In October 2006 Bro Kerry Nicholls, Senior Warden of Lodge Awatea No. 258 (Palmerston North) and a member of the Hawke's Bay Research Lodge No. 305, travelled to Ballarat in Victoria, Australia to represent New Zealand as the Kellerman Lecturer at the biennial conference of the Australian and New Zealand Masonic Research Council (ANZMRC).
 The lectures are named after the late RW Bro Harry Kellerman, P Dep
GM of the NSW and ACT Constitution, who was the driving force in
getting the Australian Masonic Research Council started in 1992 (New
Zealand was not invited to join until 1996). His vision was to see a
coordinated approach by the various Research Lodges and study groups so
that all the information they were gathering could be shared with a
wider audience. He decided that every two years the Lodges would get
together and Brethren, chosen from amongst them, would deliver a
lecture for discussion and debate. After his death a few years later,
the Council decided to name the lectures after him.
Bro Nicholls' lecture, entitled "A Conceptual Overview of Maoridom
and Freemasonry in New Zealand Society", was one of seven presented at
the conference (one lecturer from each of the Australian and New
Zealand Grand Lodge jurisdictions) and as such was subjected to
critical examination from the fifty fellow lecturers and Masonic
researchers present. His lecture was well received and was accorded
praise for the depth of research as well as the overall presentation.
At this conference it was agreed that, in the future, New Zealand
would be able to have two Kellerman Lecturers in recognition of the
fact that all ten Research Lodges in New Zealand have now joined as
members of the ANZMRC. Most of the Australian Grand Lodges have between
2-4 Research Lodges per jurisdiction - Western Australia has only one.
They are quite envious of the wide spread Research Lodge coverage
throughout our country.
Incidentally, RW Bro Kellerman was born and raised in Wellington
before he shifted as a youngster with his family to Sydney. He spent
his working life in education, first as a teacher but later as an
administrator for the NSW Government.
Previous New Zealand Kellerman Lecturers have included VW Bro Guy
Palliser, PGDC (1998 and 2000), RW Bro Bill Gibson, PGW (2002) and Bro
Roel van Leeuwen, SW (2004). We now invite New Zealand Freemasons to
forward a five-thousandword lecture for possible selection as Kellerman
Lecturer for 2008 when the Conference will be held in Canberra. Contact
your Research Lodge for details.
VW Bro Colin Heyward
from Issue 1, 2007 (Vol 35), New Zealand Freemason Magazine
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