LONG SERVICE

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 55, 13 September 1928, Page 12

LONG SERVICE

MX. J. C. M'CREA TO RETIRE After :i long and varied career in tlio Post and Telegraph Department, Mr. J. C. M'Crea, who, for the past five years has been Chief Postmaster at "Wellington, is to retire on superannuation on 18th September. Mr. M'Crea's experience extends back a long way to the days before mail services were as efficient as they arc to-day, and before electricity played the big part it plays now in commercial communication. Mr. M'Crea was born in Auckland, and joined the Post and Telegraph Department in January, 1885, at Cambridge, which was then a somewhat lonely little town on the outskirts of civilisation. Outside the town the hill and back country held a large Maori population, and Cambridge was in those days famous for sittings of the Native Land Court when land problems were, settled. The town was also a resting place for tourists on the way to Botorua. There were then two ways of approaching Rotorua and the Hot Lukes country; ono via Napier and Taupo, and the other via Auckland and Cambridge, the journey from Cambridge being made three times a week by couch. In 18S0 Mr. M'Crea was transferred to Whangarei as cadet, and he found that town experiencing a mild mining boom. Reports of the discovery of silver at Puhipuhi resulted in the formation of all sorts of companies—wild cat mostly—and a good deal of money changed hands, but no silver materialised. He was afterwards located at Onehunga, Pahiatua, and Foxton, being a year at each place. Onehunga was more important then than now, from a postal point of view, owing to its importance as a mail port. The Main Trunk railway was far from completion, and mails to and from the south wore handled on the Onehunga wharves. The s.s. Takapuna and Gairloch wero important mail carriers, the former being capable of making fast trips be-

twecn Onehunga, New Plymouth, and Wellington. Pahiatua in those days was a proper bush town, and tho post office had just been placed in the control of a permanent official, tho business previously having been conducted by a local storekeeper. After having been stationed at Foxton, Mr. M'Crea was transferred to Palmerston North, where he spent three years beforo joining the staff of the Wanganui Post Office. Whilst attached to that office he waa sent as assistant mail agent to San Francisco on the s.s. Alameda. Transferred to Hamilton in 1898, he was a member of the staff there for 20 years. He arrived at Hamilton as one of a staff of six, and loft as ono of a staff of over fifty, a record of the rapid rise of the town. He took an active interest in tho life of the town, being for many years secretary of the Hamilton Library; a member of the school committee; and a member of the Hamilton Beautifying Society since its inception. He was also instrumental in forming tho Hamilton Chess Club, which is still a strong organisation. He left Hamilton on promotion to postmaster at Dannevirke, and was later promoted postmaster at Hastings. In 1920 he joined the staff of the Wellington Chief Post Office as assistant postmaster. His more recent appointments have been chief postmaster Napier (1920), chief postmaster Dunedin (1921), and chief postmaster Wellington (1923). During his term of office in Wellington, Mr. M'.Crea has maintained the high standard of efficiency at the Dominion's Chief Post Office in the handling and dispatch of local and overseas mail matter, and in the innumerable other branches of the work that apply to the General Post Office.