THE KING’S BIRTHDAY

Otago Witness, Issue 3195, 9 June 1915, Page 61

THE KING’S BIRTHDAY

LIST OF HONOURS. NEW ZEALANDERS AND AUSTRALIANS INCLUDED. LONDON, June 2. Tlie following Birthday honours are announced ; Lord KITCHENER, Knight of the Garter. Sir GILBERT PARKER, M.P. (novelist), baronetcy. The Hon. FRANCIS HENRY DILLON BELL (New Zealand), Knight Commander St. Michael and St. George. Kiiights Bachelor. Mr THOMAS HUGHES (New South Wales), formerly Lord Mayor of Sydney. Mr PETER M'BRIDE, Agent-general, Victoria. Grand Crosses of the Bath. General BRUCE HAMILTON. Lord READING. Companions of St. Michael and i St. George. Mr REGINALD- C. HARE, late Secretary West Australian Government Agency, London. Mr ' JAMES LESLIE WILLIAMS, 8.A., Under-secretary Department of At-torney-general and Justice. Imperial Service Order. Mr JAMES MACKENZIE, Undersecretary of Lands, New Zealand. Mr L. W. STANTON, Secretary to Minister of Education, South Australia. Mr WHITE, Recorder of Titles, Tasmania. Another Knighthood. Amongst those upon whom knighthoods have been conferred is Mr Freyer, Superintendent of Fisheries, who participated in the introduction of trout and salmon into New Zealand. Additional Honours. Sir FRANCIS BERTIE, British Ambassador at Paris, has been created a baron. (Received June 4, at 1.35 a.m.) Sir H‘. NORMAN, Liberal M.P. for Blackburn, has been created a baronet. RABINDRANATH TAGORE (winner of the Nobel prize for literature in 1913) and Dr RASHBEHARY GHOSE (member of the Vice-regal Council of India) have been created knights.

BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

SIR F. H. D. BELL

Sir Francis Henry Dillon Bell) 8.A., K.C., eldest son of the Hon. Sir Francis Dillon Bell, K.C.M.G., U. 8., at one time Agent-general for the dominion. Born m .Nelson in 1851, Mr 801 l was educated at the Otago Boys’ High School, completing his scholastic career at St. John’s College, Cambridge, and gaining his TJniversity degree in 1872. The following year ho was called to the Bar of the Middle Temple, and, returning to the dominion, was admitted a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nciv Zealand. In 1874 he joined Mr C. B. Izard, under the style of Izard and Bell, and he was not long in making a name for himself as an able lawyer. After a most successful career of nearly 20 years the firm of Izard and Bell was dissolved, Mr Izard retiring from practice, and Mr Bell becoming the senior partner in the firm of Bell, Gully, and Izard. In 1878 Mr 801 l was married to Miss Caroline Robinson, daughter of the late Hon. W. Robinson, of Cheviot.’ For the years 1891-92 and 1892-93 he occupied the Wellington mayoral chair* and during his term he secured the passage through Parliament of a special Act empowering the city to raise a loan for the carrying out of a scheme for the much-needed drainage of Wellington. In the formation of companies and syndicates for the carrying out of works of value to Wellington and the dominion generally Air Bell has taken a fairly active part. He took a prominent interest in cricket, football, and amateur athletics, boating, and racing. In Masonry Mr Bell attained the high position of Worshipful Grand Master, the highest office of the New Zealand Constitution, to which post he was elected in 1885. At the general election in 1890 Mr Bell first sought parliamentary honours. Though late in starting he ran a good race, losing the position by only some 159 votes. In January, 1892, he contested a bye-clcction, and was defeated by Air William M‘Lean, but his opponent was over 4000 votes behind Air 801 lat the general election of 1893. When the present Government came into power in July, 1912, Air W. D. Bell was appointed Leader of the Legislative Council, taking the portfolio of Alinistcr of Internal Allaire. . ■,

MR JAMES MACKENZIE.

Mr James Mackenzie was born in Edinburgh in 1849, and came to the dominion with his parents when only eight years old in the ship Robert Henderson, landing in Dunedin early in 1858. He received his education at the Otago district schools and at the Otago Boys’ High School. In 1867,

having determined to follow surveying as a profession, ho commenced his experience under Mr John Cameron, and assisted in the survey of .Palmerston South. Mr Mackenzie had his share of the “ rough and tumble” of early camp life in Otago, including two unusually rough survey expeditions to the West Coast, which was then practically a terra incognita. Having, in 1871, gone through the usual course of training as a surveyor, Mr Mackenzie received his diploma, and proceeded to Wellington, where, in April, 1872, he obtained an appointment as an assistant surveyor on the Provincial Government staff. Two years later ho was promoted to a district surveyorship. and in 1879 was appointed chief draughtsman and office surveyor of the Wellington District Survey Department. As a resident in Wellington Mr Mackenzie took considerable interest in various local matters, and also in education. Mr Mackenzie ha.s been twice married, first in 1876 to Miss M'Kenzie, eldest daughter of Mr T. W. M'Kenzie, who died in 1884, and later, in 1887, to Miss Annie Wilson, daughter of Mr P. J. Wilson, architect, of Timaru. His family numbers eight—five daughters and three sons. Mr Mackenzie is a brother of the Hon. Thomas Mackenzie, High Commissioner for New Zealand.