GOING ABROAD

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 73, 26 March 1926, Page 4

GOING ABROAD

PUBLIC WORKS HEAD

MR. F*. W. FURKERT TO STUDY ENGINEERING QUESTIONS; .

in pursuance of the policy of sending high officers of Departments abroad to gain ideas'in modern developments iin their respective professions, Mr. F. ,W. Furkert (Engiueor-in-Chief of the Public Works Department) has been "selected to undertake a tour abroad, and will leave for Samoa, Canada, the .United States, Great Britain, and the Continent on 11th April. Ho will be absent for the greater part.of a year, and while he is away Mr. C. J. M'Kenzie (Assistant-Engineer-iu-Chief), who lecently returned from a similar tour, will act as head of the Department and as chairman of the Main Highways Board. A short while ago it was announced that Mr. Furkert was going to Sa-, moa to report on the water supply there. He was to have gone before this, but tho, Administrator (MajorGeneral Sir George Richardson) advised him to delay his visit until after the* hurricane season. Accordingly he decided to wait until about the middle of next month before leaving New Zealand for Samoa. In view of the fact that he was going so far afield as Samoa, the Government decided a few days ago that Mr. Furkert might as well combine his Pacific mission with , a more extended tour. The official announcement was not made until last night. *Mr. Furkert will investigate the latest methods of dealing with engineering and other problems that come within the scope of his Department, or in •which he is interested in his capacity ,as chairman of tho Main Highways Board. His observations will extendnot only to late developments in engineering and other methods, notably in application to road-making, but to the production, of the engineering material that- is impoited into this country in furtherance of various branches of development work. In Sweden he will visit the works at which the generators and other units for the great power station at Arapuni are being manufactured. Mr. Furkert will take every opportunity in each country visited of making himself familiar with modern developments in such matters as transport development, the regulation of traffic, and various aspects of administrative control. He will pay particular attention to the work of local government boards. Lighthouses also will engage his attention, particularly the recent development of the automatic lighthouse. Some automatic lights have already been installed in this country. While in Europe, Mr. Furkert will represent New Zealand at an important international conference of engineering authorities which is held at intervals of three years. ' This year the place of meeting is Milan, and the conference meets in September next. The last conference was held at Seville, in Spain, and. it was attended by delegates from 39 countries. New Zealand was not represented at the conference in 1923, hut Mr. Furkert attended on "behalf of the Dominion an earlier con,:f»rence which met at London in 1913.