Restoring a ruined ancestral cottage in Ireland to what it was a hundred years ago is a duty of heritage for Auckland commercial lawyer, Freemason and chunky chips lover Mark Winger.
“My children think I’ve probably lost it – but this is the inheritance,” says Mark, who was installed in November as the 79th Grand Master of Freemasons New Zealand – leading 7000 members in 220 lodges.
- Name
- Mark Roland (Mark) Winger
- Born
- Auckland. Moved to Kaikohe when 2 weeks old.
- Age
- 63.
- Entry to law
- Graduated LLB from Auckland University. Admitted in 1977.
- Workplace
- Senior partner at Holmden Horrocks, Auckland.
- Speciality area
- Commercial and corporate law and trusts.
His legal and Masonic connection has involved Mark in numerous not-for-profit organisations, trusts and charities, including United Way, Freemasons Foundation, Freemasons Charity and Camp Quality.
"I wanted to put something back into the community..."
Camp Quality organises camps in five locations in January for children with cancer.
“If I considered an alternative career I would get involved in that area because it puts a real value back into society… It’s not difficult to get companions to help for the week… But we need people to held on committees… It takes a year of preparation to put on one week of activity and is hard to get people on committees… That’s the real challenge…”
Mark’s family came to New Zealand from Ireland and Norway, settling in Norsewood, Taumarunui and later Kaikohe.
Some time ago he bought eight and a half acres of land in Ireland’s County Leitrim, just below the border, near the town of Carrick, and hatched a heritage plan.
“It’s a handy excuse to go back each year and check it… Eight acres is in one acre paddocks leased to a local farmer… The other half acre is the piece of dirt that the cottage used to stand on…
“It was the cottage my folks lived in before they came out to New Zealand in the late 1920s…
“All that is there at the moment is a chimney, a mantle piece and fireplace… Every year when I go back I do something… I’ve dug out the foot of the cottage, the concrete base where it was… Built a garden shed with bunks, a place for wardrobe, tables and chairs, hedge cutters, chainsaw…
“I get everything out and basically have a camping holiday… no electricity, no running water…
“I have a plan for the cottage based on what it was 100 years ago… To rebuild it on same spot, follow the same format…
“The old cottage will be rebuilt from the ashes…” Mark says.
Divorced, with sons aged 34, 32 and a daughter aged 30 – “There are no other lawyers in the family, they all have proper jobs” - Mark started work in the former Companies Office investigation unit in Auckland in 1976, before joining Holmden Horrocks – known in the trade as HoHo – where he has been for 38 years.
“Part of the attraction of HoHo in those days was they did all the legal work for the Automobile Association, including defending AA members on traffic offences.…
“The junior lawyer did all the traffic work in the old Magistrate's Court… I was doing all that work, it was absolutely wonderful and great exposure and experience…
“It’s not a service the AA offers now but it was great exposure, building confidence on speaking on your feet, thinking through the issues, understanding the law, delving into technical issues and creating defences…
“It was a great learning cauldron…” says Mark, who has been on the board of the New Zealand AA for 30 years.
“My colleagues in AA look sideways at me because I drive a Hyundai Accent around town – I love my little car - and have a Sonata for out of town trips…
“I don’t know what attracted me to law, I had no legal connections… At King's College the last thing I thought I would be doing was law… A lot of the training I had was in the science area… When I came to university I did philosophy, a couple of science courses and a couple of legal… Then got more involved in the legal world…”
Mark’s father, who was born in 1890, died in 1963 when Mark was 10.
“Dad’s first wife died in 1919 in the Spanish flu epidemic…There were children from the first marriage, there was a second marriage, then a third marriage… He married Mum in 1949, when he was 59 and Mum was 26…
“Back in those days people tended to look a little askance at that… A big age gap… Mum was younger than some of the children of the first marriage…
“Dad had a sawmill, an early Ford dealership and a radio shop in Taumarunui, before he went to Kaikohe where he met Mum and had a sawmill...
“I have a brother born in 1950 plus numerous step brothers and step sisters including one in her late 90s… we have a good mix…”
Mark joined the Masons at the same time he started in law, after discussing Freemasonry with his uncle.
“I wanted to put something back into the community… Today’s world is very materialistic and a sense that everything has to be immediate… Immediate gratification… It is good to break that mould and good to put something back into the community for the good of society rather than for me personally… Society today needs people who are happy to make a long term commitment…”
Mark’s role as Grand Master – which he holds for three years - includes making two formal visits a year to the lodge’s 20 districts, attending board meetings, building stakeholder relationships and overseeing around $10 million a year Freemasons put back into society in grants, scholarships and research funding.
“One of my challenges is to raise public awareness of what we are doing… I have launched a programme directed at raising public awareness of Freemasonry – which is not being driven through the media… I have a jaundiced view of news media…
“I am encouraging each Freemason and his wife to be proactive in talking one to one, face to face, with lay people about Freemasonry… It’s not a membership campaign because we don’t recruit… It’s a public awareness campaign to raise our profile and to get away from the notion that we are a secret society… There is so much we do that we can talk about…
“I will also be juggling my legal work – so I have not retired…
“I’m modestly musical and used to play the piano, especially when stressed out… I enjoy traditional music… Mozart – he was a Freemason, so I suppose I have to say I like him… Gustav Holst’s The Planets… Brass bands and musicals such as Les Miserables and Phantom of the Opera…
“I don’t really read for pleasure… I read so much in the course of work it is a bit of a release to get away and not do any…
“Most of movies I see are when I’m on a long haul flight somewhere… Revenant was the last one… I’m not a Leonardo DiCaprio fan but in this movie he was stunning… I could relate to the themes coming through about loyalty and perseverance…
“I don’t have much sporting interests… My two boys are keen cricketers and I have followed them as a sideline cricket expert…
“My dinner guests would include Winston Churchill (a Mason), John Key – because I am impressed by what he does and the dignity he holds himself with, Prince Harry – who is the same age as my second son and has a similar nature, and Neil Armstrong (also a Mason)…
“The menu is easy… I have just had my Grand Installation and we had a banquet where I hosted Grand Masters from Australia’s six lodges and the English, Irish and Scottish lodges here…
“I made it a New Zealand feast, with lamb and the old traditionals, mint sauce, roast veges… So I would do the same…
“The gravy has a chilli powder added in from an Indian outfit in Sandringham called extra hot, which gives the gravy a tingle… I used to drink but don’t now so there would be New Zealand wines for the guests…
“And I would also make sure - because I am renowned for this - that there were chunky chips, not those stringy things…”
Timaru-based Jock Anderson has been writing and commenting on New Zealand lawyers and New Zealand's courts for most of his career in journalism. Read more of his law-related news with a touch of humour on Jock’s website www.caseload.co.nz and on his Facebook page. Contact Jock at jockanderson123@gmail.com.