and daughter decided to come to New Zealand. They arrived in Auckland in the ship Bank of England two days after the Christmas of 1855, but left almost immediately in a brig bound for New Plymouth. Drift-. ihg' slowly down f the coast they did not reach their destination till early in the New Year. Martha was a girl of thirteen at the time. She and her mother lived at New Plymouth till the Maori ravages round Waitara struck' terror into the Taranaki settlers, many of the women and children going to Nelson and some of them for good. The Thompsons were among these refugees. Mrs. Thompson took a position' as teacher at Spring Grove School. Later she married Mr. Jeffries, and her daughter Martha took her place as teacher. At the age of about twentyfour Martha gave up school teaching and became the wife of James Rutherford, who carried on his business as wheelwright in conjunction with his brothers, as well as having flax-milling interests in Waimea West. Martha was an admirable wife, and time was to prove her a remarkable woman. The young couple were anything but rich, but they lived happily in v their humble cottage, down the road from the school where Martha had taught. They were blessed with children in quick succession, having a family of twelve in all. ' Ernest, fourth child, was born in this cottage on August 30, 1871, Mrs. Newberry, the local midwife, putting his "first shirt on. There, in the happy company of father and mother, sisters and brothers, he spent the first five and a half years of his life. The children shared gladly in the work of the house, of which there was.always plenty in pioneer homes. Th-i elder ones, looked after, the younger, for Ernest gained another brother when he 'was a little more than a year old and another the next year. Both parents knew the value of a good and early training and they" , did not hesitate to stint themselves to give their children the benefits of education. Highly educated herself, musical, cultured, yet hard-working and thrifty, Mrs. Rutherford bestowed more than usual care on the early training of her children. She had, good material to wojk on because all showed themselves well above the average in intelligence, George, the eldest, who died at Auckland recently, going to Nelson College with a scholarship.. Spelling bees and arithmetical exercises around the table at nights supplemented the instruction received at school. FAMILT MOVES TO FOXHILI* Realising that his family were growing up and anxious to.give some of them a start on the land, Rutherford, senior, moved from his Spring Grove cottage a few, miles further up country to a small farm of thirty-five acres at Foxhill. His interests still lay in

engineering rather than in farming and he found a new outlet 1 for them on the railway construction work then proceeding on the Nelson-Belgrove line. Ernest was Ave and a half years old when they moved to their new home in 1877. The house had been built by Mr. F. Holder, who ran the first NelsonFoxhill coach service. For many years after the Rutherfords - moved to Havelock it was occupied by the late Mr. A. J. Palmer, a well-known Foxhill storekeeper. It is now owned by Mr. Malcolm Holland. Returning to his old home when he visited New Zealand in 1925, Sir Ernest said that he found it much as it had been in his boyhood days. HIS FIRST SCIENCE BOOK. , With the rest of the family of school age Ernest attended the Foxhill school. He was a fair, stockily-built little fellow, inclining in Ipoks to his mother s people. A photograph taken somewhere about this period shows him with the unmistakable facial expression which the genial and good-heart-ed scientist wore in later years. The master at Foxhill was a Mr. Harry Ladley, an inspiring and understanding teacher whom more than one Nelson boy of this period had to thank fnr. n first-class education.. For six

years, till he was well on in Standard VI, Mr. Ladley was the sole director of Rutherford's school studies, and it was undoubtedly this happy combination of efficient and sympathetic teaching in school with adequate instruction and every encouragement from home that laid in the boy the foundation, for what the man became. Ladley it was who first opened the vista of science to this young and-inquiring mind. There is still' preserved the science text book he used'-at the age of ten. It. was a small work on Physics by Balfour Stewart, .Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Manchester, a post which"-Rutherford himself afterwards filled with singular | distinction.

During these years at Foxhill young Ernest had to take his part in the routine duties of the home. Hop-picking in the holidays - brought him some ready money. He was also giving glimpses of that inquiring turn of mind which later he was to put to such good use as a scientific investigator. He would make little things such as potato mashers; he would pull old clocks to pieces and disturb, his* mother lest he be unable to put them together again. His .progress at Foxhill school , was good; he went straight from Standard I to Standard HI. He was doubtless showing brilliance in mathematics, and his relatives remember with pride how he helped the local schoolmaster with a thorny problem when he came back to Foxhill a few years later on vacation from Nelson College. The local teacher and Mr. Thompson, Emestfs uncle, had spent hours together trying to work Out a. land acreage problem. Many figures had covered much paper; but the desired result was not forthcoming. They presented Ernest with the problem when he next came. He looked at it and said, "Oh, yes! It's this!" and with no hesitation and a few figures .gave ,them the answer. LIFE AT HAVELOCK. In 1883. after six years at Foxhill, Rutherford, sen., was-attracted once more to the flax-milling industry. He and his family packed up their belongings and moved by boat to Havelock, at the head of Pelorus Sound, where James and his brother John milled the native flax which grew so well in the neighbouringsswamps. Later he added to his activities a sawmill for cutting railway sleepers. Having already had nine months' instruqtion in the. sixth standard, Ernest passed to the Havelock school under the direction of an enthusiastic, teacher, Mr. Jacob H. Reynolds', who, in addition to the ordinary syllabus, gave an hour's' Latin to some of his pupils each morning before regular school began. It was at this period of his life that an accident robbed him of two of his brothers, and might well have taken this genius before its flowering time, but for another coincidence. His .younger brothers, Herbert, aged 12, and Charles, aged 10J, were drowned boating in Pelorus Sound. Ernest was to have gone with the party, but it just happened that he did not. The two Rutherford boys, who would have been accompanied by Ernest except that he had to go.to the sawmill, went out in a small boat with another brother and three Other boys, the eldest, 18 years of age, to fish in Hood's Bay. They were returning when, having put up a sail, a gust of wind resulted in the boat capsizing. The Rutherford boys were prevented by the sail from getting into the boat, and Herbert and Charles sank. The rest of the party were picked up an hour later by some women who came along in a boat, and were brought ashore. This was a bitter blow to the affectionate family of the Rutherfords. The - father and brothers, assisted by the settlers, scoured the shore for three months in an effort to find the bodies, but in vain. The Rutherfords were greatly respected and the loss of two of their sons was regarded as a public calamity. Within the family circle the disaster hit hard. So seriously was • Mrs. Rutherford affected that she took months to recover her naturally cheerful disposition. All the music, which she loved, seemed to go .from her, and it is, said that never again did she play her cherished Broadwood piano. What impression the calamity made on ; the youthful mind of Ernest can only be imagined. And he had had to go to the milll About a year later he was to win an Education Board scholarship of the '■ value of. £52 10s per annum for two years, with the astonishing total of 580 ; marks out of 600. With it he went to '. Nelson College, and onward to the career which marks him as New Zea- ' land's most distinguished son.