LAW SOCIETY

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 92, 15 October 1932, Page 14

LAW SOCIETY

THE NEW SECRETARY

APPOINTMENT ANNOUNCED

The appointment of Mr. H. J.'-Thomp-son, M.A., LL.M., M.Corn., of Wellington, to succeed Mr. W. A. Hawkins on his retirement early next year as secretary of the New Zealand Law Society and the Wellington District-Law Society, was announced to-day by Mr. A. Gray, KG, president of the New Zealand Law Society. Mr. Thompson was selected for the position from over fifty applicants.

" The new secretary is a man of high scholastic ability and wide attainments. He was educated at theHavelook North District School (where he obtained an Education Board scholarship), the Napier High School, Otago University, and the University of London. In 1911 he gained his M.A. degree with honours, and took the first section of the LL.B. course. For some months in 1915 he was on the teaching staff of the Stratford District High School, and he then left on active service with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. While in England in 1917 he was on the musketry instructional staff at Sling Camp, and -when later the Rifle Brigade Eeservo Battalion was transferred to Brocton he was put in charge of Lewis' gun instruction, being responsible for the organisation of the whole of the Lewis gun course and for the training of all reinforcements going through the camp. Mr. Thompson was on active service for four years. He rose from the rank of corporal captain and company commander, and was awarded the Military Cross. At the present time he holds the rank of major in the Territorial Forces, and is attached to the Wellington Eegiment. ' On his return to New Zealand Mr. Thompson completed the LL.B. course while a member of the teaching staff of the Palmerston North High School, and he also gained the degree of Master of Commerce with first-class honours. Further, he passed the professional accountant's examination, and became a member of th.eJNew Zealand Accountants' Society. He has been coach in accountancy subjects at the Palmerston North Technical College, and also has acted as instructor at the Wellington Technical College in mercantile law and allied law classes. Mr. Thompson came to Wellington at the end of 1927, and since then he has been practising as a barrister and solicitor in partnership with Mr. N. A. Foden, M.A., LL.M. He has also the distinction1 of being a Fellow, of the Eoyal Economic Society, of which institution he is a life member. %

Besides his scholastic achievements and his fine record of service during the war, Mr. Thompson has distinguished himself in sport. While at the Napier High Schol he was in the school's first fifteen and in the tennis and shooting teams', and he gained a place in the Otago University tennis, hockey, and athletic teams. He played first-grade Eugby in Dunedin for the Pirates Club, and won Otago representative hockey honours. Mr. Thompson is well known in tennis circles, having been the Manawatu delegate to the New Zealand Tennis Council since 1927. He played in the Manawatu representative tennis team for four or five years, and on one occasion won the Hawkes Bay mixed doubles championship with Mrs. Gardiner.

Another award Mr. Thompson holds is the bronco medal of the Royal Humane Society, which was presented to him for saving the life of a young man who was carried out to sea near Napier. The new secretary is expected to commence his duties on 10th January,