NEW ZEALAND'S G.O.M.

Evening Star, Issue 19443, 29 December 1926, Page 6

NEW ZEALAND'S G.O.M.

SIR ROBERT AND LADY STOUT CELEBRATE GOLDEN WEDDING

Sir Robert Stout and Lady Stout, two of the oldest and best-known citizens of the dominion, celebrated their golden wedding on Monday, although, owing to holidays, the actual wedding reception was not to be held until today. Sir Robert and Lady Stout have been receiving congratulatory messages for days past (the ‘Dominion’ records). Sir Robert Stout, as is well known, is a native of the Shetland Isles, having been born at Lerwick on September 28, 1844. Lady Stout is a native of New Zealand, and was born on September 29, 1858, in Dunedin, the daughter of early settlers in the persons of Mr and Mrs John Logan, who came to Otago from Scotland in 1854. Tho house where she was born is still on Royal terrace, Ferntree Cottage, and on her marriage to Sir Robert Stout on December 27, 1876, they lived not far from there in London street, still on her father’s property, and there most of her children were born. Sir Robert Stout was then a teacher (ho arrived in New Zealand in 1863), and was at the Dunedin Grammar School. He studied law and was law lecturer at Otago University from 1873-75. After serving on the Otago Provincil Council and Land Claims Court, he entered Parliament in 1875 as member for Caversham. Sir Robert Stout subsequently, became a Minister of the Crown, At-torney-General, and Premier in the Stout-Vogel Administration for a short period. He was last elected to the House in 1894 for Wellington, and served until 1897. He was mado Chief Justice in 1899. Lady Stout came to Wellington in 1877, when Sir Robert Stout was a member of Parliament, and they lived first in Mulgrave street. They built their present home on Wellington terrace, the year that Sir Robert Stout was made Chief Justice, the foundation being laid in July, 1899. In 1900 they went to England for a trip, and Sir Robert attended tho Darwin centenary at Cambridge, and the Tercentenary of the Geneva University. Lady Stout* did not return until 1912, and* it was during those years that she was actively engaged in the campaign for women’s suffrage. One of the outstanding events of that time was the occasion when women for the first time spoke at a chamber of commerce dinner. Mrs Fawcett (now Dame Millicent Fawcett), the veteran suffrage leader ( being one of the speakers. The “ passive resistance ” strike of the census night was also during these years. Lady Stout did not relax her energies on her return to New Zealand, and has always been to the fore in all feminist movements, as well as philanthropic work for women and children. She was the founder of the Society for the Protection of Women and Children in Wellington, and worked in tho society until her health necessitated her retirement a very short time ago. She was one ol the first to take up the Pfunket work, and on her return to New Zealand in 1912 (coining out on the same boat as Ford and Lady Liverpool) she resumed her activities in this and many other good works. When last year the women of Wellington wished to show appreciation of Lady Stout’s many years of public service the response was spontaneous and heartfelt.

Sir Robert Stout’s public w;ork has been mainly in scholastic direction. He was a member of the Otago University Council from 1882-87, was one of tho founders of Victoria University College, and was Chancellor of the New Zealand University from 1903-22. During Ins visits to England he received lion, degrees from Oxford. Manchester, and Mdinburght On his last visit, in 1921. with Lady Stout, he attended the University Congress at Cambridge. _ Sir Robert and Lady Stout’s family will bo with them on Wednesday and most of their grandchildren. The family consists of Mr Jack Stout (S.M., Palmerston North), Dr Robert Stout, Dr Duncan Stout, and Mr Ola Stout, of Wellington, and Mrs Trevor Holmden, of Auckland. They have eight grandchildren. Among; those who were present at the wedding of sixty years ago not many are left, but they include Lady Williams, Sir John Sinclair, Mr John Macgregor of Dunedin), Mrs Copeland, Mrs Murray, Mrs Charles Chapman, and Mr and Mrs Alex. Logan (Lady Stout’s brother), who celebrated their" golden wedding last year.