NEW MEMBER

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21197, 21 August 1940, Page 6

NEW MEMBER

HARBOUR BOARD SEAT MR C. A. BARRELL APPOINTED ENGINEERING QUALIFICATIONS o The appointment of Mr C. A. Barrell, M.P. for Hamilton, to the vacancy on the Auckland Harbour Board caused by the death of Mr R. T. Reid is announced by the Minister of Marine, the Hon. D. G. McMillan. Mr Barrell will represent the Hamilton, Te Awamutu, Cambridge and. Ngaruawahia Borough Councils on the board. In announcing the appointment, which has been made by the Governor-General by Order-in-Council, Dr. McMillan said the board was fortunate in obtaining a man of Mr Barren’s experience and qualifications. Mr Barrell was an engineer by profession, with 20 years’ experience with a Christchurch firm. He had seen service in various centres in New Zealand in this capacity. “Since the Government took office in 1935 Mr Barrell has been associated with Parliamentary committees dealing with industries and industrial development,” added the Minister. “Immediately after the outbreak of war he was appointed a co-opted member of the special committee set up by the Minister of Industries and Commerce, the Hon. D. G. Sullivan. The committee’s activities have covered a wide field of organisation and industrial research, necessitating almost continuous attendance in Wellington.”

The work of the committee had included the provision of additional refrigeration space and machinery, as well as the investigation of the projected development of a New Zealand iron and steel industry. The Minister added that Mr Barrell had also supervised for the Government the dismantling of useful machinery from the stranded steamer Port Bowen, and he throight Mr Barrell’s knowledge and experience would be of great value to the Auckland Harbour Board.

Born in the eighties in North Canterbury, Mr Barrell is in his second term as Labour Member of Parliament for Hamilton. Educated at the Rangiora School he worked on the land as a youth and latex joined the railway service, where he ■qualified as a mechanical engineer. Mr Barrell took a keen interest in military training and attained the rank of sergeant-major in the local unit of the New Zealand Defence Forces. Believing that at that time the Railways Depai’tment did not offer enough scope to an ambitious young man, Mr Barrell resigned from the service at the age of 27 and joined the firm of Booth, Macdonald, Limited. He became branch manager at New Plymouth, and later manager at Auckland. From Auckland he went to Invercargill to take charge of his firm’s engineering works, remaining in that position for eight years, after which he was promoted to branch inspector. In 1927 he decided to enter business on his own account and took over the agencies of Booth Macdonald, Limited, in Hamilton.