LONG SERVICE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 156, 3 July 1937, Page 12

LONG SERVICE.

VALUATION DEPARTMENT. MR. W. T. WALT.TS RETIRES. After 33 years' service as a valuer in the Government Valuation Department. Mr. W. F. Wallis, particularly weil known in the Waikato and Tha mes Valley districts, retired at the end of last month. Many tributes were paid to his services at gatherings held in his honour in Auckland. Mr. Wallis' father had occupied a similar position, being one of the four original district valuers appointed in the Auckland district. His own service began in 1904, on his return after three years' active service in the Boer War. He gained his commission in the field, and was the first Waikato boy to hold a commission in the Waikato Mounted Rifles. On joining the Pepartment he was appointed assistant-valuer .in the Auckland and Waikato districts. His first appointment as district valuer was at Tfturanjra, where he was stationed for a considerable time. Subsequently Mr. Wallis was transferred fp Morrinsville, where his district included Coromandel, Thames, Piako, Hauraki Plains, Matamata and Ohinemuri counties. In the last three years of his service he was transferred to Hamilton, from which centre he still controlled the same district. At an official farewell tendered to Mr. Wallis in the Auckland office of the Valuation Department, the officer in charge, Mr. C. «T. Hurley, presented to him . and Mrs. Wallis, on behalf of his fellow officers, two fireside chairs. Other officers added their tributes. Representatives of other departments were included in the attendance at a supper held later in the Arts Hall, presided over by Mr. Meredith, and Mr. K. N. Graham, Commissioner of Crown Lands, South Auckland, and Mr. D. S. B. Heather, district appraiser, State Advances Corporation, expressed appreciation of the assistance given by Mr. Wallis in his official capacity.