83 YEARS OF AGE.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20851, 10 May 1933, Page 9

83 YEARS OF AGE.

MR JOHN ANDERSON, SEN. EARLY ENGINEERING DAYS RECALLED. Mr John Anderson, sen., one of the best known figures in Canterbury and a pioneer in the engineering s trade in New Zealand, celebrated his eighty-third birthday yesterday in Christchurch. He came to Canterbury with [ his parents in the Sir George Seymour, one of the First Four Ships. In spite of his age, Mr Anderson is in good health, and : he still takes the keenest interest in affairs of the day. When he was seen at his home yesterday afternoon by a reporter of "The Press," he would speak little about himself; but he recalled some interesting details of the early days of the engineering firm—now known as Andersons, Limited—in the progress of which he played such a prominent part. A few weeks after the arrival of the Sir George Seymour, Mr Anderson's father set up a forge at a spot known as "The Bricks," not far from the site of the present Barbadoes street bridge. It was the end of the navigable portion of the Avon, explained Mr Anderson, and received its name from the fact that the Deans family landed some bricks there, where they remained until they could be carted away to Riccarton. The place was known as "The Bricks" for some time. Forge in Cashel Street. "My father stayed there for two years," said Mr Anderson, "then he shifted his forge up to Cashel street, where its original site is now leased by Ballantynes'. Two or three years later, he saw the colony developing, and he imported machinery to carry on the work of a foundry—the first foundry in the provincial district. He developed it in many ways as time went on, and in 1866 he decided to send his two eldest sons—my brother Andrew and myself, I being the older—Home to school at Edinburgh, and an old friend of his in Edinburgh selected Merchiston as the school to which we should go. Then we went on to learn engineering, my brother learning civil engineering, and I the mechanical side." On returning to New Zealand the brothers .engaged largely , in public constructional and engineering works, for both "the Provincial Government and the National Government, until the latter decided to carry on public works as one of its own departments and with its own labour, when it became necessary for the Anderson brothers to look for other fields for their activities. The last of their lailway contracts was the North Island Main Trunk from Te Kuiti to the head waters of the Mokau. They found this an interesting job, because it included a fine viaduct. They subsequently came into public works activities again by building the Makotuku viaduct on the Main Trunk in the Wellington province. They .also built sections of the Rakaia-Ashbur-ton Forks line and the Midland line, one of which they equipped withj locomotives and carriages, which l were imported. ■ ■ i i Making of Machinery. 1 "The dairy industry was developing about that time,", said Mr Anderson, ."and we thought it should be possible to tak* up the manufacture of dairy machinery. They were using the steam engine then, and we developed a considerable trade in j small boilers and engines. Recog-i nising that they', in turn, would be; replaced by oil engines,: we took up the manufacture of them and also of larger machinery—churns and equipment of that kind—for dairy factories. To-day our firm is still producing churns; but they are,, of course, much larger now than in .the old days, producing upwards of two tons of butter. When bulk oil came to be imported into New Zealand we built oil storage tanks all round the country, except in the extreme north."' : Mr Anderson's brother Andrew, With whom he was associated in so many notablei engineering enterprises, died some years ago. Their father, who was the second Mayor of Christchurch, and their mother, were both born near Musselburgh, Scotland, and it is from their birthplace, Inveresk, that Mr John Anderson's home in Armagh street west is named.