LONG SERVICE ENDS

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 109, 1 February 1941, Page 13

LONG SERVICE ENDS

Audit Officer Retires

Mr. L. H. Edwards, who has carried out the audit of railway accounts since 1922 and who has now completed more than 40 years’ service, retired on superannuation yesterday. Mr. Edwards joined the Post and Telegraph Department in 1900, and was transferred to the Audit Department in 1907. During his 33 years’ service with the latter department he has had a wide experience as auditor of the accounts of the Public Trust, Government Life, Customs, and Railways Departments, as well as the accounts of a number of local bodies. This week the staff of the railway chief accountant’s office presented Mr. Edwards with a suitcase as a memento of happy associations over the long period he has been attached to the office. Mr. W. Bishop, chief accountant, in making the presentation, congratulated Mr. Edwards on the attainment of his 40 years of Government service, and extended to him the very best wishes of the railway staff on his retirement.

Mr. Bishop said that Mr. Edwards, in his capacity as auditor of the railway accounts, though adhering to all the Audit Department’s requirements, had been most helpful to the Railways Department in facilitating the passing of the many thousands of transactions dealt with in the office.

The appointment of Mr. Edwards as auditor of railway accounts in 1922, continued Mr. Bishop, met with much satisfaction in the Railways Department in that he belonged to a railway family and consequently came to the position with a railway atmosphere. His ' grandfather, who joined the department in Lyttelton in 1869, was stationmaster and goods agent at that port from 1874 to 1890, and the records show that the positions were filled with conspicuous ability. Lyttelton was then the most important station in the New Zealand railway system. Mr. Edwards’ father joined the railway staff in Lyttelton in 1876, and was later chief clerk in Timaru, stationmaster in Palmerston, stationmaster-in-charge in picton, and later in Nelson, where he retired in 1915.

Messrs. C. G. Collins, Controller and Auditor-General; J. P. Rutherford, Deputy-Controller and AuditorGeneral ; and J. 11. Fowler, former Controller and Auditor-General, expressed appreciation of Mr. Edwards’ long and faithful service. Speakers from the Railways Department who supported Mr. Bishop were Messrs. R. P. Gillies, assistant chief accountant; F. H. McAuley, revenue accountant; and J. P. Treahy and N. J. Newton, divisional clerks.