VALUED SERVICE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 November 1939, Page 4

VALUED SERVICE

FORTY YEARS ON BOROUGH STAFF. MR E. J. O'LEARY FAREWELLED. At the conclusion of duty yesterday, all members of the Masterton Borough Council Gasworks staff assembled at the main works buildings to bid farewell to Mr E. J. O’Leary, one of their number who is retiring from association with this important branch of municipal service after an unbroken period of 40 years. Mr O’Leary’s service goes back to the days of the old Bannister Street works. Masterton’s street lighting was by gas, then considered quite up-to-date, following, as it did, on conditions in which wayfarers at night were assisted only by the feeble and uncertain illuminations of storm lanterns.

In presenting Mr O’Leary with a handsome case of pipes, the EngineerManager of the Gasworks, Mr J. Y. Douglas, on behalf of the donors, referred to the many estimable qualities of their retiring comrade and to his conspicuous services, not only to the Borough in laying and connecting many miles of gas mains in' every part of the town, but in his willingness to aid apprentice members of the staff who might not have become so proficient in their work without his always cheerful help. All concerned appreciated greatly what Mr O'Leary had done in these and other days.

Several other members of the staff supplemented Mr Douglas’s observations, and Mr O'Leary was accorded musical honours. In briefly expressing his thanks, Mr O’Leary spoke as one who had helped, in a humble, but willing way, to serve the best interests of the town in which he was born in semi-*pioneer days.