RHODES SCHOLARS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26629, 27 November 1947, Page 4

RHODES SCHOLARS

SELECTION ANNOUNCED CANTERBURY AND AUCKLAND NOMINEES P.A. WELLINGTON, Nov. 26. W. P. Packard (Canterbury) and L. C. Woods (Auckland) have been chosen as New Zealand's Rhodes Scholars for 1948 by the Selection Committee which met at Government House to-day under the chairmanship of the Governor-General, Sir Bernard Freyberg,

Mr Packard gained his M.A. degree at Canterbury College in 1946, being awarded first-class honours in geography. He is an ex-pupil, of the Christchurch Boys’ High School, and trained as a teacher at the Christchurch Training College. At Canterbury College he has been outstanding as a cross-country runflfer, being both club captain and club champion in 1944. He has also been club captain

of the Canterbury College Tramping Club and the Ex-Training College Tramping Club, prominent in the student Christian movement and in international student service.

While at Oxford Mr Packard will enter the Honours school of geography and will undertake special work in plant geography with particular reference to the conservation of soil resources and to soil management in high-country areas. Mr Woods took his master's degree in science at Auckland University College and graduated with second-class honours in mathematics—a specially meritorious achievement when it is noted that his Stage II and honours work was performed after he became a pilot officer and was retained as an instructor in the R.N.Z.A.F. During 1944 and 1945, in which years he performed several tours of duty with the 16th Fighter Squadron, he continued his studies towards an arts degree. Upon demobilisation he commenced the serious study of engineering, and is now pursuing a distinguished course at the School of Engineering at Auckland. Mr Woods was educated at Seddon Memorial Technical College.

He Was prominent in the Boy Scout movement in Auckland. He has been an executive member of the Auckland University College Students’ Association, chairman of the Engineering Society, and chairman of the Social Committee. He was a member of the Auckland University College first eleven and a college blue. He also played softball and volley bail. He is a strong swimmer. Mr Woods hopes while at Oxford to work for the degree of doctor of philosophy in engineering science, and will later concentrate upon research into the theoretical aspects of aeronautical engineering and the application of mathematics to such problems.

The other Canterbury nominee, P. F. Sutton, of Wellington, will be ordained as a deacon in St. Paul’s ProCathedral on Sunday.