HOLIDAY START

Evening Post, Issue 66, 15 September 1936, Page 9

HOLIDAY START

NEW ZEALAND FIRST

A NOTED RAILWAYMAN

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, August 19. One of London's busiest men has decided to take a holiday in New Zealand. He is Mr. Edwin C. Cox, at present traffic manager of the Southern Railway. He retires shortly, and on November 19 leaves for Sydney on the Narkunda. With his wife, who has relatives in Wellington, he proposes to spend some five weeks touring the North and South Islands before'seeing Austria. His wife also has several friends, in Melbourne, where she lived for ten years before her marriage. Mr. Cox has some knowledge of Australia, but he has never been to New Zealand before. Naturally he is looking forward to the' trip. Mr. Cox lias enjoyed a distinguished career. He was created a C.B.E. in 1918 and an officer de l'ordre de Leopold. Two years later he became an Honourable Associate of the Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem. Other honours conferred upon him are Member of the Victorian Order (1926), Chevalier de l'ordre National de la Legion d'honneur "(1927), Officer of the Crown of Rumania (1924), and the Order of the Nile (1928). Mr. Cox joined the South Eastern Railway in 1883. During the South African War he was responsible for the heavy military traffic between London and Southampton. By 1911 he was appointed superintendent of the Southern Line, and ranked as the youngest in the Kingdom. From 1915 he was one of the committee appointed to control the supply of wagons for the Government, and from 1917 he was attached to the Railway Executive Committee dealing with all questions connected with the railway transport of troops, munitions, and plans for demobilisation. , After the war he was appointed chairman of the Railway Clearing House Superintendents'' Conference, in addition to being chairman of seven different committees appointed to negotiate with the Trades Union upon the standard rates of pay and conditions of service of the traffic staff throughout the country. Mr." Cox has also sat upon two Commissions appointed by the Minister of Transport to report upon the question of automatic train control. He holds the rank of LieutenantColonel in the Engineer and Railway Staff Corps with the Distinguished Service Medal, and is a foundation member of the Institue of Transport. In 1928 he received the institute's gold medal for his paper on the electrification of the Southern Railway. Since 1930 Mr. "Cox has acted as traffic manager, which involves the control of the whole of the commercial activities of the company, including the Continental. Now Mr. Cox is about to retire for a well-earned holiday, and has selected New Zealand as the best spot in which to make a start.