CHIEF POSTMASTER.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 230, 28 September 1934, Page 3

CHIEF POSTMASTER.

MR. HARRISON DIES.

HIGHLY POPULAR OFFICER.

WIDESPREAD REGRET. The death occurred this morning of Mr. S. M. Harrison, Chief Postmaster at Auckland, aged 54 years. He had been ill for three weeks, and his death was due to appendicitis with complications. Mr. Harrison joined the .service of the Past and Telegraph Department in 1595 as a message boy in Christchurch. He was later appointed a. cadet in the P. and T. stores at Wellington in 1900, and in the same year he was transferred to the inspector's office. He remained i:i that office until promoted to the position of chief clerk in the chief inspector's office in 1919.

In 1023 he became principal oE the postal division at the G.P.0., Wellington. In 1928 lie was made Chief Postmaster at Dunediu and in April three years later ho was promoted to the post which he held at his death.

Colleagues said this morning that Mr. Harrison was one of the most popular and highly-respected officers of the Department in tho Dominion. Messages of

regret at hk death have been received from all over the Dominion, from Awanui to Invcrcargill. He was always, keenly interested in the activities of the large staff under his control, and he was patron of the P. and T. Social and Literary Club and also of three or four more Department clubs in Auckland.

Mr. Harrison was a member of the council of the Chamber of Commerce. Ho was also, an enthusiastic worker for the Plymouth Brethren.

Mr. Harrison's particular sphere "f church activity was in the Howe Street Hall, whore he- was the leader of the Bible class movement of the Brethren Church in the city. He was especially interested in young people, and in the movement itself there were some 400 young men and women. He had been a Sunday school teacher and superintendent for over 30 years in the various parts of the Dominion in which he had been stationed.