OBITUARY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19919, 15 August 1927, Page 3

OBITUARY

MR. R. C. KIRK A MAN OF MANY PARTS The death occurred on Friday morning of Mr Richard Clement Kirk chairman of the New Zealand Golf Council,' at his home at Petone. A solicitor by profession, the late Mr Kirk was a man of many parts, taking an active interest in t’he social and sporting life of the community. Indeed, there were few sports in which he had not excelled during his active and varied life, although in hi* later years his activities were chiefly in the direction of golf. Golf in New Zealand, probably, owes more to Mr Kirk than to any other man. He was the originator of* the Kirk-Windeyer matches between New Zealand and the Australian States, and first donor of the cup. For long it had* been a cherished ambition of his to bring about these contests and* so improve the national standard of golf. It is doubtful if anything ever gave him greater pleasure than his recent visit to Australia with the New Zealand team, and to see them win the first contest for the Kirk-Windeyer Cup. Since returning from Australia a few weeks ago Mr Kirk had not been in t’he best of health, anxl his death was not altogether unexpected. Early Life The late Mr Kirk was chairman of the New Zealand. Golf Council for the past five years. The son of a Methodist minister appointed to circuits in various parts of tho colony, he lived in turn in the extreme north of the North Island, where he was born, Nelson, Wellington, Christchurch, New Plymouth, Auckland and again Wellington. While a pupil at the Auckland Grammar School he developed a taste for long-distance running, and when not 16 years of age competed on even terms with men in cross-country runs. On arrival in Wellington from Auckland he at once went to Wellington College, the headmaster of which was Mr Kennetn Wilson. After less than a year at college he was articled to Mr William Miller Lewis, Sir Walter Buller’s partner. Ho still continued, however, to take an interest in football, joining the Athletic Club in 1882, which with tho Wellington Club, the Grey town Club and tho Masterton Club, formed the Wellington Rugby. Union of that time. He played the first match of the season in the second ] I fifteen against Greytown and was soon promoted to the first fifteen, playing in inter-provincial fixtures and for Wellington against the New South Wales touring team. “I remember very'"well,” he said in the course of an interview not long ago before his “that Mr J. P. Firth, C.M.G-, | late headmaster of Wellington College, was one of the Wellington Club’s forwards, and the fact that my face used frequently to come into contact with his elbows' they being about on a level with it.”

Before 'he was 21 years of age, Mr Kirk, along with the Chief Justice, Sir Charles Skerrett, who had been in the same office with him for three years, passed his final law examination. In 1884, five months after attaining ‘lnsmajority, he commenced practice on his own account, his available capital being a bank Overdraft of £25 guaranteed by his father.

Marrying in 1886 the daughter of the Hon. J. W. Barnicoat, M.L.C., Richmond, Nelson, Mr Kirk settled permanently m Petone. For 16 years, from 1889, he was a member of the Petone Navals, then commanded by Commander Davy. Coached by Mr Davy, Kirk took up rifle shooting and shot for the first time at an open meeting with a Snider rifle on the Evans Bay range, situated just about where the present main road to Seatoun is. At that time he also took a keen interest in tennis, and further, was elected captain of the Petone Cricket Club. It. was about this period he was elected Mayor of Petone, a position he occupied for ten years cut of the next eleven. He was one of the members of the committee which went with Captain Somerville to examine the swamp at Trentham with a view to leasing it for use as a rifle range. On his retirement from the Petone Mayoralty Mr Kirk was appointed borough solicitor, and continued to assist the progress of the district. It is also remembered that he once, although unsuccessfully, offered himself for election as a member of Parliament.

.Mr Kirk was one of the founders of the Petone Rifle Club and shot with, the Ballingers and others who made history in New Zealand; marksmanship. In 1895 he won the Kynock Cup, and was fourth, 8 points behind tho winner for the championship belt, after putting two shots on the wrong target. He occupied fifth position at the meeting held the next year at Oamaru, and headed the list of the New Zealand team which won the match against teams from the Australian. States, and was next in the aggregate to a member of the Queensland team who topped the list. Although immediately offered a trip to Bisley, he had to refuse (as also on a former occasion), on account of business.

Mr. Kirk was also an ardent cyclist, going on one tour in 1895 from Nelson to Hokitika, and across the Otira Gorge to Christchurch. He did not take up golf until over 40 years of age, and thereafter tennis and golf became his two games, with an occasional cricket match, and even a football match. Twenty-one years ago, for the best part of two seasons, he watched golfers better than himself, there being then no professionals available, and towards the end of the second , year, Vardon’s famous book, “The Complete Golfer,” came out. “I spent several weeks in close communion with it,” said the late Mr. Kirk in the interview referred to, “trying to put into practice the knowledge gained from it. I won the last two handicap competitions of that season from the 16 mark, the first with eight strokes to spare, and the second one with six. Next year I won at ten, eight, and six respectively, qualified for the championship of my club, and won it, six and five in 18 holes from a man who the year before, could give me ten strokes. The following year the championship was played on The Canadian system (everyone play everyone else), and I won it with only one loss and then won it twice more. After ten years strenuous endeavours and when 50 years of age, I reduced my handicap to scratch. From that ■-age I am confident one’s play goes back probably a stroke a year. During the whole of the period of his golf, Mr. Kirk retained the captaincy of the Hutt Club, and guided its destinies in an exceedingly trying

financial time. Throe years ago tho club elected him an honorary life member. Four years ago he was retained professionally by the Golf Council to frame a more democratic constitution. At the initial meetings, after the rules were adopted, he was elected chairman of the council, an honour which ho hold to the date of his death. The late Mr Kirk is survived by Mrs Kirk, a son (Mr J. F. Kirk, of Petone), and a daughter (Mrs Dennis Hursthouse, of Hastings). Another son, Edward, died of enteric contracted on Gallipoli. The funeral took place on morning. ■*