MR W. E. S. KNIGHT’S RECORD

Evening Star, Issue 22031, 17 May 1935, Page 13

MR W. E. S. KNIGHT’S RECORD

CHAIRMAN FOR EIGHTEEN YEARS ORIGINAL MEMBER OF HOSPITAL BOARD A record'for New Zealand is held by Mr W. E, S. Knight -in having occupied the chairmanship of the Otago Hospital Board for the last eighteen years. When the* results of the recent elections were provisionally announced on Wednesday night of last week Mr Knight was 1 among the candidates returned, but the official count completed this week revealed that he was displaced by Mr Steel. Mr Knignt, who was born in England in 1858, arrived in Dunedin with his parents in 1862, and proceeded immediately to Waitshuna Gully, where lie attended a day school. ■ Later he removed to Miller’s Flat, and in 1864 to Waipori, where most of his early life was spent and where he with the other members of the family in the hardships and discomforts of the early gold-mining days. Mr Knight served for a number of years on the school committee, and, on one occasion, when the householders failed to elect a committee, he was appointed commissioner. For six years he was a member of the Tuapoka County Council, and was chairman for one term. Mr Knight was also one of the members of the Deep ■Stream Licensing Committee, which was constituted in 1883. Representing, Tuapeka on the old Charitable Aid Board, Mr Knight was elected by the local bodies as one of the trustees of the old Benevolent Institution. He was elected to the Hospital Board when it was first constituted in 1910, and has been chairman for the past 18 years, being elected to that position on each occasion without opposition. In that respect he lias achieved a record so far as the boards in the chief centres are concerned. Mr Knight is also chairman of the Dempsey trustees, an organisation which exists for the relief of needy persons who have been patients of the Dunedin Hospital. ■