LAND PURCHASE OFFICER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19550, 1 February 1927, Page 12

LAND PURCHASE OFFICER

MR. J, D. RITCHIE RETIRES. AN ESTEEMED PUBLIC SERVANT. SUCCESSOR APPOINTED. [BY TELEGRAPH. —PRESS ASSOCIATION.3 WELLINGTON. Monday. An esteemed member of the Public Service, Mr. John Douglas Ritchie, who for the past 18 years has been land purchase officer and chairman of the Land Purchase Board, is about to retire on superannuation. The Minister of Lands, Hon. A. D. McLeod, announced this afternoon that Mr. R, A. Rodger, of Tapanui, has been appointed to succeed Mr. Ritchie as land purchase officer. Mr. Rodger was a member and chairman of the Otago Inquiry Board, and, later, when the Revaluation Board was set up under the Discharged Soldiers' Settlement Act, he was given a place on the board. Besides being a practical farmer, Mr. Rodger has had a business training. " There are few men," said Hon. A. D. McLeod, to-day, " with such an intimate knowledge 'of the lands of the Dominion as that possessed by Mr. Ritchie. At a very early age he engaged in agricultural pursuits, and ever since has been closely connected with rural activities. During his term as land purchase! controller he was responsible for the acquisition by the Crown of no less than 463 estates, comprising 809,000 acres, at a cost of over £8,000,000. " That work entailed a tremendous responsibility, and I have no hesitation in saying that Mr. Ritchie's practical experience as a farmer and his work far t'ho Department of Agriculture were of the greatest value to the Government in carrying out its closer settlement policy."