Was Postmaster At Paparoa, kaikohe

Northern Advocate, 10 March 1948, Page 6

Was Postmaster At Paparoa, kaikohe

AUCKLAND Wed. <Sp.).—After 40 years’ service with the Post and Telegraph Department, Mr R. C. Galbraith, Postmaster at Wellesly Street Post Office, will retire on superannuation, at the end of this month. Prominent for many years in the volunteer movement. Mr Galbraith was a bugler in the original Tauranga Mounted Rifles, and later linked up with the old coastguard artillery at Devonport.

When the territorial scheme was introduced he obtained a commission in G Battery. Hamilton, and subsequently •served with A Battery in Auckland. Soon after the outbreak of World War l Mr'Galbraith enlisted and went into camp, but was rejected as medically unfit, and rejoined the telegraph service in Auckland.

He joined the Department in Roto--ua as a cadet in 1908, and saw service in. Hamilton and Auckland before being appointed postmaster in turn at Paparoa (1919), Raglan (1924), Kaikohe (1929). and Wellesly Street (1986) During the severe floods in the midNcrth in the early twenties, several parts of Paparoa were isolated, and Mr Galbraith had to organise emergency mail services over a wide area. He recalls the delivery of telegrams by messengers on horses, which were forced to swim the flooded river.