.jpg)
The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Otago & Southland Provincial Districts]
Mr. Joshua Thomas Noble Anderson
Mr. Joshua Thomas Noble Anderson , Engineer to the Dunedin Drainage and Sewerage Board, is a son of the late Rev. Samuel Anderson. Vicar of Upper Fals, Belfast. Ireland. His mother was a daughter of Mr Nelson Foley, of Ballygally, High Sheriff of County Waterford, and was descended from the founder of the steel industry of England, Richard Foley, of Stourbridgeseveral of whose descendants have gained distinction in the Old World in the science of engineering. The Anderson family were noted Jacobites, but, through the changes of time, have become strong supporters of Conservative party. Mr. Anderson's brother, Professor Cliffe Anderson of Sheffield and Burghfield, in Berkshire, is well known as a platform orator in connection with politics in England. Mr. Anderson was born near Belfast, and educated, primarily, at the Royal Academical Institution, and Queen's College and subsequently at the Royal University, Dublin; at college he was a senior scholar of his year, and graduated in arts and engineering. He was afterwards engaged in the Belfast Main Drainage Works, the Belfast Water Works, and the Manchester Water Works, and later on commenced a private practice in Belfast, which he conducted till his departure for Victoria, Australia, in 1889. In 1890 he returned to the Old Country, and during his brief sojourn there he obtained several engineering commissions in connection with sewerage and water supply in Holland. Mr. Anderson returned to Victoria in 1891 [gap — reason: illegible] take up an appointment as professor of Mechanical Engineering in the University of Melbourne, and retained that post till the abolition of the chair, owing to financial collapse, in 1896. He afterwards continued to practice privately as hydraulic engineer in Victoria and New South Wales, and acted as mechanical engineering expert adviser to the Victorian Water Supply Department, until 1902, when he was nominated by the Crown for the position of deputy chief engineer for that Department, and, almost at the same time, was offered the appointed to his present post. This he accepted as under the Victorian appointment he would have had to forego the private practice, which he is not hindered from following in connection with his present official position. Mr. Anderson, accordingly, carries on a private practice.