| Description | Letters and documents relating to the Curl Trust, from the bequest of Samuel Matthias Curl, of New Zealand.
Correspondents include Archibald Vivian Hill; Henry George Lyons; Frank Edward Smith; Sir William Bragg; F W Bristow and Eric Davies of Bristows, Cooke & Carpmael; J D Griffith Davies; Messrs Young Courtney Bennett and Virtue, New Zealand; H J Braunholtz, British Museum; W T Wilsher, Treasurer of the Royal Anthropological Institute; G M Davys; Professor Edgar Douglas Adrian, Physiological Laboratory; Herbert John Fleure; D R White, Assistant Public Trustee; A E Kennard, New Zealand; E Marsden, New Zealand Scientific Office.
Includes discussion of: the renunciation of the Royal College of Physicians to the bequest to them from the will, the terms of the bequest, and whether they necessitate a competition, or whether the Royal Society might simply annually appoint a lecturer to write a prize essay on the topic of electrophysiology of animals and plants; the refusal by the President of the Royal College of Surgeons and the President of the Anthropological Institute to be executors of Curl's will, and the referral by the Public Trustee of New Zealand of the matter to court, in particular whether the £300 annual essay prize is valid, and if so whether it should be offered to the Royal Society, with notes on the subject on which the essay was intended to be written; the drafting of the Memorandum of instructions on behalf of the Royal Society to solicitors in New Zealand; instruction of legal counsel on the Society's behalf in New Zealand and the matter of legal costs; a meeting of interested parties to discuss how to proceed in the matter of Curl's bequest, including the question of whether it is technically 'charitable'; the preparation of an affadavit by the Royal Society concerning itself and its views on the supposed intentions of Curl, and the need for alteration of the terms of the bequest, should the Royal Society accept it; a meetingwith Braunholtz to discuss the Curl bequest as it relates to the Royal Anthropological Institute; meeting with W T Wilsher and the agreement of the Council of the Royal Anthropological Institute with the recommendations of the Society regarding the control and allocation of funds from the Curl bequest; the separate affadavits of the Royal Anthropological Institute and the Society in spite of their former agreement to act in conjunction, and arrangements for Sir William Bragg to swear the Society's affadavit; the interim judgement of Justice Ostler, and arrangements for the terms of the order and modifications to Curl's scheme; the form in which the Society would consent to adminster the bequest, with emphasis on their unwillingness to adjudicate an essay competition, and negotiations concerning the conditions to be placed on the money, such as the necessity of having ten essays submitted for the prize; income tax payable in New Zealand, and its impact on the income due to the Royal Anthropological Society; the Royal Society's decision to refuse the bequest due to the conditions imposed making the scheme unworkable; the reopening of the question of the trusts in 1951, and the Society's intention to accept it.
Also includes a copy of the originating summons to the Supreme Court of New Zealand, Wellington District, 31 August 1938; minutes; Memorandum of instructions on behalf of the Royal Society to solicitors in New Zealand and annotated drafts with suggestions made by the Physical and Biological Secretaries; Statement for the use of solicitors at Wellington, New Zealand, instructed on behalf of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland; notes and suggestions for the Curl Trust memorandum; affadavit of William Henry Bragg, 26 July 1940; document providing reasons for the interim judgment of Justice Ostler of the Supreme Court of New Zealand in the case of Curl, 1 December 1941. |