VALUED OFFICER

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 135, 10 June 1942, Page 7

VALUED OFFICER

PRIME MINISTER'S TRIBUTE

♦'I have learned of the death of Mr. Smith with the deepest x'egret," said the Prime Minister and Acting Minister of Finance (Mr. Fraser) today. "He was one of the most outstanding men in the Public Service and one whose loss is a severe blow both to his Department and to the country •itself.. '■■'■•• "' ■■-■ . ' : , ' ■' j j "As a result of the experience gained while a member of the Taxes Investigation Committee, set up in 1936, Mr. Smith was transferred from the Crown Law Office and made Deputy Commissioner of Taxes in 1937, following the retirement of Mr. Dowland and the appointment of Mr. Park as Commissioner. . "He brought to his Department not only extraordinary energy but wide business knowledge and legal training, and in a very short time after gaining an insight into the working of the Land and Income Tax Department he was able to apply his legal knowledge to improving in many ways the administration of taxation with great benefit to the State. "His many excellent qualities rendered him an administrative officer in whom the Government could place the utmost confidence, and, on behalf of ;my colleagues and myself, I desire to express the deepest sympathy with his wife and family in their loss."