ROYAL HONOURS.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1947, 2 January 1914, Page 5

ROYAL HONOURS.

THE KING'S NEW YEAR LIST. PRIVY COUNCILLORSHIP FOR MR. MASSEY. h''-Sfi-- ; : SIR CHARLES BOWEN, K.C.M.G.,, C.M.G. FOR PROFESSOR SHAND. His Excellency has received a: cable to tho effect that in tlio New Year Honours list His Majesty tho King has been pleased to confer the following honours:— Tho Hon. W. F. Massey to be a Privy Councillor. Sir Charles Bowen to be a Knight Commander of tho Order of St.' Michael and . St. George. Professor John Shand to bo a Com-., panion of tho Order of St. Michael and St. George.

PROFESSOR RUTHERFORD KNIGHTED. ADDITIONAL ANNOUNCEMENTS, (Hoc. January 2, 0.15 a.ii't.) London, Janoary 1. The New Year Honours list is short and unseusational. It includes the following:— Colonel Sir Edward Ward,-K.0.V.0., K.C.8., Permanent Under-Secretary of State for War, to bo raised to the baronetcy. Professor Ernest Rutherford, F.R.S. (the distinguished New Zealander), Director of tho Physical Laboratories at Manchester University, and Langworthy Professor of Physics, to receive the order of Knighthood. _ Dr. Owen Seaman, editor of "Punch" since 1008,' to rcceivo tho order of Knighthood. Sir Archibald Geikio, K.C.8., President of tho Royal Society since 1908, to rcceivo the Order of-Siorit.

TII.O Right Hon. W. F. Massey, P.G,

; The selection of Mr; Massey for-ok' ration to the Priry Council will, it is safo to Say, be approved by his political friends and political foes alike. It is tho higher honour by reason of the fact that the selection of Privy Councillors is always strictly in tlio prerogative of the Sovereign; even nioro strictly than is the conferring of Knighthoods, for whereas colonial Governments may and almost invariably do make- recommendations of persons deemed worthy to receivo Knighthoods and other honours, no such recommendation is; ever mado regarding tho selection of u Privy Councillor, hi tho rules of precedence observed at official functions, Privy Councillors como before Knights of ail Orders, including baronets, except the Knights of tho Garter. Originally the Privy Council was a Council of State appointed and periodically held by the ,Sovereign to consider matters for the public welfare. In actual fact, however, tho only members who are ever summoned to meetings of tho l'rivv Council now are those who aro for the time being Ministers in the Parliament at Westminster, The number, which at first was only about 12, is now indefinite. At present there are about 300 in tho Council of Great Britain, and about 70 in thai of'lreland, but some 15 of theso arc members of ..both. ■ Tlio members of both Councils raiigo down from the first Princo of tho Blood Royal. On the'accession of a now Sovereign-the Privy Council must -be reconstituted, • or' newly sworn . in, within sis months, and any member who does not present himself for reswearing within that time forfeits his membership, but not tho style- of "Right Honourable."

Sir Charles Bowon, K.C.M.C, The. Hon.. Sir Charles Christopher Rowen, K.C.M.0., F.R.G.S., was born on August 20, 1830, at MiSford, County Mayo, Ireland. Ho was educated at Rugby and Cambridge and ho arrived in Now Zealand in 1850, with the first party of Canterbury settlers. In a few years ho became' a member of the Proyincial Council, being Treasurer and a member of tho Executive. Ho went to England in 1859, returning to the colony threo years later. Ho was appoint* ed resident magistrate at Christ-church in 1864, which office ho held for ten years. _He was called to the Upper House in 1874, and he bccA-me Minister of Justice in tho Vogel Ministry. Ho resigned from tho Upper House to contest tho Kaiapoi electorate in 1875, for which electorate ho sat as member in throe Parliaments, until 1881. Ho held portfolois in tho Pollen Ministry, 18756. the second Vogel Ministry, and tho Atkinson Ministry,- 1877. He'was again called to the Upper House as a life member in' 1891, and he has been Speaker since 1905.

Sir Charles Bowen was one of those scholar-colonist politicians of whom New Zealand was fortunate enough to have the services of no inconsiderable number in the early days of her history. The early building was certainly done well, and Sir Charles Bowen is one of the few survivors of'tho band who laid the foundations of our public institutions. But it is as the author of tho Education Act of 1877 which established tho present system of State primary education that Sir Charles Bowen is best known. It is scarcely correct to say, as is frequently said, that Sir Charles Bowen founded tho present system of frco secular education. His original proposal was that tho control of education merely should be secular, and that religious instruction should.bo provided for in all schools. To this there was opposition, and, most unwillingly, he had to drop it from his Bill. Professor John Shand ( O.M.C. . ' The decoration of any person riot directly connected with politics or thePublic Scrvicehas been unheard of in Now Zealand in recent years. Professor Sliand was one of tho professors appointed to Otago University when tho institution was in its infancy, and lie with tho other ' distinguished, scholars who were his colleagues shared in tho. work so well done of directing higher education in Now. Zealand into right channels. Ho 'was educated at Elgin Academy and Aberdeen Univor-' p.ity, taking his SLA. degree-in 185*1. When was appointed to tho combined chair of mathematics and natural philosophy in tho little University of Otago ho was mathematics master in Edinburgh _ Academy. Later, in 188G, as tho university grow, ho was relieved of somo of his duties, and tho mathematics chair was given to Professor E. do M. Gibbons. He was honoured bv his old University of Aberdeen in 1889, by having conferred upon him tho honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. He was a member of tho Hoval Commission on the New Zealand University in 1877-79, and in Dunedin he has always taken a leading part in tho control of. education. lie was for many years member of tho Education Board (three times chairman) and of the High School Board of Governors. Ho has been a member of the Council of Otago University Council, and he has been a member of tho Senate of the Now Zealand University from 1877 to date. Now ho is retiring after 43 years of liafd but honourable servico, beloved and esteemed by his students as a kindly, courteous gentleman, and as a sound teacher.