GAS INDUSTRY

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 44, 21 February 1942, Page 9

GAS INDUSTRY

AUCKLAND ENGINEER

RETIRES

Recognition of service and association with the gas industry in New Zealand since 1903 was made at a complimentary luncheon extended recently to Mr. James Lowe, retiring engineer and general manager of the Auckland Gas Company, by the directors of the Wellington Gas Company. Members of the executive of the New Zealand Gas Companies' Association, the Gas Institute, and of gas equipment manufacturers were also present, and Dr. C Prendergast Knight, chairman of the Wellington Gas Company and president of the association, made, on behalf of the industry, a presentation to Mr. Lowe of a silver salver and silver tea service. Mr. Lowe has been a member of the New Zealand Gas Companies' Association executive since 1921, and was elected first president of the Institute at its inauguration in 1925. At the time of. his appointment from the position of assistant engineer and general manager of the Glasgow Corporation Gas Department to the position of engineer and general manager of the Auckland Gas Company in 1908, the production of gas in Auckland was 400,000,000 cubic feet per year. Last year's production of gas totalled 1,200,000,000 cubic feet, disclosing a remarkable growth of activity during the period of Mr. Lowe's association with the company.

In the course of his work at Auckland Mr. Lowe designed equipment to meet New Zealand conditions in carbonising New Zealand coals. He also designed a type of water-gas plant to work automatically, and this has been adopted in some of the medium-size works in New Zealand, notably at Hamilton and Masterton.