A REMARKABLE CAREER.

Otago Witness, Issue 3619, 24 July 1923, Page 50

A REMARKABLE CAREER.

„ WELLINGTON, July 2. From miner to Auditor-general was the career of Mr James Kemmis Warfcurton, a distinguished citizen, who died on Saturday at the age of 81. Although he was in delicate health for many years, Mr Warburton reta ned possession of his mental faculties to the last, and less than an hour before he died he was discussing the Wellington Gas Company’s affairs with his nephew, Mr Arthur L. Warburton, ouo of the directors. Mr Waibui ton's parents were the first couple marri d in St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Wellington, in 1811. The family is ar> Irish one, and numbered many distinguished members, including Sir Robert Warburton, whose work as Civil Commissioner at the Khyber Pass, in India, is historical. The late Mr Warburton was born in 1842 in Nelson, and received his early education in Wellington. Ilis parents sent him Home to finish his education, where he was a noted athlete, especially at swimming. On his return to New Zealand in 1863 he sought his fortune at the Otago goldfields, his brother being at Gabriel’s Gully. Not finding the work to his liking, he joined the local Post Office staff there, and afterwards went to Dunedin as counter clerk in the department. After some years he was transferred to Woffington, and among his duties was that of mail clerk in charge of the mails from New Zealand to Panama, when the mails were conveyed by land across the isthmus. Mr Warburton rose in the service until he became secretary to the elder Mr Gray, who was in charge of the Postal Department, and whose son succeeded him. Mr Warburton was given charge of the Post Office Savings Bank and Money Order Department, and he initiated the great system of accounts which has stood the test to the present day and during his term of service many officials who afterwards rose to eminence had good reason to thank his guiding hand and kindly treatment for their successful careers. In June, 1891, Mr Warburton’s greatest opportunity came, for the commission on the Public Trust Office had presented a report which would have destroyed any institution of the sort, and the then Prime Minister (Mr Ballance), who had only assumed office that year, was looking for someone to rehabilitate it. He chose Mr Warburton for the heavy task, and events proved that he had chosen wisely. The whole establishment was reorganised. A simpler but more efficient system of accounts was introduced, and from that time the office became stronger, more efficient, and more popular than ever. Mr Warburton was consulted by the Imperial Government when the establishment of a similar institution was contemplated at Home, and the paper which he supplied embodying the information was a masterpiece. In 1896 he was chosen to succeed Sir J. E. Fitzgerald as Auditor-general—a position which he held with conspicuous credit until he resigned in 1910. Mr Warburton, who had never married, leaves two sisters (Mrs R. W. Kane and Miss Mary Carden Warburton, who lives at Nice), and a brother (Mr R. Warburton, sen., who was formerly manager of the Bank of New Zealand in Wellington).