IGNACE JAN PADEREWSKI 1860–1941 This year marks the centenary of the birth of the great Polish pianist and patriot, Ignace Jan Paderewski, possibly the greatest pianist the world has known, certainly the most celebrated. For nearly fifty years he toured the world in princely style—he was the pianist, as Caruso was the tenor, and as Picasso is now the painter. But this is not all. A fierce Polish patriot, he became his country's Premier and President, and was transported in state to the Versailles Peace Conference in a British battleship. Paderewski visited New Zealand twice, in 1904, when he was at the zenith of his career, and again in 1927, when he was an elderly man. He has left a lively account of his 1904 visit in his Memoirs, including what was evidently a memorable visit to Rotorua. This is what he said: “I was very anxious to try the baths at Rotorua which had quite a reputation as a watering-place in New Zealand, but as a neighbouring village was more interesting and comfortable, we decided to stop there. The entire population was Maori. The only white man was a gentleman by the name of Nelson, a Britisher of course, who came some forty years before to the place as a surveyor and was so impressed, so enraptured by the country and by the people especially, that he decided to live there to the end of his days, which occurred some ten years after our visit. “We lived in the Hotel Nelson and it must be said that nowhere in the world did we ever enjoy such quiet, pleasant and absolutely undisturbed peace as there. All the Maori people were most interesting to me. They were educated, some of them having been at high school and so on, but they lived just as their ancestors had lived for a thousand years. Some of them even knew who I was and they showed me so much respect and affection, and such courtesy as I've never really found elsewhere. “From time to time we made some little excursions. Everywhere in that wonderful land there are geysers and hot lakes. The bath I enjoyed