NEW YEAR LIST.

Auckland Star, Volume LII, Issue 1, 1 January 1921, Page 5

NEW YEAR LIST.

FOUR HONOURS TO NEW ZEALAND.

KNIGHTHOODS CONFERRED. JUSTICE COOPER AND MR. O. HUNTER. His Excellency the Governor-General has been advised that His Majesty the King has been graciously pleased on the occasion of the New Year to confer the following honours for distinguished services rendered in New Zealand:— Knight Bachelor. His Honor Theophilus Cooper, Judge of the Supreme Court of New Zealand. Mr. George Hunter, MP. for Waipawa, CJkt.G. Dr. Ernest Augustus Boxer, president of the New Zealand Returned Soldiers' Association. Mr. Gavin Macaulay Hamilton, formerly private secretary to the Earl of Liverpool as Governor-General of New, Zealand. SIR THEOPHILUS COOPER. '

Sir Theophilus Cooper has a record of nearly 20 years' service as a Judge of the Supreme Court. He was born in Surrey, England, on November 15, 1850, and arrived in New Zealand in the .hip Gertrude on February 7, 1863, and two years later came to Auckland with his brother, Mr. William Cooper, from Port Albert, and "was afterwards a compositor on the ' - Daily Southern Cross" paper. From the year 1869 to 1873 he served as a clerk in the office of the late Mr. John B. Russell, barrister and solicitor, Auckland. He was articled in 1873, and five years later was admitted as a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court. Shortly afterwards he became junior partner in the then firm: of Russell and Devore. From thence on he rose rapidly in his profession, in a, few years occupying a leading position among local members of the legal profession, and established with Mr. Devore the legal firm of Devore and Cooper, which partnership continued until the junior was called to the Supreme Court Bench on February 14, 1901. For 17 years Mr. Cooper was a member of the Auckland Education Board and of the Governors of the Auckland Grammar School, and for about 13 years he was a deputy-inspector of the Auckland Mental Hospital. These offices ho vacated when appointed to the Bench. For four years he was President of the Arbitration Court, and for some years he shared with the Chief Justice, Sir Robert Stout, the work of the Supreme Court in the Wellington judicial district. Subsequently be was transferred to the Auckland judicial district, and he has regularly presided over sessions of the Supreme Court here and also at Hamilton since the Waikato judicial district was created. He will retire from the Bench at the end of next month. SIR GEORGE HUNTER. Sir George Hunter, M.P.. was bore in Wellington, but is probably better known in the Hawke's Bay, where ha has resided for many years on hi* station at Parangahau. In 1896 he was elected to Parliament as member for Waipawa. but at the following election in 1899 he was defeated, but returned again to the House on December 10. 1911, as representative for the same electorate, and he has represented that district in Parliament ever since. He has been closely associated with racing, I both as an owner of horses and a3 a member of the Racing Conference. During the war he did a great amount of patriotic work, and since the cessation of hostilities he instituted a scheme for settling a number of returned soldiers on a portion of hi 9 station at Parangahau. which he set aside for this purpose.

DR. C. E. BOXER. C.M.G. Dr. C. E. Boxer, CAI.G.. of Hawke's Bay, served on Gallipoli with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, and has been president of the New Zealand Returned Soldiers' Association almost continuously from its inception. mr. gavin Hamilton. Mr. Gavin Hamilton was private secretary to the Earl of Liverpool when he was Governor and Governor-General of New Zealand. On the occasion of the visit of the Prince of Wales last year Mr. Hamilton was created a member of the Royal Victorian Order.