New Year Honours: List casts wide net for Kiwis of merit

Work in the arts, health and education and in Maori and Pacific welfare has been rewarded in the 2001 New Year Honours list.

Glass blowers, scriptwriters, peace activists and broadcasters this year join the traditional local councillors, meals-on-wheels workers and JPs in the list.

Among the new companions of the New Zealand Order of Merit are academics, health workers, a judge and several people who have worked in Maori welfare.

Among some of the better-known names in the list of officers of the New Zealand Order of Merit are cereal maker Dick Hubbard, mountaineer and youth worker Graeme Dingle, netball coach Leigh Gibbs, Olympic rower Rob Waddell and Auckland barrister and rugby league official Gerald Ryan.

Former Epsom Girls' Grammar headmistress Gaewyn Griffiths, former Elam School of Fine Arts professor Robert Ellis and Zonta club worker Lorna McIntosh are some of the notable Aucklanders to receive the honour.

Musician David Kilgour, one of the original proponents of pop music's Dunedin Sound, joins squash player Leilani Joyce and boxer David Tua in becoming members of the New Zealand Order of Merit.

Difficult and dangerous work in East Timor, Kosovo and the Middle East has earned several military officers New Year honours for their work around the world.

The Queen's Service Medal for Community Service and Public Service is given this year to more than 50 New Zealanders for work in fields as diverse as pipe bands, Rotary clubs, local history, charities, bowls, community theatres and art centres.

* The Order of New Zealand is the highest award, and can be held by only 20 people at any one time. This means one of the members must die before another can be appointed. No appointments have been made this year.

* Principal companions of the New Zealand Order of Merit were previously given the title of either Knight or Dame Grand Companion.

* Distinguished Companions of the New Zealand Order of Merit were previously Knights or Dame Companions.

* Companions, officers and members of the New Zealand Order of Merit are unchanged, with a companion being the top award of these three honours.

* Queen's Service Medals for Community and Public Service are unchanged.