NEW ASSISTANT CHIEF OF PUBLIC WORKS

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 135, 4 March 1941, Page 9

NEW ASSISTANT CHIEF OF PUBLIC WORKS

Mr. T. M. Ball’s Promotion

The promotion was announced yesterday of Mr. T. M. Ball, A.M.Inst.C.E., second assistant Engineer-in-Chief of the Public Works Department, to i be Assistant Engineer-in-Chief, succeeding Mr. W. L. Newnham, who has been appointed head of the department. Mr. Ball was born at Auckland m 1887 and received his education at Te Kopuru. He served a cadetship of two years and a half under the then Hobson County engineer, Mr. H. Hammond, and joined the Public Service in February, 1905, as an engineering cadet in the Public Works Department. After being engaged on water power surveys, the Manawatu River survey, and the North Island Main Trpnk, Seaward Bush, and Reefton-Inangahua railways,. (Mr. Ball was in 1909 promoted to assistant engineer, in which capacity he was stationed on the. West Coast of the South Island and later in North Auckland. He was elected an associate member of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1914.

Mr. Ball spent two years on active service, and z on his return was in 1919 appointed engineer in charge of the Paeroa district, his duties there including supervision of the construction of the Waihou and Ohinemuri Rivers improvement scheme. His promotion to resident engineer came in 1920, following which he was transferred to Stratford, | where he assumed the rank of district engineer in 1923. Some of the principal works carried out under his jurisdiction in the Stratford district were, the Opunake branch railway, the Stratford Main Trunk railway, the New Plymouth-Te Kuiti main highway, the Mokau Riverbridge, and. the erection of the Stratford Post Office. In 1928 Mr. Ball was appointed district engineer in charge of Otago and Southland, with headquarters at Dunedin. During his term in (that district the work carried out included comprehensive reconstruction of main highways and roads, an extensive irrigation scheme in Central Otago, and the construction of the Balclutha traffic bridge and the Dunedin Chief Post Office. As district engineer at Dunedin, Mr. Ball was also chairman of the Taieri River Trust.. Mr. Ball transferred to the head office of the department in 1937. with promotion to the rank of inspecting engineer, a position he held till November last when, following the retirement of Mr. A. J. Baker, he was appointed second assistant engineer-in-chief. Mr. Ball is a member of the New Zealand Institute of Engineers. •