HON L. M. ISITT TO-DAY CELEBRATES BIRTHDAY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18959, 4 January 1930, Page 11

HON L. M. ISITT TO-DAY CELEBRATES BIRTHDAY.

The Hon b. M. Xsitt, M.L.C., celebrates his seventy-fifth birthday today. He was born at Bedford, England, in 1855 and educated at Bedford and at Clevedon College, Northampton. lie came to New Zealand to establish a branch of a wholesale soft goods warehouse, but entered the Methodist Church ministry in 1876, being ordained in ISSI. He espoused the Prohibition cause and has ever since been an active and untiring worker in this direction. He retired from the ministry and toured New Zealand in connection with the Local Option measure, which was subsequently granted. ‘He was elected to the House of Representatives for Christchurch North on the death of Mr T. E. Taylor, holding the seat until 1925, when he was appointed to the Legislative Council. Mr Isitt established the firm of L. M. Isitt, Ltd., booksellers. He succeeded Sir William Fox as head of the New Zealand Prohibition Alliance. He has been a member of the Board of Governors of Canterbury College, and chairman of the Canterbury M.P/s committee, commissioner and member of the Boy Scouts’ Executive, and was vice president of the Methodist Centenary Conference in 1922. He established “The Prohibitionist.” now “The Vanguard.’” In 1881 Mr Isitt married Agnes, daughter of John Scott Caverhill, a. pioneer Canterbury run-holder. There were two sons. One of them was killed in the war. and the other, SquadronLeader L. M. Isitt. formerly O.C. Wigram Aerodrome, is now O.C. of the Hobsonville Base of the New Zealand Air Force. Mr Isitt’s daughter is Mrs Cuthbert Thornton.