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Grey River Argus, 29 May 1935, Page 6

One of the important factors in maintaining telephone and telegraph' communication so thoroughly in New Zealand is the lineman, and a very good story showing devotion to duty was told to a farewell gathering at the General Post Office recently by Mr. C. S. Plank, retiring Chief Engineer It was on record, he said, that on one occasion many years ago. a lineman in the ordinary course of his duties had left Wellington on foot to go north through the Wairarapa. Three years afterwards the man reach ed Tauranga; he had walked the whole distance and had carried the same ladder all the way. He was still alive and living at Tauranga, although now somewhat impaired in health. Mr. Plank added that during the time he was stationed in Christchurch he remembered another lineman starting from Christchurch in a brake and finished up in WestJand._ repairing lines all the way. There is a more modern instance of a persevering and plucky lineman who. immediately after the Napier earthquake, commenced to walk from Wairoa with a ladder, repairing one line to restore communication. The roads were in many places impassable but he tramped the whole eightly miles to Napier, carrying a ladder and effectively doing his work.