Swan Song

NZ Truth, Issue 1208, 24 January 1929, Page 6

Swan Song

THE signature o£ A. H. Shanks may now be accepted as a perfectly good discharge for moneys due from the public service superannuation fund, which seems something of a joke. For the beneficiary is a hale and upright stalwart, with; keen, unflecked eye and powerful "tennis- drive" arm! The last stationary job held by A.H.S. was superintendent of . telegraphs at Christchurch, m which office he spent the major portion of his forty years hard, and m which he proved that the hiatus between the upper and lower rungs of the ladder is capable of successful negotiation. i As a final pat on the back lie was assigned during the last six months of his career the job of. giving various telegraph offices an argus-eyed once over. In his hey-day Shanks was a master manipulator of the dot and dash system. But right through the piece he believed that what he set his hand to do should be done well! Now that he has -tossed m his; inr. signia of office, he will be able to give free .rein to his hobbies. He is as much at' home on the tennis court as m Lady Kitty's domain. 'Way up. on Cashmere Hills, too, he grows choice bulbs that are ambngst the' earliest to greet Canterbury's spring sun. . If his favorite swan song is not "Thank God for a-" garden," then -it ought to be! . .