NEW MINISTER

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 53, Issue 153, 10 April 1933, Page 6

NEW MINISTER

MR BITCHENER APPOINTED, PORTFOLIO OF PUBLIC WORKS. FOURTEEN YEARS TNI HOUSE. Per Press Association) ' WELLINGTON, This Day. Mr John Bitchener, M.P. for Waitaki, has been appointed Minister of Public Works, the appointment being necessitated owing to the recent resignation of the Hon. W. Bownie Stewart. The portfolio was previously held by the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates. Mr Bitchener was born in the Midland Counties (England) in 1864 and arrived in New Zealand in 1875. He attended the Waimate School and later worked in sawmills in AVaimate and Southland. He then went into the farming industry, taking up a property of 540 acres at Hook, South Canterbury. He took an active part in the public life of the district, was chairman of tJie school committee and for many years a member of the Waimate County Council, the Timaru High School Board (and chairman for a period), the Timaru Harbour Board and the Waimate District High School committee. As well he was lor a period president of both the South Canterbury and the Waimate branch of the Farmers' Union and a member of the Advisory Board. He has been chairman of the Waimate Co-op Flourmilling Co., and a director of the Canterbury Farmers' Co-opera-tive Association. He has represented Waitaki in Parliament since 1919, and in the House was a member of the Taxation Committee' and the Meat Control Committee.