RAILWAYS BOARD

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 288, 1 September 1931, Page 8

RAILWAYS BOARD

Office of Chairman CHANGE NEXT FRIDAY Mr. Sterling Takes Over Thirty years' service in the Railways Department will be completed on Friday next by the general manager, Mr. H. 11. Sterling, who will retire on that day to become chairman of the Government Railways Board. He will take the place of Colonel J. J. Esson, C.M.G.. who has been acting as chairman since the appointment of the board was announced on June 9 last. Colonel Esson’s appointment was only temporary, and when succeeded by Mr. Sterling he will cease to be a member of the board. Board’s Personnel. The personnel.of the board will then bi* as follows:— Mr. H. H. Sterling, chairman. Sir James Henry Gunson, C.M.G., C.8.E., merchant, Auckland. Mr. Edward Newman, C.M.G., farmer, Marton. Mr. Daniel Reese, merchant, Christchurch. Mr. George Walter Reid, 8.C0m., F.P.A. (N.Z.), accountant, Dunedin. Under the terms of the Finance Act passed during the recent emergency session of Parliament Mr. Sterling will be eligible for retirement on Friday next. Normally he would retire on a pension of £2041, but he will now receive a greatly reduced amount calculated on an actuarial basis. With his salary of £lOOO as chairman of the board and the reduced amount of his pension he will receive much less than the £3150 a year he now receives in his capacity as general manager. Mr. Sterling’s engagement as general manager provided for a term of seven years, of which over three have gone. Mr. Sterling’s Career. Born at Christchurch in 1886, Mr. Sterling was educated in the .primary schools of that city, winning an education board scholarship which took him to the Christchurch Boys’ High School.

Upon leaving the High School he joined the railway service, and after about six years on general station work in Canterbury was transferred to the district manager's office at Dunedin. While at Dunedin he studied at the Otago University, and graduating LL.B, in 1917 was admitted as a barrister and solicitor. Ho also studied economics and advanced mental and moral philosophy. In 1919 Mr. Sterling was appointed law officer of the Railways Department, and in 1924 he became assistant general manager. Later he was appointed a member of the Board of Management that was set up to take control of the railways, and was placed in immediate control of the commercial, legal, land, statistical and rating (tariff) branches. In 1926 Mr. Sterling resigned from the Railways Board of Management to take up an appointment with the New Zealand Co-operative Dairy Company, but two years later he rejoined the department as its general manager when the then board system of control was abolished. That office he has held ever since.