AFTER 43 YEARS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3030, 17 March 1917, Page 11

AFTER 43 YEARS

MB,. DE CASTRO RETIRES FROM CIVIL SERVICE. Mr. F. K. do Castro retired from bis position asiSecretary for Education yesterday, to take tho customary three months' leavo of absence allowed to senior officers of tho Publio Service when retiring on superannuation. Mr. do Castro has had forty-tlireo years service, having been an officer ot tho Education Department from its establishment up till tho present timo. Ibo officers of the Department, among whom Mr. de Castro was extremely popular and highly esteemed, deemed it proper that the occasion of Jus retirement should be marked in some fitting manner, and at tho end of the day tho staff assembled to take leave of'him and to offer him good wishes. On behalf of tho staff, Dr. Anderson presented Mr. de Castro with a gold watch as a mark of the very high esteem in which ho was held by every man in the Head Offico service. It was on April 18, 1874, that Mr. do Castro entered tie service as a cadet in the Treasury, and at tho present moment there is no one in tho Treasury who was there when he joined. Most or bis then colleagues aro dead. In 18(8, while still quite a young man, ho was transferred to the Education Department, whose establishment was the outcome of tlie passing of the Education Act of 1877, and from then till .now ho has occupied a prominent position j in that branch of the Dominion's internal administration. As far back as 1900 he was formally gazetted Cluef Clerk, but ho had filled tho important duties of that position for several years previously under another title. Mr. do Castro points, with pride, to the fact that during the whole of his long period of servico ho has not been absent on sick leavo for a week all told (except for one operation). To tboso whose duties have brought them in contact with him, Mr. de Castro has over displayed a genial, frank, kindly courtesy ! that has won universal regard,, and a ! Knowledge of Departmental admimstra- | tion that was invaluablo to those who | sought his counsel or assistance. It i falls to tho lot of few men to serve | in a Department from its birth to its period of full development, and during' the greater part of the time in a highlv responsible position. In severing his connection with the Department, he leaves behind him a record of hard work capably and faithfully performed, and an oxemple which is worthy of emulation by all who conio after him.