Mr. Robert West England, who has been chairman of the South Waimakariri River Board since January, 1897, and acted in the same capacity in 1883, has been a member of that body since 1881. Mr. England is a native of Leamington, Warwickshire, England, where he was born in 1838, and brought up to the building trade. He arrived in Lyttelton in 1860 per ship “Robert Small,” and he and his brother carried on business as builders and contractors in Lyttelton for ten years. Removing to Christchurch in 1870, the firm acquired premises in Tuam Street, and continued the business till 1878, since which Mr. England has conducted it in his own name. Three years later he discontinued the building trade and confined his attention more particularly to that of a timber merchant. Mr. England was elected to the Christchurch City Council in 1880, and sat on that body for three years.