A GOOD OFFICER.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19567, 13 March 1929, Page 15

A GOOD OFFICER.

MR KILUCK'S RETIREMENT. PROTEST BY HOSPITAL BOARD CHAIRMAN. .rttiS- JLSS3CIATIO3I TEUO3AX.' FALMEKSiON NORTH, March 12. Strong exception to the Health De-partn-.cnt allowing its secretary, Mr E. A. S. Kiliick, to quit the Service to take up ?:>•• posit.oa of town clerk of Tuiiai u, v.a.i taken bv Mr Wm. Wallace, chairman of ?h<■ Hospital Boards' Conference, to-day.

Mr vVallace stated that Air Kiliick haa ban an officer or tb-.' Department for 2-3 years, and secretary for 11 years. il-. regretted his departure "irom the Department, but was pleased to see that he had been chosen as town clerk of Timaru out of 174 applications. The s.-.aker regretted that the Minister Uad al:o«ed a man of such ability to leave the Department, but to his astonishment be found that the Minister was subservient to the Civil Service Commissioner in the matter. Mr Wallacethought the Conference should take steps to get him retained v/ith the Department. If any service in New Zealand wanted top notchers it was the Civil Service, and Mr Killick's depar-

lure was a loss to the vrhole community. "1 may say,"' said the speaker, "that at the first opportunity 1 approached the Minister with a view to efforts being made to retain the services of Mr Killiek, and although I gather that some inducement could be offered, it was by no means sufficient. The Minister himself made the serious admission that he regretted the state of affairs under which it was impossible to retain the services of men like Mr Kiliick. A man of such exceptional ability as* Mr Killiek was Burely worth adequate remuneration for hia services, especially in view of the fact that if allowed to function fully he ■would be the means of saving thousands of pounds in other directions."