Four admitted to Order of New Zealand 

An All Black, a writer, a bishop and a judge have received special honours this Waitangi Day.

Rugby great Sir Brian Lochore, writer C.K. Stead, former Governor-General Sir Paul Reeves and Supreme Court judge Sir Owen Woodhouse have been honoured with Order of New Zealand marking 20 years since the first person, Sir Edmund Hillary, was made a member.

Lochore is noted for having made a significant contribution to the sport of rugby, as a player, coach and administrator, both at the national and international level. He made his All Black debut in 1963 and played 25 tests for New Zealand, 18 as captain. He was appointed a selector of the All Blacks in 1983 and was the national coach from 1985 to 1987.

Sir Brian has held a variety of overseas and local coaching assignments, including coaching the Overseas Unions at the International Rugby Board Centenary in 1986. He has been active in many farming organisations including the Meat and Wool Boards' Electoral Committee. Sir Brian also has the letters KNZM and OBE after his name.

Sir Paul Reeves was ordained a priest in 1960, was a lecturer in church history and served as Director of Christian Education until 1971. He was ordained Bishop of Waiapu in 1971, Bishop of Auckland in 1979 and Primate and Archbishop of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia Diocese of Auckland in 1980.

He retired as Archbishop in 1985 to become Governor-General. He held the position until 1990 and was the first person of Maori descent appointed to the job.

Reeves has received several other honours including being made a Knight Bachelor in 1985, a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1985, a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victoria Order in 1986 and received the Queens's Service Order for public services in 1990.

Professor C.K. Stead has been involved in New Zealand literature as a poet, novelist, critic and academic. He was an Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Auckland for 20 years until he retired to write full time.

He has won several awards at the New Zealand Book Awards. His most recent literary work, Mansfield, was a finalist for the 2005 Tasmania Pacific Fiction Prize and was commended in the 2005 Commonwealth Writers Prize for the South East Asia and South Pacific region.

Stead won the Mansfield Fellowship in 1972. He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to literature.

Sir Owen Woodhouse has had a long and distinguished legal career as a lawyer, jurist and chairman of government commissions.

He was a law partner from 1946 to 1961 prior to his appointment to the Supreme Court. He was the chairman of the Royal Commission on Accident Compensation from 1966 to 1967, which produced what is now known as the Woodhouse Report which recommended a "no fault" accident compensation scheme. The report is regarded as one of the most significant legal reforms of this generation.

Woodhouse was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross in 1944 for naval operations in the Adriatic. He was made a Knight Bachelor in 1974 and a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1981.