RAILWAY MANAGEMENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19931, 27 April 1928, Page 10

RAILWAY MANAGEMENT.

MR. STERLING RETURNING. . REQUEST OF MR. COATES. "ESSENTIAL" TO DEPARTMENT. RELEASE BY DAIRY COMPANY. [BY TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT.] HAMILTON, Thxirsday. The directors of the New Zealand Cooperative Dairy Company have decided, at the request of the Prime Minister, Mr. Coates, to release Mr. H. H. Sterling, general manager of the company, from his agreement with the company. Mr. Dynes Fulton, chairman of directors, made this announcement when interviewed by a Herald representative in Hamilton today. Mr. Sterling had signed a service agreement with the company, stated Mr. Fulton, for seven years, of which les3 than two and a-half years had expired. However, as Mr. Coates considered Mr. Sterling essential to the success of the Railway Department, the directors, in the public interest, had unanimously decided to release Mr. Sterling from his agreement as from November 30, 1928. Mr. Fulton stated Mr. Sterling was not, as had been stated, an applicant for the position of chairman of the Railway Board, and that the company was undoubtedly making a considerable sacrifice in parting with such a brilliant man.

The retirement of Mr. Sterling from the dairying industry will mark the return to the service which he entered when he left school and in which he was employed until January, 1926, when he resigned to become general manager of the New Zealand Co-operative Dairy Company. Mr. Sterling, who is 42 years of age, was born in Christchurch. He was educated in primary schools in Christchurch, and won a Board of Education scholarship, which took him to the Christchurch Boys' High School. On leaving the High School, Mr. Sterling joined the railway service in Christchurch as a cadet, and he had been with the department for over 24 years, when he resigned in 1926. Six years after joining the railway service he was transferred to Dunedin, and was for some time in the district manager's office there. He studied at Otago University, gaining his LL.B. degree in 1917, and being admitted as a barrister and solicitor. His studies were interrupted by his transfer in April, 1918, to the head office of the department in Wellington. In 1919 he was appointed law officer of the department. He acted as assistant-general manager during the absence of Mr. J. Mac Donald in Australia in October, 1923, and was appointed permanently to the position on Mr. MacDoriald's retirement at the end of tho year. Later, on the retirement of the general manager, Mr. R. W. McVilly, he became a member of the management board, then appointed to control the affairs of the department. Mr. Sterling figured prominently in the work of the department. He appeared for the department in the inquiry regarding the Ongarue accident, and also in the investigation of the railwaymen's grievances after the strike in 1924. He was responsible for the organisation and development of the new commercial branch of the department. .

DAIRY COMPANY MANAGER.

SUCCESSOR TO MR. STERLING. MR. C. j. PARLANE CHOSEN. [BY TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT.] HAMILTON, Thursday. The directors of the New Zealand Cooperative Dairy Company decided to-day to appoint Mr. C. J. Parlane, assistant manager, as manager of the company in place of Mr. H. H. Sterling, who had been released from his agreement with the company.

The appointment is from November 30, 1928, but in the meantime Mr. Parlane is, to visit Canada, the United States and Europe, where he will be given an opportunity of inspecting the most up-to-date plants manufacturing butter, cheese, casein and condensed and dried milks. He will also inaugurate the company's new butter establishment in England, from which lib. and £lb. pats of butter will be despatched throughout the United Kingdom.