"KIRKS"

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 142, 18 June 1931, Page 12

"KIRKS"

AN OLD FIRM: NEW

CONTROL

, The directors of Messrs. Kirkcaldie and Stains, Ltd., Wellington/ will be making a statement to shareholders respecting negotiations that have been proceeding for some time for the acquisition of ,a .controlling interest in their company by a powerful London investment trust.

The firm of Kirkcaldie and Stains, Ltd., is one of the oldest drapery establishments in New Zealand, and was popularly known as "Kirks." The business.has been established nearly seventy years, for it began in a small shop on Lambton' quay, opposite to Barrett's Hotel, in 1863. The founders were Mr. John Kirkcaldie and Mr. Robert Stains, both of whom had served in soft goods warehouses in St. Paul's Churchyard, London, in those days then more the centre of the wholesale drapery strade than it; is to-day, although it is "still important in that respect". Mr., Kirkcaldie, who was;.'born and served his time .as a draper in Kennoway, Fifeshire; wenfc first to Dublin and next to London. He ,was 'employed there in one warehouse, and Mr. Stains, also an ambitious young draper, was employed in a warehouse next door. Unknown to each other, they left London to seek their fortunes in Australia, and they subsequently met in Sydney, both being employed in the same establishment in that city. Each had conceived a high opinion of the other, and both were alike fired with an ambition to rise in the world. At the. end of their second year in Sydney the two friends cautiously approached each other with overtures and proposals for a combined venture in New Zealand. ,Mr. Joseph Paul, now of Wanganui, who also became a successful New Zealand draper, having himself started in Nelson, l-ecommended Wellington; but it. was within the knowledge of Messrs. Kirkealdie and Stains that a friend, Mr. Strange (of the firm Strange and Co., Christchurch), had just left Sydney to establish a drapery house in A Tew Zealand. So it was decided that' Mr,. Strange should, unknown to himself, have free choice between the two islands. Mr. Strange settled in Christchurch; therefore, feeling that they were not interfering with any,,, of their friends,' Messrs. Kirkcaldie and Stains elected to start business, in Wellington. The trade of the firm in its initial shop expanded rapidly, and within five years extension of premises became an absolute necessity. The site upon which the front portion of the present drapery establishment on Lambton quay now stands was in the market, and it was purchased by the firm from the Provincial Government at £1G and £12 per foot frontage. Be■fore the close of 1868 a very fine building for' those days was erected. Large additions and many alterations have been made to the existing premises, now fronting the Quay, also Johnston street and Brandon street.

Up to comparatively recent years Mr. John Kirkcaldie took -"an active interest in the business. Mr. Stains retired many years ago and went to live at Jfonvood, near London.

The Kirkcaldie family has. remained in sole . control ,of the business since Mr. Stains's retirement, Mr. Sydney Kirkcaldie succeeding his father, the founder,' the Jatc Mr. John Kirkcaldie, on his decease.