took was expressing her viewpoint." On a state visit to Vanuatu in 1988, Reeves was invited to kill a pig at a ceremony, creating controversy as he was patron of the Royal New Zealand Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. He later resigned as patron. This was followed by a similar incident when Reeves was a member of a party that shot an endangered bird during a trip to New Zealand's sub-Antarctic islands in December 1989. The bird was a light-mantled albatross and protected under the Wildlife Act 1953, however the Department of Conservation Southland operations manager Lou Sanson accepted that the shooting was accidental. Retirement After his retirement from the viceregal office, Reeves became the Anglican Consultative Council Observer at the United Nations in New York (1991–93) and Assistant Bishop of New York (1991–94). From 1994 until 1995 he served briefly as Dean of Te Whare Wānanga o Te Rau Kahikatea (the theological college of Te Pihopatanga o Aotearoa, and a constituent member of St John's College, Auckland). He was also Deputy Leader of the Commonwealth Observer group to South Africa, Chair of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, and Visiting Montague Burton Professor of International Relations at the University of Edinburgh. Reeves went on to chair the Fiji Constitution Review Commission from 1995 until 1997, culminating in Fiji's readmission to the Commonwealth, until its suspension in 2000. On 12 December 2007 it was reported that Reeves was involved with "secret talks" to resolve Fiji's year-long political crisis, following the 2006 Fijian coup d'état. In 2004, Reeves made a statement in support of New Zealand republic, stating in an interview, "...if renouncing knighthoods was a prerequisite to being a citizen of a republic, I think it would be worth it." Reeves served as the Chancellor of the Auckland University of Technology, from February 2005 until August 2011. In July 2011, Reeves announced that he had been diagnosed with cancer, and therefore was retiring from all public responsibilities. He died from cancer on 14 August 2011, aged 78. Honours and other awards Reeves was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal (1977), he was appointed a Chaplain of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem in April 1982, Knight Bachelor in the 1985 Queen's Birthday Honours, a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George on 6 November 1985, a