GISBORNE GAS COMPANY

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18386, 2 May 1934, Page 4

GISBORNE GAS COMPANY

NEW HEAD APPOINTED MANAGER AND ENGINEER The appointment is announced of Mr. Frederick M. Kennedy, at present of England, to the position of general manager and engineer of the Gisborne Gas Company, Limited. Mr. Kennedy is a son of Mr. Matthew .T. Kennedy, general manager and secretary df the Wellington Gas Company, and is the third generation of the Kennedy family to be actively associated with the gas industry in New Zealand, thus continuing an interesting family connection with the gas world. The late Mr. James Kennedy, grandfather of the newly-appointed Gisborne manager, was, until his death in September last, manager of the Greymouth gasworks and conducted that concern in such a farsighted and highly efficient manner that his advice was invoked for several other gasworks. His sou, Mr. M. J. Kennedy, has held a managerial position in the industry for a period- of 35 years, and for the last 13 years has been general manager and secretary of the Wellington Gas Company, one of the most successful gas services in New Zealand. Another son, Mr. Frank Kennedy, who has been associated with leading English gas firms, is now sales manager for the Wellington company. Mr. Frederick Kennedy, on completing his education at St. Patrick’s College, Wellington, entered the service of the Wellington company for four years, becoming familiar with the manufacture and distribution of gas, repairing and testing of meters, and the erection and repair of gas works’ apparatus and in general office work and accounts. He then proceeded to England, via Australia, visiting the gas undertakings at all places en route, and entered the works of “Wests Gas Improvement Company at Manchester, the contractors for the installation of the new gas plant at Gisborne. He served for three years with the company, gaining experience in all the latest ideas concerning the design and working of a modern gas carbonising plant. Finally he was sent by Wests to the historic town of Stirling, Scotland, to supervise the erection of a complete installation of Glover-West carbonising plant, and was responsible for the starting up and operating of the new plant and for the training of the gaswork’s staff. The Stirling company makes and sells five times the quantity of gas sold bv the Gisborne company; thus some idea may be gained of the size of the Stirling works. Further experience was gained by Mr. Kennedy in comprehensive research work under Dr. M. Barasch at Wests, and Dr. Walton in the well-known department oi industrial research of the Birmingham Corporation Gas Department. Sufficient time was spent with Messrs. J. and J. Braddock, Oldham, makers of meters and station governors, and at Bryan Donkin and Company at Chesterfield, makers of valves, governors, exhausting and compressing plants of all kinds. He also worked extensively with the wellknown firm of John Wright and Company, Limited (Radiation Limited), Birmingham, the manufacturers of New World gas stoves, sunliot water-heaters, gas fires and radiators, and the numerous other gas appliances which give such excellent service. At the time of his appointment to the Gisborne company, Mr. Kennedy was on the sales and distribution staff o? the South Metropolitan Gas Company, London, known throughout (lie world for its efficiency and up-to-date methods. Mr. Kennedy has thus had a unique experience and has travelled throughout England, Scotland, Ireland and the Continent during the last five years. Mr. Kennedy is to be married before leaving England at the end of May, and will commence his management in Gisborne in July next, returning to New Zealand via Australia, to visit the works in that country. Miss Quigley, who has had a wide commercial experience, has been appointed secretary and accountant to the company.