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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Canterbury Provincial District]

Fairton

Fairton.

Fairton township is situated four miles north of Ashburton, close to the Fairfield railway station and freezing works. The whole of the buildings are new, and there are several accommodation houses and shops. The town has grown up round the freezing works, and is mainly dependent on the meat freezing industry.

The Public School at Fairton was opened on the 17th of May, 1901, in temporary premises, which were rented in the Fairton township. Miss R. Hodgson was the first Mistress. The present school, which is substantially built of wood, is situated on the main road, near the railway station. The five acre section on which it is built, was bequeathed by the late Mr. Wilson, of Dromore, for educational purposes.

Mr. John Campbell, Master of the Fairton Public School, was born at Cheviot and educated at Papanui, where he obtained the dux medal awarded by Mr. T. S. Weston, and also a School of Art drawing scholarship, which he held for three years. He went through a two years' course of training at the Normal School, and in 1898 obtained a D certificate. Mr. Campbell was relieving in several districts, before being appointed to Fairton in May, 1902. His father, Mr. Robert Campbell, arrived in Canterbury by the s.s. “Zealandia,” (Captain Foster) on the 14th of November, 1859. Mr. Campbell, senior, came to the colony as a shepherd, and has followed that occupation to the present time. He was the first to take sheep over The Whale's Back in Nelson, and in 1862 he drove 11,000 sheep from Flaxbourne to Mataura; the journey, an arduous one in those days, occupied seven months. He was for twelve years head shepherd on Cheviot estate, under the late Hon. William Robinson, and is still, at the age of seventy-five, in the best of health with a grown-up family of eight.

Mitchell, photo.Mr. J. Campbell.

Mitchell, photo.
Mr. J. Campbell.

The Fairfild Freezing Works are owned by the Canterbury Frozen Meat and Dairy Produce Export Company, Limited, and are situated about four miles north of Ashburton, in the centre of one of the best sheep raising districts in New Zealand. The
Cooling Room, Fairfield Freezing Works.

Cooling Room, Fairfield Freezing Works.

page 810 works are considered to be the finest in the Southern Hemisphere, and can put through 500 sheep in a day, and have storage capacity for 80,000 carcases. Although freezing carcases is the main business of the works, other industries are carried on in connection with the wool, hides, and tallow, the manufacture of by-products, such as premier jus, tallow, manure, and sausage casings. Each department has its own head and staff of workmen, and its own plant. In connection with the works, there is a reserve water supply of two and a half million gallons. A railway siding runs along the front of the buildings and between the main building and the fellmongery, past the platforms of the various departments; and the company's own engine is employed for haulage. The district abattoirs are at the works.

Mr. Arthur E. Cooper, Representative of the Canterbury Frozen Meat and Dairy Produce Export Company, Limited, in the Ashburton county, was born in Christchurch and educated in that city. He joined the company's clerical staff in 1892, and, after being ten years in the company's service, was appointed to his present position in February, 1902.

Mr. Robert Beck, Engineer of the Fairfield Freezing Works, is a native of Christchurch, where he was educated, and apprenticed to Messrs Scott Bros., engineers of that city. On the completion of his term of apprenticeship he went to London to gain further experience. For some time after his return to Canterbury he was with Messrs J. and A. Anderson. He was then an engineer with the Wellington Meat Export Company, Limited, and also worked at the Belfast Freezing Works for seven years. When the machinery was erected at the Fairfield Freezing Works in January, 1899, he received his present appointment. Mr. Beck holds an extra first class engineer's certificate issued by the New Zealand Government. He takes an active interest in local affairs, and its chairman of the Fairton school committee, and a member of the Robert Burns Masonic Lodge of Christchurch.

Mr. Henry Ellis, who is head of the fellmongery department of the Fairfield Freezing Works, was born and educated in Christchurch, and learned his trade in his father's fellmongery at Geraldine. He was for two years in the North Island, and also had some experience in Australia. On his return to New Zealand Mr. Ellis was engaged by Messrs Nelson Bros. at their Ocean Beach works at the Bluff. He was head fellmonger there for six years, and left to take charge of the fellmongery at the Fairfield freezing works. The paint is one of the latest and most up-to-date in Australasia, and is second only to the Belfast freezing works plant. In the busy season fifty men are employed at the Fairfield works.

Mr. W. A. Adams, who has charge of the manure department of the Fairfield Freezing Works, is a native of Canterbury. He joined the staff of the Belfast Freezing Works in 1894, and was in the manure department there until the opening of the Fairfield works, when he was appointed to his present position. The department has an extensive machinery plant, and eight men are employed in it. Mr. Adams, who resides at Fairton, is a member of the Oddfellows' Lodge at Ashburton. He is married, and has one son.