CONTROL OF TRANSPORT

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 74, 24 September 1936, Page 11

CONTROL OF TRANSPORT

MR. GODFREY RETIRING

SUCCESSOR ANNOUNCED

Mr. G. C. Godfrey, Commissioner of Transport, is to retire because of ill health, and his place will be taken by Mr. George Laurenson, at present Assistant Commissioner, according to an announcement made last night by the Minister of Transport (the Hon. R. Semple). The Minister .said, that Mr. Godfrey would relinquish his duties in a few days, Cabinet having agreed to the conditions of his retirement because of bad health. Mr. Godfrey would relire with *) three months' leave of absence, and it was not until that period had expired that Mr. Laurenson could be officially appointed. In the meantime Mr. Laurenson would act as Commissioner.

"I am satisfied from my association with Mr. Laurenson that he is a competent, diligent, and well-informed officer," said Mr. Semple. "I have always found his advice to be sound, and his judgment on the many difficult technical points which have cropped up has invariably been reliable. He is a man who will go a long way in the task of making the transport service of this country what it should be."

Mr. Laurenson, who was born at Lyttelton, and was educated at Lyttelton and at Wellington College, joined the Public Works Department as an engineering cadet in 1911. From 1916 to 1919 he served ovei-seas with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, being attached to the 3rd Field Company, New Zealand Engineers. Returning to New Zealand, he continued with the Public Works Department until 1930, when he was transferred to the Transport Department as a civil engineer. He was appointed Assistant Commissioner of Transport h> 1935.

While in the Public Works Department Mr. Laurenson gained a wide experience of different classes of work. He was for some time engaged on irrigation works in Central Otago, and was later associated with the survey and construction of the North Auckland main trunk railway. Other works on .which he was engaged were railway construction in the Tauranga district, and railway and road construction and surveys on the west coast of the South Island, while he was for some time harbour engineer at. Westport. He is an A.M.1.C.E., and is a chartered civil engineer. He is a son of Mr. George Laurenson, who was M.P. for Lyttelton between 1899 and 1913.