PRESENTATION.

Kaikoura Star, Volume XIV, Issue 740, 22 May 1894, Page 6

PRESENTATION.

On Saturday evening a number of the members of the Loyal Heart of Oak Lodge met, in their usual place of assemblage, to make a presentation to P.G. Bro R. R. Lochhead, and to formally say ‘ good bye’ to him and to wish him prosperity in his venture at Cheviot.

Grand Master Bro. F. J, Robertshaw, in the unavoidable absence of the N.G., took the chair, and in making the presentation said:—Past Grand Lochhead, at an ordinary meeting of our Lodge it was unanimously agreed by the members then present that we could not allow you to leave the district without testifying in some appreciable way to the esteem in which you are held by the brethren of the Heart of Oak Lodge. That you have been one of the most successful officers the Lodge has ever had is fully agreed. Your administration while Noble Grand left nothing to be desired. Your usual courtesy -with firmness, and careful ruling, gained the respect of us all, and the attention you have ever exhibited as Treasurer won our hearty thanks. In asking you to accept, as we do, this clock as a mark of our esteem and appreciation, we sincerely hope that as it tells out the minutes and hours that it will be marking periods of prosperity and welfare to you and yours. We wish you every success in your new venture. While much regretting your absence from our midst we shall long remember you, and in presenting you with this timepiece we do it in the watchwords of our Order, *ln Friendship, Love and Truth.’

The Brethren present, taking time from the G.M., here confirmed the sentiments of the Order after the manner of Oddfellows. The G.M. then handed to P.G. Lochhead a very handsome black marble clock, which bore the following inscription, on a silver plate: ‘ Presented to Bro R. R. Lochhead, P.G., by the Kaikoura Odd Fellows, M.U.’ P.G. Lochhead, in replying, said that he felt quite unable to thank the brethren as he wished. He did not think he had done anything to deserve such a handsome present, and he would remember the Kaikoura Odd Fellows as long as he lived. Their kindness to him had been most marked, and never more so than during the illness occasioned by the accident he met with. There was every likelihood of a Lodge being formed at Cheviot, under the Ashley District and not that of North Canterbury, as theirs was. Therefore, though he wished it every success, and would do all in his power to further the welfare of the new Lodge, he did not think he could find it in his heart to sever his connection with the Heart of Oak Lodge, Kaikoura. In conclusion, he again begged to thank them, though not as be should like, for their handsome present, and for their kindness on all occasions, and wished them individually and collectively every success.

After a brief conversational interval the proceedings terminated.