Other formats

    TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Auckland Provincial District]

Mr Alexander Bruce

Mr Alexander Bruce, who sits on the Waitemata County Council as Member for the Northcote Riding, is also chairman of the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board. He was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1839, and was educated at his native place. On leaving school he acted for two years and a half as page to the late Lord Lindsay, who was celebrated as the author of “Lindsay's Travels in Egypt, Edom and Syria,” a work of great research. Mr Bruce afterwards entered the service of Messrs Blackie Bros., engineers, Aberdeen, and remained with the firm for three years, after completing his apprenticeship. He afterwards worked in Glasgow and at the Blackwall Company's Shipbuilding Yards in London, then one of the largest yards in Great Britain. In the year 1863, Mr Bruce came to Auckland by the ship “Scimitar,” and entered the employment of the engineering firm of Messrs Vicary and Masefield, now Masefield and Co. After being for some time with that firm, he entered the service of Messrs Fraser and Co., and remained there until 1865, when, owing to a lock-out about increased wages, Mr Bruce left the firm. In conjunction with his brother-in-law, Mr Teasdale, he then started in Queen Street in a bakery and confectionery business, which was most successfully carried on for three years. Mr Bruce was then attracted by the glowing accounts of fortunes quickly made on the Thames goldfields, and disposed of his interest in the business. He was mining for a year and a half at the Thames, but had no success as a gold-seeker. He then commenced the more certain occupation of engineer, and was over a year busily employed in erecting quartz-crushing machinery. Mr Bruce returned to Auckland, where he re-entered the employment of Messrs Masefield and Co., with whom he remained for over twenty years, and had charge of a department. Mr Bruce first took part in public affairs in 1884, when he was elected a member of the Northcote Road Board. He remained on that body until its amalgamation with the Waitemata County Council, and was for several years previous to the amalgamation a member on both bodies. He has been continuously a member of the Waitemata County Council for over thirteen years, during which he has been returned three times, unopposed, and twice at contested elections. Mr Bruce has been connected with the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board for eight consecutive years, and is now (1900) chairman of that body. He has been for over forty years a member of the Society of Amalgamated Engineers, one of the largest and most influential societies in existence, and has for many years been secretary to the Auckland branch. As a public man, Mr Bruce is painstaking and consistent, and enjoys the utmost confidence of his constituents. Mr Bruce married shortly after his arrival in Auckland, and of a family of ten, three sons are now, as engineers, following in their father's foot-steps.