Mr Walter Birks, known affectionately to many people as “Tom Birks”, died in Rotorua on 3 February 1974.

Stipendiary magistrate on the Rotorua circuit since 1969, he was previously Crown Prosecutor in Wellington for 12 years and, before that, assistant Crown Prosecutor under the late Sir William Cunningham.

With his wife Hilda, who died in 1968, Mr Birks was active in the Hutt Valley Marriage Guidance Council, the Christian Family Movement and the Scouting Association. They had eight children, all adopted.

Mr Birks was a member of the Council of the New Zealand Law Society in 1957 and 1958. He was also on the Council of the Wellington District Law Society for 12 years and its President in 1958.

This obituary was published in LawTalk 1, May 1974.