YOUNGEST IN N.Z.?

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 77, 1 April 1940, Page 11

YOUNGEST IN N.Z.?

STATE DEPARTMENT HEAD. MR. C. H. BENNEY'S APPOINTMENT. (From Our Correepondenit.) WELLINGTON, Sunday. Appointed acting Under-Secretary for Mines, Mr. C. H. Benney, who U 38 years of age, becomes perhaps the youngest man to hold the position of head of a Department of State in New Zealand. His family has been associated with mining from the pioneering days. Mr. Bennev was born at Konmta. in the Hauraki district, his father, Mr. J. H. Benney, then being manager of the Komata Reef Gold Mining Company. He is now manager of the Golden Dawn Company, which mines at Awharoa, between Paoroa and Waihi. Hi-* grandfather was also in charge of ii< : .nes on the Hauraki goldfields, having come from Cornwall in the early days, and his eon succeeded him at Komata.

He ivas educated at the School and the Thames High School, where he won a junior university scholarship. In 1819 he joined the Civil Service, entering the Mines Department at Wellington. He continued his studies at the Wellington Technical College, and in 1926 completed hie professional accountancy examinations. Serving in all branches, he remained with the Mines Department until 1930, by which time he had travelled over all the mining fields in the Dominion.

Mr. Benney then joined the Justice Department and was appointed to take charge of accounts at the institutional farm at Waikeria, near Te Awamutu. He returned to the Mines Department in 1937 as accountant.