82 YEARS IN P.O.

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30168, 27 June 1963, Page 7

82 YEARS IN P.O.

2 Christchurch Men To Retire

Two Christchurch men, whose service with the Post Office totals 82 years, are retiring.

Slightly more than 42 years’ service will end today for Mr A. R. I. Rumbles, the superintending technician at the Post Office. Christchurch. Mr Rumbles, who since 1960 has been the senior technician in the Christchurch area responsible for the intallation and maintenance of telephone equipment and the control of the staff connected with this work, began his career with the New Zealand Post Office as message boy at Pukeatua in 1921.

Mr Rumbles has had practical experience in many phases of telephonic progress in this country. Among the prominent projects with which he has been associated was the installation of the first 12-channel telephone carrier system between Auckland and Wellington. He was responsible for the erection of repeater stations in the network After Pukeatua, Mr Rumbles rose to junior mechanician, then to foreman mechanician, during service at Hamilton, Auckland and Masterton. He was transferred to New Plymouth in 1958 as chief technician, and in 1960 took up his present post in Christchurch.

A presentation on behalf of the technical and engineering branch staff will be made to Mr Rumbles today by the Regional Engineer (Mr L. D. Bewley). The senior technician in Christchurch. M r A. H. Pegley, is also retiring after 40*j years’ service. Mr Pegley began in Christchurch in 1922 as a message boy and, except for two short periods in other centres, has worked in Christchurch.

In 1929 he spent a few months in Auckland, and he spent part of the years between 1934 and 1945 at Ashburton and Timaru. He was appointed senior technician at Christchurch in 1947 and has since been an instructor in the Post Office mechanicians' training school.