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1971 New
Zealand 1c
One of two New Zealand stamps to mark the
centennial of the birth of Ernest Rutherford. Note the use of a
portrait of him as an old man, not what he looked
like in 1911 when he determined the nuclear structure of the
atom. The diagram is an artist's depiction of the alpha particle
scattering experiments which led to his nuclear
model of the atom. Both stamps were issued on the 1st of Dec
1971.
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The Story Behind the 1971 New
Zealand Stamps
In case you ever wondered why the New Zealand stamps
were issued in Dec of 1971, to mark an event of the previous August
30th, here is the story. Garry Tee reminisced to me of his memory of
discussions he had in 1983, at the first History of New
Zealand Science Conference, with Sir Charles Fleming,
the President of the RSNZ. Garry has since written a note on this which
was published in The New Zealand Mathematical
Society Newsletter 86 41 2002. It is reproduced below,
with revisions following further discussions with me.
In 1970 the Royal Society of New Zealand (RSNZ), in fulfillment of
its statutory duty of advising the government on matters scientific,
recommended to the Postmaster General that a postage
stamp be issued in 1971, to celebrate the centenary of
the birth of Ernest Rutherford. "Ernest WHO??" was the response of The
Honorable Lancelot Adams-Schneider.
A committee of the RSNZ explained to him who Rutherford was, and why
the centenary of Rutherford's birth deserved to be celebrated. In
response, The Honorable Lancelot Adams-Schneider
soundly berated the RSNZ for wasting his time by making such a
frivolous suggestion. In any case, they were too late: the preparation
of a postage stamp required two years, not one! And he
was then very busy with finalizing the arrangements for
the commemorative stamps to be issued in 1971. Those stamps celebrated
the centenary of Auckland as a city, the centenary of
local government in Invercargill, the centenary of the
founding of Palmerston North, the 50th anniversary of the Federation of
Countrywomen's Institutes of New Zealand - and the 50th
anniversary of Rotary New Zealand.
Late in 1971, the RSNZ committee politely forwarded to the
Postmaster General the wrapping paper of a parcel of books, which had
been posted to the RSNZ by the USSR Academy of
Sciences. The stamps on that wrapping included a Soviet stamp,
celebrating the centenary of the birth of Rutherford.
Upon reflection, The Honorable Lancelot Adams-Schneider decided to
waive the two-year rule for preparing a postage stamp; and on 1971
December 1 the NZ Post Office issued stamps for 1 cent
and for 7 cents, both reproducing the official portrait of
Rutherford as President of the Royal Society of London. Rutherford
stamps from Sweden (1968), Canada (1971), USSR (1971)
and New Zealand (1971 - only just!) are reproduced by
John Campbell, in Colour Plate C16 of his biography of Rutherford,
Scientist Supreme, AAS Publications, Christchurch,
1999.
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