OBITUARY

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 53, Issue 51, 9 December 1932, Page 5

OBITUARY

SIR ELLIOT JOHNSON. (United Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.10 p.m.) MELBOURNE, This Day. Sir Elliot Johnson, formerly Speaker of the House of Representatives, is dead, aged 71.

REV. PROFESSOR HEWITSON. (Special to the "Guardian.") DUNEDIN, December 8. The ueath occurred suddenly to-day of the Rev. Professor Hewitson, one of the leaders of the Presbyterian Church in New Zealand, an experienced traveller, and a literary man of wide culture and distinction. He was born.in Victoria in 1860 and brought up in the Methodist Church, but after completing his theological studies at Ormond College, Melbourne, he decided that his life work should be devoted to the Presbyterian Church. After a ministry of seven and a half years at Brunswick, Victoria, ne received a call to Knox .Church, Dunedin, to the charge of which he was inducted in 1595. Here he served the congregation with much acceptance until the end of 1908, when he became, the first master and professor of practical training in the newly-established Knox College, the official training institution of the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand. For 20 years he filled his dual office at the college with distinction to himself and marked benefit to students for the ministry. Professor Hewitson took a keen interest in university' education. He held a seat on the Otago University Council from "1903 till 1922, and he was also a member of the New Zealand University Senate from 1912 to 1922. He travelled widely in America, Great Britain, China, India, and elsewhere, and his observations abroad furnished him with material, for numerous interesting essays and articles in thfe Press. The highest honour which the Church can bestow on its servant in New Zealand was conferred on Professor Hewitson in 1928, when, he was elected Moderator of the General Assembly. He is survived by Ins wife, lbere was no family.