APPOINTING AN ENGINEER.

Shannon News, 2 May 1922, Page 3

APPOINTING AN ENGINEER.

A pleasant manifestation of the sporting spirit marked the Horowhenua Electric Power Board’s selection of an Engineer on Wednesday. Forty applications were received .for the position, and these were, narrowed down to three for personal interview— Mr T. R. Overton, Engineer for the Central (Waikato) Board; Mr H .C. Qatenf Engineer for the Cambridge Board; and Mr A. A. Hastings, Engineer for the Napier Borough Council’s Electric Power Department. On the Board’s choice of Mr Overton being communicated to these gentlemen, they expressed a desire to meet the Board again before taking their departure. Their wish being acceded to, the chairman, Mr G. A. Monk, addressing them, said the Board had found it a matter of extreme difficulty to make a decision between them, and felt very fortunate in having men of such' calibre to choose from. “We felt,” said the chairman, “that if we had put the three names in a hat and drawn one, we could not have gone wrong, though, of course, we did not adopt that method.” He felt- the Board could congratulate itself upon the selection it made from the forty applicants. Finally, the chairman wished the two unsuccessful candidates every success in their profession. He'felt they had the ability to rise to the top, and he was only sorry the Board could not have Ihe benefit of the experience of all three. (Hear, hear.) Mr Overton thanked the Board for its confidence in appointing him Engineer. ‘ There was a* great responsibility resting on fhe Engineer. The Board, as laymen, had to depend on his technical advice very much. “You are entrusted with the expenditure cf a great amount of money, and have to spend it economically and efficiently,” he continued, and it would be his place to see that that was done. Mr Overton said he knew Mr Oaten’s work in Cambridge, and he paid a tribute to its thoroughness and efficiency, mentioning with some pride that he had been a former student of the speaker’s in Dunedin, and he look-

ed to him to make further advancement in his profession. He had not met Mr Hastings till that day. Mr Oaten congratulated the Board on its choice. Mr Overton had made good under the Central Board, and all spoke well of him in the Waikato. He thanked the Board for its kind consideration of his claims.

Mr Hastings also thanked the Bpard. He felt certain that in Mr Overton they had an Engineer who would do first-class work and the Board should feel very gratified to know that they had got a man of his abality. The chairman: We are very glad to have met you, gentlemen, and to see you going away in that spirit