Change in Control

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 317, 30 March 1928, Page 1

Change in Control

Telegraph Branch Goes Over Highest Paid Job Abolished WITH the retirement to-morrow of the Superintendent of Telegraphs at Auckland (Mr. J. M. 'Williams), the control of the telegraph branch of the department will pass into the hands of the Chief Postmaster, and the position of Telegraph Superintendent will be abolished.

For some time there has been a | move toward establishing this administrative change, but the men on the telegraph side are believed to be opposed to it, because of their preference for an independent branch with a superintendent in charge. If the highest position in the telegraph branch is removed the men will not have the same goal to aspire to as they have at present, and the independence of the telegraph as, a separate branch will be more or less submerged in the new control. On the other hand the responsibility of the chief postmaster will be increased, the 250 men in the telegraph section coming directly under his control immediately. The only feature of the change which will affect the public, however, is the necessity to deal in business directly with the chief postmaster instead of with the superintendent.

| Upon his retirement to-morrow Mr. Williams will leave behind him a re- | cord of over 40 years’ service, during which he was never out of the telegraph section of the department. He | joined as a messenger iu Wanganui in ISSS| and later went to Wellington as an operator. He passed through the routine stages of official promotion, and in 1909 Napier office claimed him as supervisor. Three years later he . was transferred to Wellington iu a i similar capacity, and in 1919 became j senior supervisor. For the past three years he has been superintendent of | telegraphs at Auckland. Mr. Williams is popular with the men, and valued by the department as a capable officer. His staff is meeting him at the office this afternoon and presenting him with a tangible recognition of his good fellowship and of the kindness he has extended to his subordinates during his term here.