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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Auckland Provincial District]

Inspection of Machinery Department

Inspection of Machinery Department.

Department Of Inspection Of Machinery, Palmersten Buildings, Queen, Street, Auckland. This branch office of one of the departments of the public service was opened in 1874, when Mr. W. J. Jobson, senior inspector in Auckland, was placed in charge. The branch does the work of the whole of the provincial district, and there are two inspectors.

Mr. William James Jobson, Senior Inspector of Machinery and Engineer Surveyor, who is in charge of the Auckland district, was born in 1832, at Newcastle-on-Tyne, England, and was educated at Trinity House School in his native place. He was apprenticed as an engineer, and served three years with Messers Richardson and Sons, of Hartlepool, and also three years with Messrs R. Stephenson and Co., of Newcastle-on-Tyne. Till 1862 Mr. Jobson was employed in the Baltic, Mediterranean, and West Indian trade, and left London in that year by the steamer “Phœbe” as chief engineer. The vessel was detained seven months at Bermuda, and was purchased by the Inter-colonial Company of Australia, afterwards the Panama Company, and reached Melbourne in 1863. Mr. Jobson remained on the “Phœbe,” which was engaged in the intercolonial and interprovincial trade, till 1874, when he left her at Wellington, and joined the Government service as inspector of machinery and engineer and surveyor, and was appointed to the position he has since held in Auckland. Mr. Jobson was married in 1875.

[Mr. Jobson retired from the public service in February, 1901, after the foregoing article was in type.]

Mr. Ludovic Blackwood, one of the Inspectors of Machinery, stationed at Auckland, was born at Johnstone, Renfrewshire, Scotland, in 1849. He was educated at Johnstone district school, and served an apprenticeship to the engineering firm of T. Shanks and Sons. Mr. Blackwood came to Sydney in 1871, and was employed by the Australian Steam Navigation Company, and afterwards on the s.s. “Mikado,” one of the San Francisco mail steamers, the property of Messrs McGregor, of Leith. He went Home by this vessel, via China, and after being for two years on the West Coast of Africa, entered the service of the Union Steam Ship Company, and came to New Zealand as engineer on the s.s. “Penguin,” in 1879. Five years later Mr. Blackwood joined the staff of the s.s. “Hinemoa,” and was appointed eighteen months afterwards an inspector of machinery and engineer surveyor. He was stationed successively at Christchurch, Dunedin, Picton, and other ports, and was transferred to Auckland in November, 1890. Mr. Blackwood was married, in 1876, to a daughter of the late Mr. James Ramsay, of Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, Scotland.