KUMARA NOTES

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 April 1927, Page 2

KUMARA NOTES

(Our Own Correspondent;.)

The new telephone system recently installed in Kumara should be an improvement on the antiquated system just scrapped. Under the old arrangement, the forwarding of a telephone message with the idea that the contents of the same were known only to the sender and the receiver, was a delusion and a snare.

Mr Shaw, manager of the Bank of New Zealand, Hokitika, sails for London next week. He will be accompanied by Mrs Shaw. Mr Martin Fahey, jun.. who has been laid up for some days, is now improving.

Miss ’Watson, accompanied by her brother (Air Arthur Watson) returned to their home on Thursday evening last from the North Island. Iliero. the well-known racehorse, broke down rather badly whilst doing a gallop on the course the other morning, and it is questionable whether he will be fit to fill his engagements at Kumara on Easter Monday. Air A. B. Spiers, who has been in Wellington, lias returned. The Kumara Racing dub has every reason to feel proud at the record nominations received for the various events at the forthcoming meeting on Easter Monday. and, given a fine day. the result of the meeting is beyond doubt. Not only is the day a. general holiday, but the Kumara races have always been popular with the public, more so now that the difficulty of transport from the railway to the course has been got ever. Since the last meeting somewhere in the vicinity of £4OO has been expended on the erection of new buildings and improvements to the running track, with the result that the Kumara course and its appointments now rank second to none on the Coast. West Coasters generally and old Kumara school boys in particular, will be pleased to hear of the continued success of Mr Robert Watson, a native of Dillmanstown, and son of the late Mr and Mrs R. Watson. He has been appointed to the position of Borough Engineer to the town of Durban, South Africa. The following extract from a Durban paper gives the particulars: “The Durban Town Council, at its meeting yesterday, appointed Mr Robert AVilliam Watson as Borough Engineer of Durban. Mr Watson, who has held the acting appointment since the retirement of Mr Davis last year, comes to his work, -not only with an ‘ntimate knowledge of Durban and of local conditions, but also with the highest qualifications for the appointment. • He was educated in New Zealand, where he entered the Civil Service and passed the Land Surveyors’ examination of that Dominion. He practised there as a Government Land Surveyor until 1902 in which year he came to South Africa. In 1903, he joined the Durban Borough Engineer’s staff as an assistant engineer under Mr Fletcher. In 1913, he acted for a period of six months as Assistant Borough Engineer, and was finally appointed to that position in 1919. In 1921 he acted as Borough Engineer during the absence of Air Davis on long leave, and has again acted in that capacity since August 1926. The new Borough Engineer has a high professional record. In 1905 he was admitted in Natal as a qualified Land Surveyor, in 1911 he became an Associate member of the Institute of Civil Engineers (Eng.), by full .examination, in 1914, a member of the Royal Sanitary Institute (London), in 1919, a member of the Society of Civil Engineers (South Africa) and in 1923 he was elected a member of the Municipal and County Engineers of England. He is also a qualified mine surveyor of the Transvaal.”

Mr Watson had his primary education at the Kumara State School under the late Mr Woodward, and matriculated at the Hokitika District High School under Mr T. Gill. His wife (nee Miss Preston) is also an old Kumara girl, and was a teacher there.