HIGHEST SCOUT HONOURED

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 77, Issue 104, 4 May 1934, Page 6

HIGHEST SCOUT HONOURED

AWARD TO MR. J. R. KIRKWELLINGTON, May 3. Dominion headquarters of the Bo Scout movement, Christchurch, ar nounce that Lord Baden-Powell, of Gi well, Chief Scout, Imperial Headquari ers, London, has awarded the Honorar Silver Wolf to Air. J. R. Kirk. A1.8.E J.P., Wellington, chairman of the Nei Zealand Boy Scout Council. In add tion His Excellency the Governor-Ger cral (Lord Bledisloe), Chief Scout fc New Zealand, has awarded to Al ajo C. T. Tatum, of Manakau, the Honoi ary Aledal of Merit. Both are S George’s Day awards.

Air. Kirk, to whom has been awarded the highest Scout honour, was born and educated at Dunedin. He is a barrister, and is at present in Wellington, where he is director of several companies, including the Australian Provincial Assurance Association. Ltd. He has been Mayor of Naseby and Alayor of Gisborne; deputy chairman of the Hawke’s Bay Education Board, member of the Royal Commission on Education of 1912, member of the Council of Education, aud a delegate to ImperiO Conferences on Education in London. He served in France as an officer of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, being subsequently appointed ifj first director of education, and besides Great War and territorial service medals, holds t-he Order of the British Empire and the Order of Danilo Ist. He is an ex-president of the Gisborne branch of the Navy League, and for over 20 years has been a corresponding secretary of the Royal Empire Society, by the council of which body, in its diamond jubilee year, he was presented with a handsome piece of solid silver plate. He is a Justice of the Peace, a member of the Wellington Philosophical Society, and interests himself in the protection of native birds and the preservation of New Zealand’s unique forest, being a member of the executive and a life member of the Native Bird Protection Society. During the past eight years he has been chairman continuously of the Dominion Council of Boy Scouts, and most active throughout New Zealand in the interests of Scouting, being himself a Rover Scout. He has visited England frequently on behalf of the movement, and as he travels extensively is regarded as a liaison officer. His representations to headquarters in London have always been successful, and the interpretation there of Scout law and regulations favourable to New Zealand has been of immense value U the local organisation. Afajor C. T. Tatum, Alanakau, was appointed a member of the (Dominion Boy Scout Council 21 years ago. During this long period he has energetically assisted the cause of Scouting in the Dominion, taking a special interest in the Sea Scout branch.