NEW UNDER-SECRETARY

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 149, 26 June 1931, Page 9

NEW UNDER-SECRETARY

Mr. P. J. Kelleher's promotion, as Under-Secretary of Internal- Affairs, the highest position in the Department, should be a very popular one in the Public Service and throughout the Dominion by reason of his being so well known in many spheres of activity in which the ■ positions he has held in the past have taken him. Born in. Lawrence, \ Mass., U.S.A., on the 11th June, 1876, Mr. Kelleher when quite an infant landed in Lyttelton with his parents. In 1885 the family settled in Wellington^ where, the new Under-Secretary has since resided. He was educated at the Marist Brothers' School, Wellington. His first employment was in the Public Service as a telegraph messenger on the Ist Novemj ber, 1891,. Consequent ,on passing the Junior Civil Service Examination Mr. Kelleher was promoted to a cadetship in the Accountant's Office, General Post Office. On the Ist November, 1903, Mr. Kelleher was transferred to the Tourist and Health. Eesorts Department, and succeeded the' late Mr. B. E. Hayes (who was formerly Secretary to the Treasury) as accountant of that Department on the 27th September, 1906, and.:on the Ist July, 1908, was appoint;cd accountant of the Industries . and Commerce Department and clerk in charge of the Government Advertising Department. Mr. Kelleher was promoted to Chief Clerk, Department .of Internal Affairs, on the 10th. February, 1013. When the Government in September, .1918, decided to institute totalisator inspection, Mr. Kelleher was appointed Chief Inspector, in which position, he did some fine work in bringing into vogue' the now system. On the 25 th July, 1928, he succeeded Mr. Newton as Assistant Under-Secretary of Internal Affairs.