Valuable Citizens

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31083, 11 June 1966, Page 16

Valuable Citizens

Miss Ngaio Marsh’s distinguished services to literature and the arts in New Zealand, especially as a theatre producer, are appropriately recognised in the Queen’s birthday honours. Her appointment as a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire is doubly notable. It is the first time a New Zealander has been so highly honoured for her kind of contribution to the community. Without Miss Marsh’s devotion to the theatre, her skill and knowledge as a producer of Shakespeare’s plays, and her persistently successful schooling of young amateur actors New Zealand would have been much the poorer. Miss Marsh has lavished freely a very great part of her time and ability on the many theatre arts. Christchurch and the University of Canterbury have been the most fortunate beneficiaries in this sphere of Miss Marsh’s work. She has a still wider audience, unmatched by any other New Zealand-born author, as a writer. As a lecturer, too, she has given unstintingly of her knowledge and imagination. The second New Zealander to be highly honoured in the Queen’s birthday list of awards is Mr James Wattie. He has set an example of vigour and enterprise in industry; and it is appropriate that his development of a secondary industry based on New Zealand produce should be recognised. Our economy and welfare depend a good deal on the kind of perception and drive in business for which Mr Wattie is known and which has been the foundation of his successful export enterprise. The conjunction of these two honours does not go amiss when New Zealand needs the talents, the diversity of interests, and the wholehearted enthusiasm conspicuous in these citizens. The services of Miss Doreen Brown, Mr A. E. G. Lyttle, and Mr James Collins have been appreciated in Christchurch and Canterbury. Their wider recognition will be a source of satisfaction in this province.