SPEAKER OF LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16217, 21 May 1918, Page 6

SPEAKER OF LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

HON. C. J. JOHNSTON KNIGHTED. (PRESS ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM.) WELLINGTON, May 20. The Governor-General lias been advised that the King has conferred tlio honour of Knight Bachelor on the Hon. Charles J. Johnston, Speaker of the New Zealand Legislative Council. In view of the Speaker's illness, the King specially commands that the announcement be made now, instead of on his Majesty's Birthday. Charles J. Johnston is the son of the lato Hon. John Johnston, and was born in Wellington in 1845. His oducation commenced in Wellington, and was contmed at the Catholic College of t. Mary in Derbyshire, England, and concluded at Kensington College." lieturning to Now Zealand in 1864, Mr Johnston entered the mercantile house of Johnston and Co., fonnded bv Jih father. Ho married a daughter of the lat'e Dr Peatherston. first Superintendent of Wellington, and the first New Zealand Agent-General in London. Sir Charles Johnston has had a lengthy career as a public man. He was first returned to Pnrliamenfc in 1882 as memfor To Aro, Wellington, and at the following general election was reelected. He resigned his seat before the expiry of his second term, and took r» trip to Europe. 7n 1390, the Jubilee year of Wellington and of Now Zealand. he was Mayor of the capital, and in 1891 ho was appointed to the Legislative Council, eventually being appointed a life member. Amongst other things Sir Charles has been a very prominent volunteer, a member of the New Zealand Board of the A.M.P. Society. chairman of the Wellington Woollen Company, director of many other companies, and Consul for Belgium and for Holland. He was elected Speakor of the Legislative Council in July, 1915, on the retirement from that office of the late Hon. Sir Charles C. Bowen.