AFTER FORTY YEARS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 76, 30 March 1928, Page 5

AFTER FORTY YEARS.

TELEGRAPH SUPERINTENDENT RETIRES. MR. J. M. WILLIAMS, OF AUCKLAND. VACATES HIS OFFICE TO-MORROW. After over 40 years' service in the Post and Telegraph Department Mr. J. M. Williams, Superintendent of Telegraphs at Auckland, will retire from that position to-morrow. During his career Mr. Williams has seen many changes in the working of the telegraph service in the Dominion, principal among which has been the change over from the first Morse duplex to the quad duplex system, and then to the present multiplex innovation. These changes

were put into vogue on account of the increased business. Prior to their installation, work piled up, and the new systems enabled it to be accelerated. AO-dav, with the improved multiplex printing machines, messages could be got away with a 20-minutes serivce to main stations fitted with those machines. The effect of the Murray machines was that much more work was enabled to be done by the same number of staff and line accommodation.

Mr. Williams commenced his career as a message boy in Wanganui in 1888, when Mr. J. F. Mcßeth was chief postmaster of that district. Subsequently he spent six months in the telegraph gallery in Wellington undergoing instruction in telegraphing. Mr. Williams returned to Wanganui, where he was stationed for five years as telegraphist, and was tranferred to Wellington. He went back to Wanganui in 1894, where he remained till 1909, when he was transferred to Napier to take up an executive position, remaining there for three and a-half years. From Napier Mr. Williams was promoted to be supervisor at Wellington, and occupied that position right through the war period. In 1919 he received the appointment of supervisor at Auckland, and in 1925 was again promoted to be superintendent of telegraphs here, a position he has held ever since.

Many and varied are the incidents connected with the New Zealand telegraph service of which Mr. Williams can speak, and talking to a "Star" representative this morning he said the hardest time in his career was during the war period, the whole time of which, in Wellington, the machines were working practically twenty-four hours a day. "The military messages to be handled were tremendous," said Mr. Williams, "and some of our instructions were of the most imperative and emphatic nature; but they were carried out to the letter.*

'In my opinion," he said, "telephones are likely to cut into telegraph business more and more in future, particularly in respect of short-distance messages. With the advent of the inter-island telephonic communication, which is now firmly established, telegraphic business in future is not likely to grow at the same rate as that of telephonic in New Zealand."

Mr. Williams paid a high tribute to the Press relationship he has had with newspapers in the districts in which he has been stationed. "We have always endeavoured to do our best for them," he said, " and they, in turn, have always treated us with courtesy and consideration, especially when Press work has been particularly heavy."

Mr. Williams will be given a farewell to-morrow by members of the staff stationed in Auckland.