OFFICIAL FAREWELL

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 191, 10 May 1937, Page 6

OFFICIAL FAREWELL

Mr. A. J. Wicks Retires Mr. A. J. Wicks, chief draughtsman at the head office of the Lands and Survey Department, who has retired on superannuation, was farewelled at a gathering at the head office, when Mr. W. Robertson, Under-Secretary, referred to the long and valuable service rendered by Mr. Wicks, and on behalf of the staff presented him with a set of fireside chairs and a set of bowls. Mr. H. E. Walshe, Surveyor-General, on behalf of the technical staff, endorsed Mr. Robertson’s remarks, and referred to the great assistance given to him by Mr. Wicks and the loss the department would suffer in Mr. Wicks’s retirement. Mr. Walshe also expressed the regret of the Hon. F. Langstone and his private secretary in being unable to attend the function. References to Mr. Wicks’s sterling qualities were also made by Mr. W. Stewart (Valuer-General), and Mr. J. F. Quinn, of the State Advances Office, both at one time officers of the Lands and Survey Department, and many members of the staff testified to bis popularity. Letters from the Auckland, Christchurch and Blenheim staffs were read by Mr. Walshe expressing appreciation of Mr. Wicks’s services and their best wishes for the future health and happiness of Mr. and Mrs. Wicks.

Mr. Wicks, iu replying, said his time in Wellington was one of the most pleasant during his service with the department and this was a result of friendly co-operation and kindly assistance that had always so readily been given to him by every member of the staff. Born in New South Wales, Mr. Wicks served articles with a private surveyor in Sydney and passed the licensed surveyors’ examination in 1893. This was the time of the great slump, which, in Australia, was even more severe than the one that has just passed away. Several banks and building societies had to close their doors, and owing to the panic there was an alarming rush on the Bost Office Savings Bank, which, fortunately, held out. After a few years as assistant surveyor with the New South Wales Government, Mr. Wicks, in 189 G, received an appointment as surveyor in Selangor, .Malay States, and was one of the earliest of the hundreds of New Zealand and Australian surveyors who have seen service in the East. In 1899 Mr. Wicks was appointed to carry out a large survey of land adjoining the city of Shanghai, which had been granted to the International Settlement by the Chinese Government. On completion of this work Mr. Wicks returned to Australia, and in 1904 came to New Zealand. He joined the Lands and Survey Department as a surveyor in Marlborough, and in 1919 was appointed land transfer draughtsman in Nelson and later held the same position and that of chief draughtsman in Christchurch. In 1929 he was appointed chief draughtsman at the lieatl office in Wellington, from which position he has now retired.