LONG SERVICE

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 150, 22 December 1945, Page 8

LONG SERVICE

MR. J. H. WACG RETIRING

After 60 years of service, during which he rose from an apprenticeship to executive office with the same firm and to prominence in the business community, Mr. J. H. Wagg is retiring from his position of secretary of Messrs. Eriscoe, E. W. Mills, and Co., Ltd. This week the staff gathered to wish him well in his retirement and presented him with a radio receiver. Mr. Wagg was born at Porirua and attended Wellington College as a boarder. When he was apprenticed at the age of 16 to E. W. Mills and Co. his parents paid £50 premium. The apprenticeship was for five years, and his wage was 5s a week, with yearly increments of ss. The company, one of the oldest business houses in Wellington, was then established on Lambton Quay, at what is now the entrance to the Kelburn tramway, and it had stores in Featherston Street. It shifted 1o its present, site at the corner of Jervois Quay and Victoria Street in 1896. In 1932 It amalgamated with another Wellington hardware firm, Messrs. Briscoe and Co., Ltd. Mr. Wagg will live in his retirement at Lower Hutt. and he intends to continue to play golf, as he has for 40 years One of his four sons is Mr. Rana Wagg, New Zealand amateur golf champion in 1931 and 1932.