CANDELABRUM TO BE RETURNED

Southland Times, Issue 23553, 6 July 1938, Page 5

CANDELABRUM TO BE RETURNED

LORD BLEDISLOE’S REPLY TO FORMER OWNER '

LONDON, July 4. Viscount Bledisloe, in a letter to The Times from Nyassaland, says: “All I know about the candelabrum is that I purchased it for the church at what I believed to be its full value from a silversmith four months ago. The silversmith stated that he purchased it at a sale. As so many old families find it necessary nowadays to dispose of their family plate, I naturally assumed that a descendant or a legatee of the original presentee had done so in this case. “In the circumstances I am requesting the vicar of the church to send the candelabrum to Lord Kilbracken, while promising to supply another piece of plate as a substitute for it.”

Lord Bledisloe presented a candelabrum to St. Lawrence Jewry, the New Zealanders’ London church. The candelabrum was originally the Canterbury Provincial Government’s gift to Mr John Robert Godley, founder of the province and first AgentGeneral. It is 26in high, and the lower panels bear the province’s and Godley’s arms. The upper panels are now bearing the arms of Lord Bledisloe and the City of London. Lord Kilbracken, who is counsel to the Chairman of Committees in the House of Lords, in a letter to The Times on the announcement of Lord Bledisloe's gift, said: "It might suggest that a member of my family, flagrantly disregarding sentimental considerations, sold the candelabrum, which Lord Bledisloe subsequently purchased. John Robert Godley, my grandfather, died in 1861, and my grandmother carefully preserved the cadelabrum until she died in 1907. It then came into the possession of my father, who was never even approximately in the position of having to sell his effects; certainly he would not have sold the candelabrum. Nevertheless, when he died in 1932 the candelabrum was mysteriously missing. “While I do not suggest that Lord Bledisloe did not come into possession of it legitimately, I hope when he returns from Rhodesia that he will help to clean up the mystery.”