SIR J. HAWKSHAW DEAD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8585, 5 June 1891, Page 5

SIR J. HAWKSHAW DEAD.

Prut Atsaeiation.-'BleeMe Tt>Ugraph,—C>pyrigMi

London, J une 3. The death is announced o£ Sir J, Hawkshaw, the well-known engineer.

Sir John Hawkshaw, F.R.S., P.G.S., son of the late Mr. Henry Hawkshaw, of Leeds, by Sarah, daughter of Mr. Carringfcon, of Hampsthwaite,': Yorkshire, was born at Leeds in 1811, and received his education, in the grammar school of that; tows. vHβ •was, on leaving- school, placed as a pupil 'with Mr. Charles Fowler, who I was at that time ohiefly engaged in the construction of turnpike V J roads ia: the : West Riding of Yorkshire, and subsequently he became an assistant to ; the celebrated engineer, Mr. Alexander Ninnno, who was constructing for/ the: Government .: several important works in Ireland, In 1831 Mr. Nimrao died, and, at the early age of: twenty Mr. Hawkehaw './.was 4 engaged j to - undertake the management of the Bolivar Copper Mines, in South America. He returned to England in 1834. ; He then became engineer I to the Manchester and Bolton Canal and .Railway./ Afterwards he was engineer to the Lancashire and Yorkshire Kail way (nearly the whole at which he constructed), and; to several railways in tho North and in other parts of England. Mr. Hawkshaw was one of the Metropolitan Commissioners of Sewers when that body was formed by the Crown, and in JB6O he was appointed Royal Commissioner to decide between rival schemes for tha • water supply, to the City of ; Dublin. On : the failure of the great sluice of St. Gyirmaine, in Norfolk,'; in 1862.. he was requested Iby the Commissioners of the -Middle Level to take measures to stop the inundations, and to remedy the evil caused by that disaster, which he did successfully, and there, for tho first time, he substituted large syphons for - the fallen sluice. :./ In the following year, on a vacancy occurring the representation of Anclover, he became a candidate for : that borough, but was i unsuccessful, and he never afterwards endeavoured to enter Parliament. He was President of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1862-63. 1870 he proposed the famous scheme for a submarine tunnel between Calais and Dover, the borings for which, hove been begun but not continued. V In 1873 he received the honour of knighthood. He was President of the British Association at ■ the Bristol Meeting in 1875. ; The following are some of Sir John Hawkshaw's great engineering works:- —The Riga Dunaberg and the Dunaberg and Witepsk Railways in Russia ; the Peuarth Harbour and Dock in Cardiff Roads; the Londonderry Bridge in Ireland ; the Charing Cross and Cannon-street line, with the two massive. bridges over the Thames ; the East London Railway ; the Government Railways in Mauritius; : the Albert Dock at Hull ; the South Book of the East and West India Dock Company the foundation of the new forts at Spithead ; the Severn Tunnel; and ! the Great Ship Canal from Amsterdam to the Iv'orth Sea. Sir John has written pamphlets on [ mining and engineering subjects ; 5 papers read before the Geological Societies of LonI don and Manchester; and " Reminiscences of South America :• from Two-and-a-half Years' Residence in Venezuela," 1888. ■ *