40 YEARS' SERVICE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 5, 6 July 1939, Page 7

40 YEARS' SERVICE

TELEPHONE SPECIALIST

MR. SPILLER'S RETIREMENT

After over 4.0 • years' service, Mr. L. Spiller. A.M.1.E.E., telegraph engineer in the head office of the Post and Telegraph Department, has retired on superannuation. Mr. Spiller joined the Department as a telegraph messenger in Christchurch in 1893,- and was later stationed at Rangiora and then at Wellington.

For six years he was a telegraph operator, after which he joined the staff of the departmental correspondence school, where he took an active interest in the tuition oi! students in various- technical subjects. In 1913 he was appointed to the engineering branch, with headquarters at Welling ton. and this marked the commencement of his professional career as a specialist in telephony at a time when automatic telephone exchanges were being introduced into this country. The initial temporary installations at Auckland and Christchurch and the permanent installations' at Wanganui and Napier were, supervised by him personally, and he. was closely assqeiated with several other installations! He is regarded' as' an' authority on the step-by-step automatic system, which is now in use in several provincial towns of the Dominion.. He was the pioneer in the system of toll dialling, which enables exchange operators to■ establish direct contact'with subscribers in other towns by merely dialling their numbers in the ordinary way.

In his student days m achieved outstanding results at Victoria University College, and he was also a silver medallist of the City and Guilds (London) Institute.

In 1924 he visited Australia in order to obtain a first-hand knowledge of automatic exchange systems in the Commonwealth.

Appreciation of his services and sterling qualities was conveyed to Mr. Spiller by his colleagues at an informal afternoon tea function held on the .day of his retirement