NEW YEAR HONOURS.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19816, 2 January 1930, Page 10

NEW YEAR HONOURS.

N.Z. RECIPIENTS. KNIGHTHOODS FOR CHIEF JUSTICE AND HON. T. K. SIDEY. (rEBSS ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM.), AUCKLAND, December 31. His Excellency the Governor-General announces that His Majesty the King has been graciously pleased on the occasion of the New Year to confer upon the gentlemen named the honours mentioned hereunder: — Knight Grand Cross of the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George (G.C.M.G.). The Rt. Hon. Sir Joseph George Ward, Bart, K.C.M.G., M.l'., Prime Minister. Knight Commander of the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George (K.C.M.G.). The Hon. Michael Myers, K.C., Chief Justice. Knight Bachelor. The Hon. Thomas Kay Sidey, M.L.C., Attorney-General. Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George (C.M.G.). Mr Edward William Kane, Clerk of Parliaments, formerly Clerk of the. House of Representatives. Mr Robert Parker, organist, of Wellington, for services to music. Commander of the Civil Division of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (C.8.E.). Mr Arthur Albert Luckham, Resident Commissioner of Niue Island. RECIPIENTS IN BRITAIN. WOMEN INCLUDED IN THE LIST. (Received January Ist, 7.40 p.m.) LONDON, December 31. Amongst New Year honours are the following knighthoods: — Professor Granville Bantock (musician). Lieutenant-Colonel H. W. G. Cole, director of the exhibitions section of the Department of Overseas Trade. Numerous women have been honoured in addition to Lady Bailey and Miss Royden. They include: —C.8.E.: Miss Rose Rosenberg, Mr Ramsay MacDonald's personal secretary. M.8.E.: Miss Elsie Hughes, secretary to Lord Dawson, for services rendered in the King's illness. Srinivasi Sastri has been created a Companion of Honour for eminent services in Indian affairs. AUSTRALIAN RECIPIENTS. (Received January Ist, 7 p.m.) SYDNEY, January 1. New Y'ear Honours include the following: — K.C.M.G. —Professor John Beverley Peden, King's Counsel, president of the New South Wales Legislative Council and Dean of the Faculty, also Mr Challis, professor of law at Sydney University. C.M.G. —Mr Walter David Loveridge, president of the Sydney Harbour Trust. 0.8.E. —Miss Sibella Mac Arthur Onslow, who belongs to one of the oldest Australian pioneering families. She is a prominent Welfare and Red Cross worker. K.B.—Mr Justice James Blair, Chief Justice of Queensland. (Received January Ist, 7 p.m.) MELBOURNE, January 1. K.B.E. —Doctor Stanley Argyle, who was Chief Secretary in the last Victorian Ministry. HOBART, January 1. Mr R. Eccles Snowden, Agent-General for the Tasmanian Government in England has been created Knight Bachelor. Sir Joseph Ward was born at Emerald Hill, Melbourne, in 1856. He was educated privately in Melbourne, and later attended the State School at Bluff. At the age of 13 he entered the P. and T. Department, but left to enter a merchant's office. He entered the Railway Department when he was twenty years of age. A year later he started in business as an export merchant. He commenced his public life as one of the first councillors of the Campbelltown Borough in 1878. In 1881 he was elected Mayor, and held that position for five years. He was again Mayor in the years 1897 and 1898. A member of the Bluff Harbour Board, he was on that body from 1889 to 1897, when he resigned. He was re-elected, and continued a mefiiber for more than ten years. He was chairman from 1883 to 1888. and from 1893 to 1894. He contested the Awarua seat as a Liberal in 1887, defeating" J. W. Bain and G. Froggart. Thereafter he took a leading part in the political history of New Zealand. In the Seddon Government be held high office from 1893 to 1906. In the latter year he took over the Premiership when Mr Seddon died. His Government was defeated in February, 1912. He was Minister for Finance in the National Cabinet from 1915 to 1919. He lost his seat to Mr J. R. Hamilton in the election of 1919, having represented Awarua continuously since 1887. He unsuccessfully contested the Tauranga by-election in 1923, but since 1925 has represented Invereargill, and became Prime Minister on the defeat of the Reform Party at the last election. Sir Thomas Kay Sidey, the AttorneyGeneral, Minister for Justice, Minister in charge of the Police and Prisons Department, and Leader of the Legislative Council, was born in Dunedin. He received his early education at Napier and then attended Barrett's Collegiate School in Dunedin and also the Otago Boys' High School. On leaving the Boys' High School he attended the Otago University for four years and graduated in arts and law. He commenced his legal training in the office of Mr Saul Solomon and then commenced business on his own account. Subsequently his chief clerk, Mr E. E. Collier, was taken into the firm, which is now known as Sidey and Collier. The first time he stood for Parliament was in 1896, when he unsuccessfully stood against Mr Arthur Morrison and three other candidates for Caversham. Mr Seddon was in power at this time. Sir Thomas Sidev did not contest the next election in 1899, when Mr A. Morrison was again returned, but when Mr Morrison died in 1901 he made his second attempt to enter Parliament. He was successful in beating Messrs W. H. Warren, H. D. Bedford, William Earnshaw, P. Hally, and J. J. Meikle for the Caversham electorate. Sir Thomas Sidey has thereafter had an enviable political record, as he withstood all attempts to wrest the seat from him ever since. He did not contest the seat in the 1928 election. He always stood as a Liberal. In the House he fathered a number of legislative proposals. He was a pioneer in bringing before the House indeterminate sentence proposals in criminal cases. His name has been for many years prominently associated

with the Daylight Saving Bill, in which some, years ago he achieved something like a record for a private member, his Bill being passed by the House after an all-night sitting. There are other records associated with his name, cue ot them being the defeat by him in several successive divisions of the Government of which he was himself a supporter on the question of the withdrawal of the sinking funds of local bodies from the hands of their own sinking fund commissioners, whether the loans were Government guaranteed loans or not. He moved to restrict the proposal to State guaranteed loans. Sir Thomas Sidey has held a large number of public offices of importance, among them being the following:—Councillor and Mayor of the Cavcrsham Borough Council, member of the Cavcrsham School Committee and secretary and president of the Dunedin and Suburban School Committees' Association, member (former Vice-Chancellor and now Chancellor) of the University of Otago, chairman of the High School Board of Governors, treasurer and president of the Dunedin Horticultural Society, president of the Cavcrsham Bowling Club, president of the St. Clair Golf Club, president of the Southern Football Club, patron and president of the Caversham Lawn Tennis Club, president of the Caversham Harriers, patron or president of the St. Kilda and Caversham Tennis Clubs, the St. Kilda Cricket Club, the Hillside Miniature Rifle Club, and many other bodies. Sir Thomas Sidey still retains several of these offices.

Sir Michael Myers was born at Motueka on September 7th, 1873, the son of Mr Judah Myers. Ho was educated at tho Thorndon Primary School in Wellington, and after excelling himself there spent six years at Wellington College. After many brilliant scholastic successes he commenced his law career in 1892, and graduated LL.B. in 1807. A year later he was admitted by Sir James Prendergast, the then Chief Justice, as a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court. For many years he practised in Wellington as a member of the fii'm of Messrs Bell, Gully, Bell, and Myers, which was later known as Messrs Bell, Gully, Myers, and O'Leary. In 1922 he was made a King's counsel. Since then he has been practising on his own account as a barrister only. He was tfce first and only member of the profession to take silk and practise as a barrister only. After his admission to the Bar in 1897 he gained a substantial practice, and up to 1910 he took a large proportion of the Crown cases, criminal and civil. During the 20 years, in fact, up to the time he was appointed Chief Justice this year, there have been fow important civil cases in which he has not appeared. In addition, too, ho has enjoyed a considerable parliamentary practice, and has taken a prominent part in Royal Commissions. For many years he was a member of the Wellington District Law Society, being twice vice-president and twice president. He was also a member of the Council of the New Zealand Law Society. He represented Wellington on that body for a year, and following the elevation of Sir Charles Skerrett to the Bench as Chief Justice, he represented Gisborne. He was the foundation president of the New Zealand Club. He was appointed Chief Justice in April 30th, 1929, following the death of Sir Charles Skerrett. At that time he was regarded unreservedly as the foremost lawyer in New Zealand, in 1899 he married Miss Saloni, daughter of the Hon. Maurice Salom, M.L.C., of Adelaide, Australia. Mr Robert Parker, doyen of Wellington musicians, has held the respect and affection of the Wellington public for half a century, and though he considers that he has retired as a public figure, he is still (at 83) an active force in music in this city, as a master pedagogue, and as organist and choirmaster at St. Paul's pro-Cathedral. Not only has he been esteemed for his sound musicianship, his musical erudition, and fine executive capacity, but he has personal qualities embodying many very special virtues which have ensured hint an honoured place for all time in the hearts and minds of his contemporaries, and have surrounded him in the autumn of his days with hosts of friends. With elderly folk the name of Robert Parker stands for all that is sane and elevating in music, for not only has he been an organist of rare ability, but for forty years he was Wellington's leading choral conductor. It was under his baton that most of the great oratorios were originally sung in Wellington, and in that and other respects he has every right to be honoured as the grand old man of music in Wellington. Mr Parker was born in London in 1847 and received a very sound musical training in the metropolis at the hands of the late W. S. Hoyte and Scotsou Clark. He studied the violin, organ, and pianoforte, as well as choral work, under these teachers, but eventually centred in the pianoforte -and organ, whilst his knowledge of choral work enabled him to take a lead almost immediately upon his arrival in New Zealand. He gained a scholarship which ensured him the opportunity for further study at Queens College, Cambridge, where he became organist. Subsequently he became professional assistant to Dr. W. 11. Monk, of King's College, London. It was owing to a threatened decline in health that Mr Parker elected to come to New Zealand in 1869. He first settled in Christchurch, where ho was appointed organist and choirmaster at St. Michael's Church, and though he was a resident of Christchurch for only some eight years, he made his presence felt as a conductor, and under his baton several first performances of famous works were given in Christchurch. In 1878 he was appointed organist and choirmaster at St. Paul's pro-Cathedral, Wellington, under the late Bishop Hadfield, and that post he retains to this day, which must stand as a record in New Zealand. Mr Parker was not long in asserting himself here. Ho became the acknowledged conductor whenever a choral festival was arranged, and out of one of those events arose the Wellington Musical Union, a society devoted to the presentation of choral works. This body did good work for many years, and was subsequently amalgamated with the Wellington Choral Society, and afterwards became the Royal Wellington Choral Union. Contemporaneously Mr Parker carried on the duties of conductor of the Wellington Orchestral Society —a fine body of amateur musicians who existed for the love of music only—and the Wellington Liedertafel Society, which gave delightful part-song concerts for many happy years. Even with these multifarious duties Mr Parker found time to give instruction to many students (at which vocation he is still employed), to give Church organ recitals, to deliver lectures on the composers, and in a dozen other ways assisted to keep the torch of musical endeavour aflame.

Mr Edward William Kane, C.M.G. was born in Wellington, the youngest son of the late Henry Russell and Catherine Howard Kane, who were prominent early settlers in New Zealand, having arrived in Wellington in 1850. Of a family of six, Mr Kane is now the sole survivor. He was educated first at the Catholic School, Thorndon, and later at a higher school directed by Mr J. H. Brann. In those days there were no Universities or colleges in Wellington. After leaving school, Mr Kane was articled to the late Mr M. Ollivier, barrister and solicitor, and was his managing clerk for ten years. After a breakdown in health he joined the Parliamentary staff as a committee clerk in 1886, and has

remained attached to the Legislative Department since. Mr Kane has served as committee clerk, reader, and clerk of Bills, second clerk assistant, clerk assistant, and for the last nine years has held the position of Clerk of the House of Representatives. Upon the death of Mr A. F. Lowe, C.M.G.,, Mr Kane was last month appointed Clerk of Parliament, Clerk of the Legislative Council, and examiner of Standing Orders on Private Bills. Mr Kane, who has had nearly 44 years' continuous service, has now served longer than any official connected with Parliament, although there are two officers alive pension who were in the servico before Mr Kane joined the Legislative Department. Last year Mr Kane, who is a Justice of the Peace, was made a life member of the Wellington Racing Club, of which he is one of the oldest members, having been elected in the early eighties. In 1921 Mr Kane married Mrs Baume, the widow of F. E. Baume, K.C., of Auckland. Mr Luckham was an English officer of the Dragoon Guards, who resigned from his regiment and came to New Zealand shortly before the outbreak of the war. Almost as soon as the conflict started he was appointed assistant adjutant at Trentham camp under Colonel IT. R. Potter. Ho became adjutant and continued to serve in that capacity at Trentham till the close of the war. In 1920 Mr Luckham was appointed Resident Commissioner at Aitutaki in the Cook Islands, and for the past seven years he has held a similar position on Niue Island.