HEREDITARY TITLES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LI, Issue 29, 5 January 1931, Page 8

HEREDITARY TITLES.

CONFERRED ON NEYV ZEALANDERS.

PEER AND TYVO BARONETS

The elevation of Sir Ernest Rutherford the eminent scientist, to the peerage is of exceptional interest, as he is the first New Zealander to be created a peer. Only .two other New Zealanders have received hereditary. titles, the late Sir Charles Clifford, whose baronetcy was created in 1887, and the late Sir Joseph Ward, who became a baronet in 1911. Sir Charles Clifford was born in 1813 and was the eldest son of George Lambeth Clifford fifth son of the second son of the third Baron Clifford of Chudleigh. He came to New Zealand in 1843 and started the colony’s first sheep station in the Wairarapa district. He also had a run at Flaxbourne, Marlborough, in partnership with Sir (then Mr) Frederick Weld, who was Premier in 1864-65. For a brief period Sir Charles returned to England and with Edward Gibbon Wakefield he had much to do with obtaining self-government for New Zealand. In 1864 he was elected to represent the City of Wellington in New Zealand’s first Parliament and was chosen its first Speaker. He was knighted four years later and in 1887 became a baronet. He died in England in February, 1893. The second baronet, the late Sir George Clifford, a prominent sportsman and for many years president of the New Zealand Racing Conference, died on April 16, 1930. The title passed to his eldest son, Sir Charles Clifford. The many public achievements of Sir Joseph Ward was widely known In 1901 he was created a K.C.M.G. in

recognition of the part he played in the introduction of penny* postage. Ten years later, on the coronation of King George V., in June, 1911, he was made a baronet, and on New Year’s Day. 1930, ho became a G.C.M.G. On his death on July 8 last his eldest son, Mr Cyril Ward, succeeded to the title.

Lord Rutherford will not be the first New Zealander entitled to sit in the House of Lords, as the fourth Baron Strathspey, who was born in Oamaru in 1879, succeeded his brother, the eleventh Earl of Seafield, in 1915. Lord Strathspey, who is the second son of the tenth Earl of Seafield, was educated at Waitaki High School and St. John’s College. In 1905 he married Miss Alice Louisa Hardy-Johnstone, of Christchurch, and they have one son and one daughter. Lord Strathspev served in the New Zealand Civil Service from 1906 to 1913, and at one time held a commission in the Naval Artillery Volunteers in the Dominion. He now resides in Castle Grant, Morayshire, Scotland.