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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Otago & Southland Provincial Districts]

Social

Social.

The Invercargill Club is a substantial brick building situated in Don Street, which, though close to the business centre of the city, is so Situated as to secure the quiet and retirement regarded as essential qualities in connection with such an institution. It has been in existence since 1880, when it began on a somewhat modest scale in a building in the principal thoroughfare of the town—Dee Street. When the accommodation proved inadequate, more commodious premises were obtained in the Crescent, adjoining the handsome offices of the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company. In 1890 it was decided that the club should obtain a habitation of its own; and a half-acre site having been procured in Don Street, the present building was erected in 1891, from designs by Messrs. McKenzie and Gilbertson. The main building is of two stories, and contains, on the ground floor a large entrance ball, to the left of which is a handsome smoking room, lighted by live windows, and on the right a comfortable writing and reading room, while a strangers' room, bar, stewards' pantry and lavatory occupy the rest of the space. A large and well-lighted billiard room of one storey, containing two tables, is connected with the main building, while card and other rooms occupy the whole of the first floor. The club is a non-residential one and has a large roll of town and country members. The property of the institution is vested in three trustees and its management is in the hands of a committee elected annually. Officers for 1904: Mr. T. C. Ellis, president; Mr. G. G. Burnes, vice-president; Mr. R. H. Rattray, honorary secretary; Mr. H. S. St. Paul, honorary treasurer; other members of the executive, Messrs J. Strouach, J. S. Gilkison, W. Henderson, A. F. Hawke, W. E, Tail, J. E. Ellis, and R. MacKinnon.

The Invercargill Club.

The Invercargill Club.

The Athenæum is probably the most useful and attractive institution in Invercargill. The building is architecturally a handsome one of brick, and the Dee Street front is surmounted by a colossal statue of Minerva. The four sides of the building are well exposed to view, shewing wide streets on two sides, with a public square and the post office grounds on the other sides. Although supported partly by membership subscriptions and partly by rents from endowments and from the lower floor of the building, the reading-room is free to strangers visiting the district. Subscribers number about 540. The full subscription, including the use of reading-room and library, is £1 per annum, and for the reading-room alone ten shillings, but ladies' cards for both are only ten shillings, and for youths under sixteen years of age, also ten shillings. A donation of £10 secures life membership without further fee. In the principal reading-room, which is very commodious and measures 63 × 28 feet, there are about seventy different colonial and Home papers, and over thirty magazines, besides periodicals in the ladies' reading-room; the library itself contains about 6000 volumes. There is also another apartment used as a smoking and chess room. A very good nucleus of a museum also exists, but until some improvements are made in the building this department will remain somewhat in the background. The ground floor is let as offices and shops, the reading-rooms and library being on the upper floor, but extensive additions made to the building in 1898 enabled the managers to provide another library, measuring 63 feet by 17 feet, and also additional offices on the ground floor. The institution was incorporated in 1871.

Masonic.

The Southland Masonic District extends from the Bluff to Arrowtown, and includes eleven lodges; namely, Southern Cross, and St. John (Invercargill), Fortitude (Bluff), Mokoreta (Wyndham), Harvey (Gore), Lake of Ophir (Queenstown), Arrow Kilwinning (Arrowtown), Taringatttra (Lumsden), Winton (Winton), Aparima (Riverton), and Wallace (Otautau). Mr. W. Smith is the Grand Superintendent of the Order in the Southland district.

Mr. William Smith , Past Deputy Grand Master, Grand Superintendent
Mr. W. Smith.

Mr. W. Smith.

of the Masonic Order for the Southland district, was born in Stirling, Scotland, in 1851. With his parents he arrived by the ship “Strath-feldsay” in 1858, and the following year the family settled in Invercargill, the sits of which was then in virgin forest and swamp. Mr. Smith attended school at the foot of Bell Hill, Dunedin, under Mr. Livingston, and was afterwards a pupil under Messrs Bethune and MacDonald, in Invercargill. He was taken from school at the age of twelve and apprenticed to the drapery trade, in which he found employment for about twenty years. He then established himself in the printing business. Mr. Smith has been connected with education as a member of the Central School committee, of which he was chairman for some years. He had twenty years of experience as a volunteer, became a good shot, and took the Championship for rifle shooting in Southland in 1893. Mr. Smith was married, in 1876, to a daughter of Mr. Walter Henderson, of Bluff, and has three sons and two daughters. He is further referred to us a general printer.

Lodge St. John , New Zealand Constitution, has a membership of ninety, and holds its meetings on the third Friday in each month, at the Masonic Hall, of which the Lodge is part owner. Officers for 1903: Messrs T. M. Rankin, Worshipful Master; J. Walker, Immediate Past Master; W. J. Taylor, Senior Warden; G. A. Turner, Junior Warden; J. M. Aitkin, Secretary: and T. Crawley, (Past Master), Treasurer.

Mr. Thomas Murray Rankin , who is the third son of Mr. William Rankin, of Waikiwi, the well known breeder of Ayrshire cattle, was Worshipful Master of Lodge St. John, New Zealand Constitution, in 1903. He was born at Waikiwi, was educated there, and became a watchmaker and jeweller. Mr. Rankin has long taken an interest in Freemasonry and Oddfellowship, and has gone through all the principal chairs in the Pioneer Lodge of Oddfellows. He is a member of the Southland Caledonian Society. Mr. Rankin was married, in 1897, to a daughter of Mr. F. Gilchrist, of Invercargill, and has two daughters. He is further referred to in connection with his business.

Mr. James Walker , Immediate Past Master of Lodge St. John, New Zealand Constitution, was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1857. He attended school in his native city, and became an ironmonger, in 1873, Mr. Walker came to Port Chalmers, with his father, by the ship “Peter Denny.” On settling in Invercargill, he found employment in pattern making and carpentering until 1891, when he joined his father in establishing the Victoria page 824 Foundry, under the style of John Walker and Son. Mr. Walker has been a member of Lodge St. John since 1891, and was Worshipful Master in 1902. Since 1876 he has been a member of the Shamrock. Rose and Thistle Lodge of Oddfellows, he has been twice Mayor of South Invercargill, and sat on the Council for many years. For five years prior to 1902, Mr. Walker was a member of the Invercargill Hospital Board. As a volunteer he served five years in the
Gerstenkorn, photo.Mr. J. Walker.

Gerstenkorn, photo.Mr. J. Walker.

K. Battery, and was for ten years a mum but of the Invercargill Band. Mr. Walker was married, in 1894, to a daughter of the late Mr. Alexander Robertson, of Invercargill, and has four sons and three daughters.

The Southern Cross Lodge , No. 9, New Zealand Constitution, was originally No. 997 of the English Constitution, and went over to the New Zealand Constitution in January, 1890. Meetings are held in the Masonic Hall, (of which the lodge is one of the joint owners), Forth Street, Invercargill, on the first Friday in each month. The building is of brick, one storey in height, has sittings for 150 persons, and stands on a section of a quarter of an acre of land. In 1904 the Lodge-had ninety-live members, and the officers were Messrs M. Thompson, Worshipful Master; W. Strang, Senior Warden; F. A. Steans, Junior Warden, A. E. Smith. Immediate Past Master, and Charles H. Roberts, Secretary.

Mr. Charles Henry Roberts , Secretary of the Southern Cross Lodge, is well known in Invercargill as an architect, and is further referred to as such in another article.

Mr. Joseph John Hiskens . Immediate Past Master of Lodge Southern Cross, in 1903, was born in
Gerstenkorn, photo.Mr. J. J. Hiskens.

Gerstenkorn, photo.Mr. J. J. Hiskens.

Christchurch in 1865. He was educated at Hokitika, at private and public schools, was apprenticed as a chemist at Timaru, and has been in business in Dee Street, Invercargill, on his own account, since 1895. He was Worshipful Master of his Lodge in 1902, First Principal in the Royal Arch Chapter in the following year, and has been connected with the order since 1895. Mr. Hiskens served for five years as a member of the Invercargill Athenaeum committee, and was president of the Southland Bowling Club in 1902. He was married, in 1892, to a daughter of the late Mr. R. S. Borne, of Invercargill.
Mr. Alexander Rogerson Porter , Past Master of Lodge Southern Cross, New Zealand Constitution, was born in Dumfries-shire, Scotland, in 1865, and, having arrived with his parents in Port Chalmers in 1870, was educated in the Tuapeka district. He was apprenticed in Lawrence, and became a partner in the firm of Messrs Wohlers and Porter, in 1887. On the dissolution of that firm in 1893, he commenced business on his own account in Invercargill. Mr. Porter takes an interest in local affairs. Is a member of the Southland Bowling Club, of which he was president in 1903, and occupied a similar position in connection with the Pirates' Football Club. He was married, in 1892, to a daughter of Mr. S. Stanford, of Lumsden, and has three daughters and one son.
Oddfellowship.

Mr. Archibald Todd , who served as Provincial Grand Master of the Order of Oddfellows, at Invercargill, in 1900, was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1844. In 1853 he arrived in Victoria With his parents, and, after attending school, was brought up to the grocery trade in Bendigo. In 1861 he was at the Gabriel's Gully rush, and drove the fourth waggon that travelled from Dunedin to the Dunstan. On his return from that trip, he sold his team, and was employed in Dunedin as a carter for two years. He was afterwards gold mining at Macrae's Flat and other diggings. For seven years subsequently Mr. Todd was engaged in country pursuits at Lower Waipori, and followed a similar life for fifteen years in the Upper Waipori and Mosgiel districts, and had a short experience in prospecting for gold at Mount Pegasus. He then removed to Wellington, and was for six years engaged in the grocery trade in Lambton Quay. In 1890 he returned to Southland and was on a farm at Waipapa for sometime, and subsequently at Ryal Bush, for eighteen months. In 1892 he joined the railway service at Invercargill. and has since then been employed in that way. Mr. Todd joined the Order of Oddfellows at Bendigo, and in 1859 he brought his clearance to Dunedin, and was afterwards a member of the Upper Waipori page 825 Lodge. In 1879 he became one of the founders of the Mosgiel Lodge, and in 1883 was presented with a medal. Since settling in Southland he has been connected with the Loyal St. George Lodge, in which he passed all the chairs, before being promoted to the principal chair in connection with the Order in Southland. Mr. Todd was married, in April, 1893, to a daughter of the late Mr. Thomas McIntosh, of Ryal Bush, and has had four sons, one of whom is dead.

The Shamrock, Rose And Thistle Lodge , No. 4913, Independent Order of Oddfellows. Manchester Unity. This Lodge, which was established in 1863, has a membership of 350, and the accumulated funds amount to £10,000. Meetings are held at the Oddfellows' Hall in Tay Street. This hall, which is the property of the Lodge, is a wooden building erected some years ago, and has seating accommodatiom for 200 people. The officers of the Lodge for 1903 were: W. Stevenson, Noble Grand: A. Ball, Vice-Grand; E. Miller, Grand Master; A. Smith, Warden; T. W. Walker, Permanent Secretary; and G. F. Menzies, Elective Secretary.

Mr. Thomas W. Walker , Secretary of the Shamrock, Rose and Thistle Lodge, is well-known in Invercargill as accountant to the Borough Council.

Rechabites.

The Murihiku Tent , No. 27, Independent Order of Rechabites, was established in 1877, and now has a membership of 140. The meetings are held fortnightly in the Temperance Hall. Esk Street. The officers for 1903 were: Messrs W. Stead, District Chief Ruler; J. L. Lennie, Last Chief Ruler; J. Stewart. Chief Ruler; W. Ashley, District Ruler; W. Strang, Treasurer: J. Hensley, Secretary: and Messrs J. Lennie, H. Cooper, and W. Stead, Trustees.