POSTAL DEPARTMENT

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 78, 2 April 1931, Page 11

POSTAL DEPARTMENT

MR. A. P. BENNETT RETIRES

Mr. A. P. Bennett, who has been Chief Inspector of the Post and Telegraph Department for some years past, retired yesterday after having completed forty years' service. He joined the Department at Masterton and was employed subsequently in the Chief Post Offices at Napier, Palmerston North, and Westport and' in the telegraph office at Wellington. In 1904, Mr. Bennett took up duty in the Dannevirke Post Office, and in 1915 he was appointed to a controlling position at Eotorua. In 1916 he was transferred to the Secretary's Office at .Wellington, and for the next nine years 'was employed on important work in the Staff Division. During that period he assisted materially in placing the staffing of the various offices throughout the Dominion on. an efficient basis, and in the latter, part of the war period he assisted very considerably in maintaining reasonable staffs at all offices notwithstanding the fact, that steady drafts of departmental officers were going into camp and overseas for military service. In 1923 Mr. Bennett was appointed to the senior position in the Staff Division, and he occupied that position for three years with signal success. In 1926 he was appointed Chief Inspector, and his services in that capacity have been most valuable to the Department. Before Mr, Bennett ceased duty yesterday, he was met by a representative gathering of post and telegraph officers, and a caseof cutlery and cases of pipes were presented to him by Mr. - Gr. M'Namara, Secretary of the Department, on behalf of senior officers throughout the Dominion. Mr. M'Namara made eulogistic reference to the efficient manner in which Mr. Bennett had served the Department throughout his career. The position of Chief Inspector was a difficult one for any man to fill without incurring a certain amount of disfavour with officers generaHy—particularly those officers whom it was found necessary to criticise adversely—but Mr. Bennett was held in high esteem by the Service as a whole. This proved that ho had carried out hlg, onerous duties tactfully and fairly. As Head of tho Department, Mr. M'Namara knew that Mr. Bennett had also been fearless in the performance of his duties. The Chief Telegraph Engineer, Mr. A. Gibbs, on behalf of the engineering side of the Service, referred to _ the very cordial relations which had existed between his officers and Mr. Bennett. Mr. J. Robertson, Krst Assistant Secretary, also spoke in eulogistic terms of the services rendered by Mr. Bennett and made special reference to the latter's unswerving loyalty to the Department at all times. Mr. Bennett responded suitably and stated that, in his opinion, an oflieer received from tho Department . just what he put into it. He was convinced from his knowledge of,the Service that the junior officer of to-day who worked loyally and efficiently at all times had every opportunity to rise to a very high position, in. the Department.