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Personal

Mr. P. G. Roussell, Secretary of the Railway Board, is among the best known and most trusted of New Zealand trained Railwaymen. A strong sense of right, a keen mind that sees all round a subject to its ultimate issues, and a safe instinct for doing the right thing unhesitatingly, are among the qualities which have helped him to win the unstinted confidence of all those engaged in, or concerned with, the Railway Service.

Joining the Department in 1893 as a cadet at Auckland he was, during the next twelve years, located at various stations in the Auckland and Wanganui districts. Thereafter he filled successively the positions of stationmaster at Turakina, Otahuhu and Te Aroha, Assistant Relieving Officer in the Auckland District, and stationmaster, Henderson. In 1916 he was taken into the District Traffic Manager's office at Auckland. With a year of auditing to his credit and experience of control work in all phases of District Office duties, he was fully equipped for appointment as Chief Clerk to the District Manager at Ohakune in 1922. In 1924 he was promoted to the position of Chief Clerk at Head Office, Wellington, and in the beginning of 1925 was selected as Secretary to the then newly created Railway Board of Control.

Mr. J. S. Hunter, the affable and efficient official secretary of the Railway Department, has been associated with various Ministers of Railways in a secretarial capacity. He was born at Picton in 1889, educated at Hawera High School, and joined the Post and Telegraph Department as a Telegraph Messenger in 1903 Eight years later he was transferred to the P. & T. Head Office Staff Division and in 1914 was placed in the Public Service Commissioners’ office. He became Private Secretary in a temporary capacity, for Sir Frances Bell in 1915, and in 1918 was associated with Sir A. Myers in the Ministry of Munitions and Supplies. The following year Mr. Hunter was made Private Secretary to the late Mr. W. F. Massey who then held the portfolio of Railways. The portfolio passed successively to Hon. H. D. Guthrie and the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates, Mr. Hunter passing with it, and on the re-organisation of the Railway Department in 1924 he received his appointment as Official Secretary. In the course of his career, Mr. Hunter has been entrusted with some very important work, including laying down the Base Records system for the Main Body Defence Camps at Awapuni in 1914. More recently he has been connected with the Railway Department's housing scheme for Hutt Valley.