SAMOA’S ADMINISTRATOR

Greymouth Evening Star, 4 October 1945, Page 4

SAMOA’S ADMINISTRATOR

MR TURNBULL’S RETIREMENT WELLINGTON, October 4. The Prime Minister announced, to-day, that Mr A ,C. Turnbull, Administrator of Western Samba., has intimated a wish to retire on superannuation in February, 1946. The Governor-General has, on the recommendation of the Government, appointed Lieut.-Colonel F. W. Voelcker, D. 5.0., M.C. (Kerikeri) to be Administrator. Mr Turnbull, on his retirement, will have completed 47 years of public service. He was first appointed to ..Samoa:in.l93o, .where he.held successively the positions of Secretary and Deputy Administrator for five and ahalf years, Acting-Administrator for seven and a-half years, .and Administrator for three. years. Mr Fraser, paying a tribute to Mr Turnbull, said‘his work had always been guided by principles of trusteeship for the Samoan ppople. Lieut.Colonel Voelcker, who was born 49 years ago in London, served in the last war and settled at Kerikeri in 1928. In the recent war he went overseas with the rank of Major in the 30th Battalion to Fiji in 1940, and in 1942 was appointed to command the Third Battalion, Fiji Infantry Regiment, which he took to Bougainville in 1944, where Lieut.-Colonel Voelcker himself was awarded the D.S.O. and the American Bronze Star. One of his men was Corporal Sukanni Valu, of Fiji, the first member of the Colonial Forces to . win the Victoria Cross. Lieut.-Colonel Voelcker returned to New Zealand last month. '