Appointment as a Justice of the Peace (JP) entails more than receiving a title – Justices commit themselves to serve their community for no monetary reward in return.
Cambridge-resident, Ian Peter Carr is one such example and has this year achieved the significant milestone of 50 years of selfless service as a JP.
“I have lost count of the possibly thousands of times I have appended my signature to documents,” Peter Carr told NewsViews.
It was in 1973 in Wellington, when this young, 32 years-old Master Mariner was first interviewed by the local MP Sir John Marshall, and subsequently sworn in as a ‘magistrate’ (as ‘Justices of the Peace’ were then called) before the Senior Wellington Magistrate Ben Scully.
“I imagine that my main feeling for the 50-years is a sense of pride in achieving good service to the community,” says Peter who turned 82 years of age recently.
Originally from Yorkshire, England, Carr has lived in New Zealand for more than 52 years and has strong roots in the Waikato and Cambridge communities. Currently, he lives in a Cambridge retirement village with his wife, Robyn.
Peter Carr was born and brought up in Hull, East Yorkshire during heavy bombing raid.
“I spent the first three years during the night in the neighbour’s bomb shelter (being) very cold in the winter. My father was away with the Royal Navy and we never met until I was three,” he says.
He attended Hymers College and “as I was a piano player, they (school) gave me a bugle for the band, hence my capacity to make noise,” Peter remarks in a lighter vein.
Like many others in his family, his interest was in the sea and he served for nearly a decade as a Deck Officer and subsequently qualified as a Master Mariner from Solent University (Southampton, UK) in 1967.
After several years at sea, Peter married a Kiwi girl and eventually took up residence in Wellington.
Apart from shipping, Peter Carr has had a long career in logistics and management, and over the years has been involved in various community groups putting his extensive experience to good use.
“I joined the Lions in Wellington and for the next 15 years was heavily involved in the community through that organization,” he says.
In 1973, when he was Chairman of the Wellington Port Employers Association, he was persuaded to stand for election to the Wellington Harbour Board.
“This was a successful move. I held that seat for 12 years but had to relinquish it when a career move took me to Auckland. For the final 3 years, I was the Deputy Chairman. Later in Auckland, I was asked to join the Auckland Rotary Club and was also on the board of the Royal NZ Yacht Squadron while being Course Marshal for two Americas Cup events,” adds Peter.
The list of his involvement in community activities goes on.
After his shift to Cambridge, “I took a firm interest in the re-shaping of the Cambridge Chamber of Commerce in the first decade of the new century.
“Later, I joined the Board of the NZ National Fieldays Society and was President and Board Chair for three years (2016-19) which I very much enjoyed.” Previously he served as Society’s vice-president, chair of its structure committee, and founded the NZ National Fieldays Society Future Leaders programme, to ‘help, educate and encourage young agricultural leaders’.
For his services, he was awarded Life Membership of the Cambridge Chamber of Commerce and the NZ National Fieldays Society.
He also served as Director, Karāpiro Rowing from 2016 to 2019.
As past president of the Retirement Village Residents Association of NZ, Peter still passionately continues to champion their cause and lobbies with the government to get retirement village residents a fairer deal.
Ample display of Peter’s literary skills and grasp of the happenings in and around his town, are visible in the fortnightly opinion-piece he writes for a local community newspaper.
He has not allowed age to slow down his passion for providing services to the community as a JP.
In spite of his shifting to a retirement village over a decade ago, Peter Carr still enjoys sitting with his clients at his little kitchen window table to get their job done.
Related stories: www.newsviews.co.nz/just-supporting-our-communities-says-te-akau-rural-fire-chief-mike-crosbie-qsm/
www.newsviews.co.nz/giving-to-others-a-virtue-of-jamie-toko-winner-of-civic-award/
www.newsviews.co.nz/retiring-justices-of-the-peace-recognised-for-service-to-community/
