OBITUARY

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21978, 30 December 1936, Page 10

OBITUARY

* MR W. R. MORRIS [THE PRESS Special Service.] WELLINGTON, December 23.' The death has occurred of Mr William Russell Morris. C.M.G., 1.5.0. Mr Morris was born in Dublin in 1853, and educated at Bective College. He entered the Imperial Public Service in the accountants' branch of the Dublin General Post Office. He came to New Zealand in 1874, arriving in Lyttelton in September of that year in the ship Carisbrook Castle. Almost immediately he entered the New Zealrnd Civil Service as a clerk in the money order department, Christchurch. In 1879 he was transferred to Wellington. He returned to Christchurch in 1882, and was relransferred to Wellington in 1884. In 1891 he was promoted to the position cf senior clerk in the accountants' branch of the General Post Office, Wellington. This position he occupied until 1900. when he was appointed assistant controller of money orders and savings banks, and accountant. When a few months later changes in the administration of the service occurred on the deaths of Mr W. Gray, secretary, and Mr T. Rose, assistant secretary and inspector, Mr Donald Robertson was promoted to the position of secretary, and Mr Morris succeeded him in the position of assistant secretary and inspector. On January 1, 1913, when Mr Robertson was appointed to the position of Public Service Commissioner, Mr Morris succeeded him in the position of permanent head of the Post and Telegraph Department. On May 1, 1920, Mr Robertson retired from the position of Public Service Commissioner, and Mr Morris again succeeded him. Mr Morris retained the position until 1923. when he retired. Since that time he had been living at Wadestown. Mr Morris took a keen interest in military matters, and had much to do with the formation of the New Zealand Post and Telegraph Corps, which he commanded for many years. He was a keen sportsman, with a particular bent for shooting and fishing. He was highly esteemed not only in his official associations, but in his private life. In 1917, the King conferred on Mr Morris a Companionship of the Imperial Service Order, and in 1919 a Companionship of the Order of St. Michael and St. George.