Farewell To Engineer

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30559, 30 September 1964, Page 18

Farewell To Engineer

“It is very easy to pull things down, but it is mighty hard to put them back,” said Mr H. F. Page, chief engineer of the Christchurch Drainage Board, last evening when he replied to valedictory remarks by the chairman (Mr R. C. Neville) and two former chairmen. Mr Page will leave the board today after serving it for 17 years and a halt The last 12 months had been a harrowing and distressing time for Mr Page, who had done a magnificent job for the board and people of Christchurch, Mr Neville said. “Much of this has been brought about by the statements erf one of our members,” he said. “1 can only hope that this will not recur in the board.” Mr Neville said that Mr Page was “a square fellow, and that is not in the teenagers’ language.”

He was sorry to leave the board in the situation it was, said Mr Neville. A year ago

the board was happy, and contented. Now he was sorry to be leaving a ship which was not particularly shipshape. “But in another way 1 am damned glad," he added. Mr Page said he had worked and worked long hours for the board. Drainage Board work did not have many compensations, for while other engineers could point to their monuments, drainage engineers had their work put underground. “But it is only through the work done by the Drainage Board that the city of Christchurch can exist,” he said. ‘"There is some satisfaction in having bad a share in that" He could not have worked with a better or more loyal staff than the board's, Mr Page said. If one or two of them were not with the board then the work of the board would stop. Messrs G. A. G. Connal and F. R. Price, former chairmen of the board, also wished Mr Page well. i