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The Marlborough Express PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1909. BIRTHDAY HONORS.

i The usual birthday honors have been announced, and we are happy to be able to offer our congratulations to the two New Zealanders who have received marks of his Majesty's satisfaction with their public services and Erivate worth. Both gentlemen have een long and honorably, connected j with an institution'of'which the Do-j minion has good reason to feel proud. We allude to the Union Steam Shipping Company, an institution which from the most modest beginning has gradually progressed until its name is known all over the world wherever,the British commercial marine is mentioned. With the rise and progress 6f the Union Company two gentlemen, Sir George McLean, K.C.M.G., and Sir James Mills, K.C.M,G., have been inseparably associated, and honoring these two gentlemen his Majesty has done honor to the Dominion, the comMercial and industrial enterprise and wealth of which has been the prime factor in the ever-in-creasing growth and importance of its freat shipping company. Sir James [ills was already a Knight Bachelor, so that in his case he has merely received a promotion in the order to which he belonged. Sir George McLean is a newcomer amongst Colonial Knights. Five years over the Scripturally allotted "three score years and ten," he is still as active as ever in intellect. A Scot by birth, he was in earlier life long and honorably connected with banking, entering the service of the now defunct Oriental Bank in Melbourne so far back as 1862. Coining to New Zealand he joined the Bank of New Zealand, .and became manager at,Dunedin, and subsequently entered into business^ on his own account. His career as a legislator dates a long way back, as he was a' Member of the Otago Provincial Council, acting in 1869 as Provincial Treasurer. Entering the New Zealand Parliament in 1871 as Member for Waikouaiti, he represented that constituency for ten years, and held office as a Cabinet .Minister during the Vogel and Atkinson Administrations. In 1881 he was promoted to the Legislative Council, of which he is still a member,, and in every detail of whose work he still takes the keenest possible interest. He was for a time Chairman of'the Colonial Bank of New Zealand, and was for many years chairman of the Union Steam Ship Company j, resigning that position only two years ago. Sir George is personally one of the most genial and popular of New Zealanders, a racehorse owner whose name stands always for straight and clean sport, and as a citizen,- Dunedin knows him as an unpretentious, good natured, and most charitable' gentleman, always anxious and ready to advance the interests of the city and the social and material progress of its people. The news of his knighthood will be, we feel sure, v?ell received throughout the Dominion. Sir George Houston Reid, it is '; well-known, might have had the honor now given him many years ago. His name is a household word throughout Australia, and especially in. New South Wales, in the political life of, which he has played so important a part. He entered the wider field of Federal politics in 1901;"' and for eleven months, from August, 1904, to July, 1905, was Prime Minister or the Commonwealth. Despite his inclination to indulge in that political pastime known as "railisitting," an inclination which has gained for him the nickname of "Yes-No Reid," Sir George Reid has done splendid service for his country, and liis personal, popularity, even'amongst those who were bitterly opposed to him in political views, has never been questioned. Sir John Taverner's is another Australian knighthood. He was for. some time a member, of the Turner and Irvine Ministries in Victoria, and in 1904 was appointed Agent-General in London for that State. The secretary of tha Commonwealth Post Office, Mr, now Sir, Robt. Townley Scott, is an old and much respected public servant. He received the Imperial Service Order in 1903. Turning now to the Home recipients of his Majesty's last allotted favors we come first to the three new Privy Councillors, Colonel Seely, Admiral Sir Robt. Seymour, and Sir Edward Speyer. Colonel Seely, who occupies the position of/ Under-Secretary for the Colonies in the Asquith Ministry, is a barrister, an ex-Imperial j Yeomanry officer the! D.S.O. for his services in South Africa), and finally a keen politician, who first entered the House of Commons as Member for the Isle of Wight in 1900. He was then a Unionist, but afterwards joined the Liberals, resigning his seat and( being re-elected by his constituents.. He now sits for a Liverpool division, and is recognised as one of the best debaters and most able administrators in the party to which he now owns allegiance. Admiral Seymour has had a long career in _ the Navy ; having served in the Crimean, China and Egyptian wars. It was he who commanded the Allied expedition against the Chinese in 1900. The keen personal interest he has taken in various charitable schemes and the liberal donations he has given to such laudable projects hare been no doubt the chief reason for Sir Edward Speyer, a German; Jewish banker, beixig honored by ad- j mission to the Privy Council. . The ! appointment will not, we think, be j very popular, for tho presence of

these great cosmopolitan financiers in the highest advisory council of the British nation can; nardly^bo as in every way desirable, lhe knighting of the courageous young head or the recent expedition to the Antarctic^ Lieutenant, now Sir Ernest, Shackleton, is a well deserved reward for an exhibition of that pluck and determination Which Britishers have always so ardently admired m men ot their own or any other race lhe explorer's many personal fiends m this Dominion will 30m .with us m offering the heartiest wngratukjjgj to the newly-made knight. Another gentleman, in this case a foreigner the Swedish explorer of Tibet, Sven Hedin, has been appointed an honorary commander of an Indian order, a iust recognition of his great service m exploring a country of such importance to those who govern our Indian Empire. General . BadenPowell's good work in organising the useful Boy Scouts movement is also recognised, and a very worthy -journalist and man of letters, the Rev. Dr. Robertson Nicolls, editor-or the British Weekly and The Bookman, has well deserved the honor now publicly accorded him. '

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Bibliographic details

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 267, 12 November 1909, Page 4

Word Count
1,062

The Marlborough Express PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1909. BIRTHDAY HONORS. Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 267, 12 November 1909, Page 4

The Marlborough Express PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1909. BIRTHDAY HONORS. Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 267, 12 November 1909, Page 4