SECRETARY OF LABOUR. RETIREMENT OF MR. E. TREGEAR.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 19, 24 January 1911, Page 8

SECRETARY OF LABOUR. RETIREMENT OF MR. E. TREGEAR.

Mt., Edward Tregear, Secretary of Labour, is retiring on superannuation, and will sever his connection with the Public Service in a few days. Mr. Tregear, who is amongst other things a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, a, Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and a Fellow of the Imperial Institute, has been in charge oi the Department of Labour ever since its establishment nineteen years ago, and during the whole of that time he has taken a supreme interest in the work of the department, to an extent which has brought him into the public ' eye to a very considerable extent. Mr. Tregear's history for the past nineteen yeare^ in fact, is the history of the development of the Department of Labour, and those who have kept an observant eye on the working of that department, who know how it has grown, in spite of strenuous opposition, to its present eminence among the departments of State, realise to the full the extent to which the guiding hand of Mr. Tregear afathe rudder has aided the Ministerial policy which set the course of the Labour Department vessel. A native of Cornwall, and a civil engineer by profession, Mr. Tregear^ disautisfied with the Old Country, reacned Auckland in 1563, and after being employed as a surveyor in the Thames aDd Coromandel districts, he became a soldkr, and saw arduous service in the Maori War. Later he utilised his knowledge of the Maori language and customs, in staving off hostilities between the King Country natives and th& Europeans, and he served for some eighteen months as sub-inspector in the Armed Constabulary, being subsequently employed in various Government departments, until he received, in 1891, his present" appointment of Secretary of Labour. During his residence in New Zealand Mr. Tregear has been a careful student of the Maori language and native lore, and has written several valuable works on the subject. As an administrator Mr. Tlregea-r has earned the aespect and esteem of the staff of which he has for so many years been the head, and his approaching departure is generally viewed with regret.