MR. ARTHUR SIMS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21854, 26 October 1945, Page 4

MR. ARTHUR SIMS

VISIT TO DOMINION

SCHOLARSHIP GIFT FUND (P.A.) AUCKLAND, Oct. 26. A well-known New Zealander, Mr. Arthur Sims, formerly of Christchurch, who recently made £IO,OOO available to establish the Empire scholarships at Cambridge University, arrived at Auckland by flying-boat from Sydney. Mr. Sims, who with his wife and daughter now live in Sussex, England, intends to remain in New Zealand for about a month.

He will leave Auckland for Christchurch to-day, leaving for England on September 23. Mr. Sims travelled bv the Lancastrian air service to Sydney, where he arrived three days later. He remained in Australia for a month.

Mr. Sims’s Empire scholarships at Cambridge will be available to one graduate each from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa for two years. The first awards will not be made until about 1950 or shortly before.

The reason for deferring the availabilitv of the scholarships until then, said Mr. Sims, was to ensure that anyone who had taken part in the war was not prevented from competing. He wanted the scholarships to be awarded under normal competitive conditions, under which the best graduate from each Dominion could benefit. Mr. Sims said he was engaged on a business trip. He had no further endowments or gifts in mind at present. Some years ago Mr. Sims presented New Zealand with its first supply oi radium and provided the funds for the first New Zealand surgical unit, which served with the Eighth Army last March. He offered Sir Alexander Fleming, discoverer of penicillin, an annuity in recognition of his work for humanity.

A leading Christchurch business man until he retired and a graduate of Canterbury College, Mr. Sims was formerly one of New Zealand s best known cricketers. He is an honourary life member of the New Zealand Cricket Council. During the war period Mr. Sims, his wife and daughter were engaged in war work. He was a member of the New Zealand War Services’ Association. Mrs. Sims belonged to the East Sussex Women’s Voluntary Service, while his daughter is still an officer in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force.