LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2496, 24 June 1915, Page 6

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL

NEW APPOINTMENTS TWO OLD PARLIAMENTARIANS HONOURED Two new appointments to the Legislative Council were announced by the Prime Minister last night. Tho gentlemen on whom, this honour has been conferred are two of tho best known of Now Zealand's Parliamentarians—Sir AValter Buchanan and tho Hon. J. A. Millar. SIR WALTER BUCHANii... Sir Walter Clarke Buchanan is one of New Zealand's earliest pioneer settlers. Born in Argyllshire in 1838, he emigrated to Melbourne in 1557, and six yoars afterwards came on to New Zealand. For some years he held leasehold property in Canterbury. In 1871 ho purchased Tupurupuru Station, in the Wairarapa district. He has lived in this district ever since, and in all tho years ho has been more closely associated with every enterprise that has made for the progress of the district than any other resident. Indeed ho has been called tho Grand Old Man of the Wairarapa. Ho lias always been most keenly alive to tho importance of tiie agricultural and pastoral industries to New Zealand, and all his energies have gone to assist the man on the land. He was one of tho founders, and is at present a director of the Wellington Meat Export Company, now one of the biggest meat exporting companies in the Dominion. No man has done more for tho frozen meat industry in Wellington province than Sir Walter Buchanan. His knowledge of land settlement problems is a firsthand one, and tho struggling eettler has had no better friend in Parliament or as a member of local governing bodies than Sir Walter. He has Been a member of the South Wairarapa County Council and a member of the 'Wellington Education Board. He entered Parliament in 1881, and sat continuously, first for Wairarapa South and then for Wairarapa, virtually the same constituency, until 1899. He was elected again to the House in 1902, but in 1905 was defeated by Mr. Hornsby, only to have his revenge in 1908, when Sir AValter was returned again. In tho election of last year Sir Walter Buchanan was defeated by a narrow margin. 11l his affairs Sir Walter Buchanan has prospered, and he has devoted no inconsiderable part of his wealth to beneficcnt objects, philanthropic and charitable. Of late months his patriotism has expressed itself in most liberal donations to the different patriotic funds that have been raised. Probably no one but he himself knows how many thousands of pounds he has subscribed. For his great services to New Zealand he was knighted in 1913.

THE HON. J. A. MILLAR. The Hon. John Andrew Millar entered the House of Representatives a 6 member for Chalmers in 1893. He was made Chairman of Committees in the House in 1902, and he joined tho Ministry as Minister of Labour, takiiig also the Departments of Customs and Marine in 1!j06, when Sir Joseph Ward took tho leadership of tho Liberal Party, and tho Premiership vn the death of Mr. Scddon. As Minister of Labour he reconstructed tho Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act, and As Minister of Customs he revised the tariff and piloted through the Houso ono of the most important general alterations of the tariff over put through tho New Zealand Parliament. In 1909 ho relinquished the portfolio of Labour and became Minister of Railways, which great servico he administered with firmness and ability, enunciating tho proposition, an unpopular one as it proved, that the railways should pay, and making himself unpopular by insisting that they should pay. In 1912, when the death-knell of the Ward Ministry had sounded, and when Sir Joseph Ward had decided to stand down, Mr. T. Mackenzie formed a Ministry of which Mr. Millar was not a member. He sat continuously as a member of the House from 1593, for the seats of Chalmers, Dunedin City, Dunedin Central, and Dunedin West, until the end of last year. Failing health made it impossible for him to continue in the House, and he did not seek re-election. Ho resides now at Auckland.