A LITTLE-KNOWN SERVANT OF THE PUBLIC.

Hawera Star, Volume L, 20 February 1931, Page 4

A LITTLE-KNOWN SERVANT OF THE PUBLIC.

There has recently retired from business life one who has served the public faithfully and well for a period of 45 years —and few of the general public have ever heard his name. We refer to Mr W. H. Atack, who was the recipient of congratulations and expressions of esteem and affection at yesterday's annual meeting of shareholders of the United Press Association of New Zealand. For 45 years—a big slice out of the life of most of us—Mr Atack was the directing force behind the organisation which has given newspaper readers of this country their daily news. From small beginnings the Association has been built up by the leading men in the administrative side of New Zealand journalism until to-day it has won world-wide admiration. For the best part of half a century Mr Atack, from a little office in Wellington, kept his linger on the pulse of the world. His organising powers, through the cable agencies, reached far afield, while within the Dominion his influence extended to every nook and corner where there was a newspaper and an agent of the Press Association. Mr Atack was brought up in the old school of journalism which taught that accuracy caine before everything; that there were canons of good taste to be considered; that sensationalism and muckraking were abhorrent; that the Press could not be bought—and that no newspaperman must spare himself in the task of serving the public through his paper. These principles happily still apply in the training of Dominion pressmen; it is to Mr Atack's insistence that they should be observed by all who served the. Press Association that the organisation which serves New Zealand today enjoys the confidence of the public and the admiration of well-informed people who visit us from overseas. Though Mr Atack came into' personal contact with few of his many agents scattered throughout the Dominion, there arc two generations of pressmen who have known him all their lives. Nothing escaped his notice, and the . agent who “fell down on the job” could never hope to escape censure. Reference has been made in the report of the Rotorua meeting to Mr Atack’s , famous letters, and it is indeed true that many of them arc preserved in a dusty and faded form on the walls of . reporters’ and sub-editors’ rooms in newspaper offices all over New Zealand as. perfect specimens of forceful and concise style. These letters, howi ever, did not reveal the personality of the man behind them; they merely reflected his life-long loyalty to the maxim upon which every good ; newspaper man is reared —that the paper comes first. Those who were i privileged to meet Mr Atack in other ; spheres, however, enjoyed the privilege ; of contact with one who. by his kindli- . ness, courtesy and thoughtfulness for . others fulfilled in the best sense the picture conjured up by the term, “a gen- ■ tleman of the old school.” He will .' carry with him into his retirement the esteem of all who knew him and his : work —and the public will lose the ser- ; vices of one who devoted the best that . was in him to its interests.