1.
Robert Heaton Rhodes
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Robert Heaton Rhodes was a New Zealand politician, who represented the Akaroa electorate from 1871 to 1874, when he resigned. He was elected unopposed in 1871, born in 1815 in Rotherham, in the English county of Yorkshire, he followed his brothers, including William Barnard Rhodes, to New Zealand in 1850, having worked in Australia. He lived at Purau and managed properties on Banks Peninsula belonging to the Rhodes brothers and he built a large house in Christchurch, Elmwood, where he died. He was a founder of several business enterprises, including the New Zealand Shipping Company. His eldest son Sir Heaton Rhodes had a long Parliamentary career, george Rhodes of the Levels and his brothers by A. E. Woodhouse The Rhodes Brothers from the 1966 Encyclopaedia of New Zealand Elmwood in 1899, now the site of Heaton Normal Intermediate
2.
Royal Victorian Order
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The Royal Victorian Order is a dynastic order of knighthood established in 1896 by Queen Victoria. It recognises distinguished personal service to the monarch of the Commonwealth realms, members of the monarchs family, the present monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, is the Sovereign of the order, its motto is Victoria, and its official day is 20 June. The orders chapel is the Savoy Chapel in London, the organisation was founded a year preceding Victorias Diamond Jubilee, so as to give the Queen time to complete a list of first inductees. The orders official day was made 20 June of each year, in 1902, King Edward VII created the Royal Victorian Chain as a personal decoration for royal personages and a few eminent British subjects and it was the highest class of the Royal Victorian Order. It is today distinct from the order, though it is issued by the chancery of the Royal Victorian Order. The order was open to foreigners from its inception, the Prefect of Alpes-Maritimes, Queen Elizabeth II then appointed her daughter, Anne, Princess Royal, to the position in 2007. Foreigners may be admitted as members, there are no limits to the number of any grade. Retiring Deans of the Royal Peculiars of St, prior to 1984, the grades of Lieutenant and Member were classified as Members and Members, respectively, but both with the post-nominals MVO. On 31 December of that year, Queen Elizabeth II declared that those in the grade of Member would henceforth be Lieutenants with the post-nominals LVO. Upon admission into the Royal Victorian Order, members are given various insignia of the organisation, each grade being represented by different emblems and robes. For Knights and Dames Grand Cross, Commanders, and Lieutenants, the orders ribbon is blue with red-white-red stripe edging, the only difference being that for foreigners appointed into the society, their ribbon bearing an additional central white stripe. For Knights Grand Cross, the ribbon is 82.5 millimetres wide, for Dames Grand Cross 57.1 millimetres, for Knights and Dames Commander 44.4 millimetres, and for all other members 31.7 millimetres. Though after the death of a Knight or Dame Grand Cross their insignia may be retained by their family, the collar must be returned. Knights and Dames Grand Cross also wear a mantle of blue satin edged with red satin and lined with white satin. Since 1938, the chapel of the Royal Victorian Order has been the Queens Chapel of the Savoy, in central London, upon the occupants death, the plate is retained, leaving the stalls festooned with a record of the orders Knights and Dames Grand Cross since 1938. There is insufficient space in the chapel for the display of knights and dames banners, founded by Michael Jackson, the group has, since 2008, gathered biennially. The practice of notifying the Prime Minister of Canada of nominees ended in 1982, in Canada, the order has come to be colloquially dubbed as the Royal Visit Order, as the majority of appointments are made by the sovereign during her tours of the country. Persons have been removed from the order at the monarchs command, anthony Blunt, a former surveyor of the Queens Pictures, was in 1979 stripped of his knighthood, after it was revealed that he had been a spy
3.
Order of the British Empire
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There is also the related British Empire Medal, whose recipients are affiliated with, but not members of, the order. Recommendations for appointments to the Order of the British Empire were at first made on the nomination of the United Kingdom, the self-governing Dominions of the Empire, nominations continue today from Commonwealth countries that participate in recommending British honours. Most members are citizens of the United Kingdom or the Commonwealth realms that use the Imperial system of honours and awards. Honorary knighthoods are appointed to citizens of nations where the Queen is not head of state, occasionally, honorary appointees are, incorrectly, referred to as Sir or Dame – Bill Gates or Bob Geldof, for example. In particular, King George V wished to create an Order to honour many thousands of those who had served in a variety of non-combatant roles during the First World War, when first established, the Order had only one division. However, in 1918, soon after its foundation, it was divided into Military. The Orders motto is For God and the Empire, at the foundation of the Order, the Medal of the Order of the British Empire was instituted, to serve as a lower award granting recipients affiliation but not membership. In 1922, this was renamed the British Empire Medal, in addition, the BEM is awarded by the Cook Islands and by some other Commonwealth nations. The British monarch is Sovereign of the Order, and appoints all members of the Order. The next most senior member is the Grand Master, of whom there have been three, Prince Edward, the Prince of Wales, Queen Mary, and the current Grand Master, the Duke of Edinburgh. The Order is limited to 300 Knights and Dames Grand Cross,845 Knights and Dames Commander, and 8,960 Commanders. There are no limits applied to the number of members of the fourth and fifth classes. Foreign recipients, as members, do not contribute to the numbers restricted to the Order as full members do. Though men can be knighted separately from an order of chivalry, women cannot, and so the rank of Knight/Dame Commander of the Order is the lowest rank of damehood, and second-lowest of knighthood. Because of this, Dame Commander is awarded in circumstances in which a man would be created a Knight Bachelor, for example, by convention, female judges of the High Court of Justice are created Dames Commander after appointment, while male judges become Knights Bachelor. The Order has six officials, the Prelate, the Dean, the Secretary, the Registrar, the King of Arms, the Bishop of London, a senior bishop in the Church of England, serves as the Orders Prelate. The Dean of St Pauls is ex officio the Dean of the Order, the Orders King of Arms is not a member of the College of Arms, as are many other heraldic officers. From time to time, individuals are appointed to a higher grade within the Order, thereby ceasing usage of the junior post-nominal letters
4.
Volunteer Officers' Decoration
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The Volunteer Officers Decoration, post-nominal letters VD, was instituted in 1892 as an award for long and meritorious service by officers of the United Kingdoms Volunteer Force. Award of the decoration was discontinued in the United Kingdom when it was superseded by the Territorial Decoration in 1908, the Volunteer Officers Decoration, post-nominal letters VD and colloquially known as the Volunteer Decoration, was instituted by Queen Victorias Royal Warrant on 25 July 1892. The decoration could be awarded to efficient and thoroughly capable officers of proven capacity for long, the qualifying period of service was twenty years. Half of any service in the Regular Army also counted towards qualification. The award did not confer any individual precedence, but entitled the recipient to use the post-nominal letters VD, the Volunteer Officers Decoration could also be conferred upon any of the Princes of the Royal Family of Great Britain and Ireland. A separate new decoration was instituted, the Volunteer Officers Decoration for India and this decoration was similar in design to the Volunteer Officers Decoration, but bore the Royal Cypher VRI instead of VR. Even so, some Crown Dependencies awarded the Volunteer Officers Decoration instead of the Colonial version, the decoration is an oval skeletal design and was struck in silver, with parts of the obverse in silver-gilt. It is 43 millimetres high and 35.5 millimetres wide with a ring suspender formed of silver wire, obverse The obverse is an oak leaf wreath in silver, tied with gold, with the Royal Cypher below the Royal Crown, both in gold, in the centre. Reverse The reverse is plain with the hallmarks impressed at the bottom, the decoration was awarded unnamed, but was frequently unofficially engraved in various styles. Ribbon The ribbon is green and 1 1⁄2 inches in width and is suspended from a silver bar-brooch decorated with an oak leaf pattern. Three versions of the decoration were struck, the original version of 1892 had the Royal Cypher VR of Queen Victoria below the Royal Crown in the centre. It appears to have continued to be awarded in some Crown Dependencies until 1910, the King George V version, with his Royal Cypher GVR, was introduced after his succession to the throne in 1910. This version appears to have only been awarded in some Crown Dependencies, instead of the Volunteer Officers Decoration for India, the Volunteer Force was the precursor of the Territorial Force, which was established in the United Kingdom in 1908. At the same time, award of the Volunteer Officers Decoration was discontinued in the United Kingdom, the Volunteer Officers Decoration continued to be awarded in some Crown Dependencies until the Efficiency Decoration was instituted in September 1930. Bermuda was the last Dependency to award the decoration in 1930
5.
New Zealand Parliament
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The New Zealand Parliament is the legislative branch of New Zealand, consisting of the Queen of New Zealand and the New Zealand House of Representatives. Before 1951, there was a chamber, the New Zealand Legislative Council. The Parliament was established in 1854 and is one of the oldest continuously functioning parliaments in the world, the House of Representatives is a democratically elected body whose members are known as Members of Parliament. It usually consists of 120 MPs, though sometimes due to overhang seats. 70 MPs are elected directly in electorate seats and the remainder are filled by list MPs based on each partys share of the party vote, Māori were represented in Parliament from 1867, and in 1893 women gained the vote. New Zealand does not allow sentenced prisoners to vote, the Parliament is closely linked to the executive branch. The House of Representatives has met in the Parliament Buildings located in Wellington, Parliament funds the broadcast of its proceedings through Parliament TV, AM Network and Parliament Today. It was based on the Westminster model and had a house, called the House of Representatives. The members of the House of Representatives were elected under the first-past-the-post voting system, originally Councillors were appointed for life, but later their terms were fixed at seven years. In 1951, the Council was abolished altogether, making the New Zealand legislature unicameral, under the Constitution Act, legislative power was also conferred on New Zealands provinces, each of which had its own elected Legislative Council. These provincial legislatures were able to legislate for their provinces on most subjects, over a twenty-year period, political power was progressively centralised, and the provinces were abolished altogether in 1876. Four Māori electorates were created in 1867 during the term of the 4th Parliament, originally the New Zealand Parliament remained subordinate to the British Parliament, the supreme legislative authority for the entire British Empire. One historical speciality of the New Zealand Parliament was the country quota, from 1889 on, districts were weighted according to their urban/rural split. The country quota was in effect until it was abolished in 1945 by a mostly urban-elected Labour government, the New Zealand Parliament is sovereign with no institution able to over-ride its decisions. The ability of Parliament to act is, legally, unimpeded, for example, the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 is a normal piece of legislation, it is not superior law as codified constitutions are in some other countries. The only thing Parliament is limited in its power are on some entrenched issues relating to elections and these issues require either 75% of all MPs to support the bill or a referendum on the issue. The Queen of New Zealand is one of the components of Parliament—formally called the Queen-in-Parliament and this results from the role of the monarch to sign into law the bills that have been passed by the House of Representatives. The House of Representatives was established as a house and has been the Parliaments sole chamber since 1951
6.
New Zealand general election, 1899
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The New Zealand general election of 1899 was held on 6 and 19 December in the European and Māori electorates, respectively, to elect 74 MPs to the 14th session of the New Zealand Parliament. The election was won by the Liberal Party, and Richard Seddon remained Prime Minister. The last electoral redistribution was undertaken in 1896 for the 1896 election,34 seats were located in the North Island,36 were in the South Island, and the remaining four were Māori electorates. Since the 1890 electoral redistribution, the four main centres had electorates with three seats each. The 1899 election was held on Wednesday,6 December in the general electorates, a total number of 373,744 voters turned out to vote. In three electorates there was one candidate, and they were thus returned unopposed. Two of those were Liberal candidates, Richard Seddon in the Westland electorate, the third was an opposition representative, William Russell, who stood in the Hawkes Bay electorate. Two candidates died during the election campaign, a third, Henry Augustus Field, died two days after having been re-elected in the Otaki electorate. The following table gives party strengths and vote according to Wilson. Seventy-four MPs were elected across sixty-two single-member, and four three-member electorates, the table below show the results of the 1899 general election, Key Liberal Conservative Independent Liberal Liberal-Labour Independent Table footnotes, McRobie, Alan. A Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, A–L. I, a Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, M–Addenda
7.
Banks Peninsula
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Banks Peninsula is a peninsula of volcanic origin on the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand. It has an area of approximately 1,150 square kilometres and encompasses two large harbours and many bays and coves. The South Islands largest city, Christchurch, is north of the peninsula. Three successive phases of Māori settlement took place on the peninsula, Rakaihautu brought the Waitaha to the South Island in the waka Uruao, they were the first people to light the fires of occupation. Thus Banks Peninsula was named Te Pataka o Rakaihautu in recognition of his deeds, Waitaha settled there first, followed by Kāti Mamoe, and then Ngai Tahu took over in the 17th century. The crew of Captain James Cook became the first Europeans to sight the peninsula on 17 February 1770, Cook described the land as of a circular figure. Of a very broken uneven surface and more the appearance of barrenness than fertility, deceived by the outline of higher land behind the peninsula, Cook mistook it for an island and named it Banks Island in honour of Endeavours botanist, Joseph Banks. Distracted by a sighting of land to the southeast, Cook then ordered Endeavour away to the south without exploring more closely. Two significant events in the assumption of British sovereignty over New Zealand occurred at Akaroa, first, in 1830 the Māori settlement at Takapuneke became the scene of a notorious incident. The Captain of the British brig Elizabeth, John Stewart, helped North Island Ngāti Toa chief, Te Rauparaha, to capture the local Ngai Tahu chief, the settlement of Takapuneke was sacked. Then in 1838 Captain Langlois, a French whaler, decided that Akaroa would make a settlement to service whaling ships. On hearing of the French plan for colonisation, Hobson quickly dispatched the HMS Britomart from the Bay of Islands to Akaroa with police magistrates on board. From the 1850s, Lyttelton and then Christchurch outgrew Akaroa, which has developed into a holiday resort, historic harbour defence works dating from 1874 onwards survive at Ripapa Island in Lyttelton Harbour, and at Godley Head. In 2011, the Christchurch earthquakes of Feb and June had their epicentres in the Port Hills, Banks Peninsula forms the most prominent volcanic feature of the South Island. Geologically, the peninsula comprises the eroded remnants of two large shield volcanoes, and the smaller Mt Herbert Volcanic Group. These formed due to intraplate volcanism between approximately eleven and eight years ago on a continental crust. The peninsula formed as offshore islands, with the volcanoes reaching to about 1,500 m above sea level, two dominant craters formed Lyttelton and Akaroa Harbours. The Canterbury Plains formed from the erosion of the Southern Alps and these plains reach their widest point where they meet the hilly sub-region of Banks Peninsula
8.
Colonial Auxiliary Forces Officers' Decoration
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It superseded the Volunteer Officers Decoration for India and the Colonies in all these territories, but not in the Indian Empire. In 1892, the Volunteer Officers Decoration was instituted as an award for long, a separate new decoration was instituted, the Volunteer Officers Decoration for India and the Colonies. The Colonial Auxiliary Forces Officers Decoration was established by Queen Victorias Royal Warrant on 18 May 1899, the use of the post-nominal letters VD by recipients of this decoration was approved by Royal Warrant on 9 May 1925. The Colonial Auxiliary Forces Officers Decoration could be awarded for twenty years of service as a commissioned officer in any of the Colonial Auxiliary Forces. Qualifying service could be had by serving in the forces of more than one Colony or Protectorate. Service in the Militia and Volunteer Forces of the United Kingdom was also reckonable, Service on the West Coast of Africa counted as double time, while half the time served in the ranks prior to being commissioned was also reckonable. Service on the permanent staff was not reckonable, the same ribbon was used for all three awards, except during the period from 1921 to 1927, when the decoration was suspended from a wider green ribbon. Preceded by the Volunteer Long Service Medal for India and the Colonies, succeeded by the Colonial Auxiliary Forces Long Service Medal. The decoration is a skeletal design and was struck in silver. The oval is 1 7⁄16 inches high and 1 1⁄4 inches wide and is suspended by a silver wire suspension bar which is attached to a small ring at the top on the reverse. Obverse The obverse is a silver band, inscribed COLONIAL AUXILIARY FORCES and with the Royal Cypher of the reigning monarch in skeletal form. The oval is surmounted by a silver-gilt Imperial Crown, five versions of the decoration are known. The centre of the original version of 1899 has the Royal Cypher VRI of Queen Victoria. The King Edward VII version, with his Royal Cypher ERI VII for Edwardvs Rex Imperator VII, was introduced after his succession to the throne in 1901. The first King George V version, with his Royal Cypher GRI for Georgivs Rex Imperator as illustrated at the top of the page, was introduced after his succession to the throne in 1910. A second King George V version exists, with his Royal Cypher GRI V for Georgivs Rex Imperator V, on this and the third King George V version the crown has two cut-out sections at the top. The third King George V version, of which a miniature is illustrated, has the Roman numeral V to the right of the cypher GRI, the recipients name was usually engraved at either the top on the back of the crown or around the circumference of the decoration. In an amendment to the rules and ordinances pertaining to the decoration, published in the Royal Warrant of King George V on 9 June 1921 and this wider ribbon and brooch was revoked by the Royal Warrant of King George V on 22 June 1927
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Commander of the Order of the British Empire (Great Britain)
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