G.P.O. FUNCTION

Evening Post, Issue 27, 31 July 1935, Page 3

G.P.O. FUNCTION

At the General Post Office yesterday afternoon a large assemblage of officers met to farewell Mr. R. W. MacKenzie and Mr. G. D. M. Gilbert upon the eve of their departure with the New Zealand Rugby football team. In presenting Messrs. MacKenzie and Gilbert each with a wristlet watch the Director-General (Mr. G. McNamara) said that they were met that day to honour two members of the service who had risen" in the ranks of Rugby football to the highest pinnacle of the game, they having been chosen to represent New Zealand. Mr. McNamara referred to the fact that the Post and Telegraph Department felt greatly honoured in the circumstances that two members of the Department had been chosen as members of the New Zealand team. He mentioned that in the past the Department had produced many fine players, andl,, in particular, referred to Mr. M. E. Wood, a great five-eighths of former days, and Mr Read Masters, who was the lock of the 1924 team. He also mentioned that this was not the first incursion of Mr 'MacKenzie into football fame, as he had been a member _of ithc New Zealand team which last year toured Australia. For the time being, he said, the All Blacks were the heroes of the day to the "young fry in the Dominion arid he felt sure that in the representatives of the Department the ardent enthusiasts of Rugby footbaL would not be let down. He hoped that they would not only have an enjoyable time in the tour of the Old Country but would gain personal laurels in the games in which they would par"recipients suitably responded.