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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Nelson, Marlborough & Westland Provincial Districts]

Collingwood

Collingwood.

Collingwood is on the Aorere river, sixty-five miles to the north-west of Nelson. A great deal of sawmilling is carried on in the district, and gold-mining is also carried on by means of sluicing and quartz crushing. The Para Para hydraulic sluicing works are five miles from the township, which has a weekly newspaper, a post and money order office, a church and other institutions. Collingwood is connected with Nelson by a small steam service. The township was practically destroyed by fire on the 7th of November, 1904, but has since been re-built. The present hotels and stores are large twostoried wooden buildings, all lighted with acetylene gas, and modern in their conveniences.

The Collingwood County Council was established in the year 1876, and meets on the third Monday in each month. The present chairman is Mr. William Grant, and the coun- page 210 cillors are Mr. Thomas McNab, Mr. George W. Riley, senior, Mr. Robert E. Fellowes, Mr. Fred Tyree, and Mr. Henry P. Washbourn. Mr. George H. Allen is Clerk of the Council.

Mr. Robert Ross Fellowes was elected a member of the Collingwood County Council for the Bainham riding in the year 1904. He was born at Waitapu. Takaka, in 1868, and was educated at the local school. Subsequently he was for sixteen years on the Government survey staff, and is at present (1905) engaged in farming at Bainham. Mr. Fellowes is a member of the Bainham school committee. In May, 1890, he married a daughter of Mr. Owen McMeaghan, of Anahau, and has one son and one daughter.

The Collingwood Public School is situated in Louis Street, Collingwood, and was opened about 1861, under Mr. Neam. It has fortyseven scholars on the roll, with an average attendance of forty. Mr. H. B. Sanders is the master.

Mr. Alfred Thomas White formerly headmaster of the Collingwood school, was born in 1878, in Auckland, where he received his first schooling, and, on completing his education in Nelson, he was appointed probationer under the Board of Education. After a year's experience at an infants' school, he was transferred to the Boys' Central school, where he remained for three years, and was then appointed temporary teacher at Collingwood, where he afterwards became head teacher. During his period as a probationer, he gained an E certificate, and after going to Collingwood he acquired his D. From Collingwood Mr. White went to Spring Grove.

New Zealand Hematite Company (Washbourn Brothers), Para Para, Collingwood. Bankers, Bank of New Zealand. The works are situated at Para Para, where there is an almost inexhaustible supply of iron ore, of better quality than that found in any other part of the world, for the paint gives a percentage of ninety-one per cent, of oxide of iron. Sir F. A. Abel, Director of the Imperial Institute, England, in reporting to the New Zealand Government in 1895 on the paint, said: “The New Zealand oxide is a better paint than Torbay, so far as covering power is concerned, and the difference in amount of materials required in making up the New Zealand oxide as against the Torbay does not even bring the
Collingwood In 1898.

Collingwood In 1898.

page 211 latter pigment up to the former.” Of the iron ore he says: “The New Zealand ore is decidedly superior to the Northampton ore on account of its freedom from phosphorus'; and of the limestone connected with the iron deposit he reports: “It thus appears that this limestone is a very pure carbonate of lime, the impurities amounting at most to less than two per cent. A special examination was made for phosphorus, with negative result.” Two kinds of paint are made by the firm, namely, the hematite paint and the spathic iron paint, which are recognised throughout the Colony as the best made anywhere. In the process of manufacture the iron ore is first calcined, and then goes into a battery of six stampers, each weighing about 750 pounds. After being crushed, it flows through berdans, and then, in order to catch all the sediment, over nearly still water-tanks, and into the settling tanks. The paint is then dried in a kiln, and afterwards pulverised through rollers, and bagged ready for the market. The machinery is driven by a thirty-feet overshot water wheel, capable of working up to sixteen horse power. Messrs Washbourn Brothers are also establishing knife polish works, and are producing an article which, while polishing the knives as quickly as any of the imported brands, will not destroy them as much, and can be used for copper and brass. For this industry very great facilities exist at Para Para, there being an unlimited supply of suitable material adjacent to water power for all the processes of manufacture. As this enables the firm to put a polish on the market equal in quality to any of the imported brands, and considerably cheaper, it should soon develop into an important industry, which will provide employment for a large number of people.
Mr. H. P. Washbourn.

Mr. H. P. Washbourn.

Mr. A. J. Washbourn.

Mr. A. J. Washbourn.

Lash, John George, Farmer, Rockville, Collingwood. Bankers, Bank of New Zealand. Mr. Lash was born at Torbay, Devon, England, in 1839, and attended school at Torbay and Teignmouth. He then worked on his father's farm for many years. In 1860 he came to New Zealand in the ship “John Philips,” and landed at Nelson, whence he proceeded to the Collingwood goldfields. For many years afterwards he was one of the first on the field when any noteworthy discovery was made anywhere in the colony. In 1864 Mr. Lash established an accommodation house on the Maungatapu. After it was abandoned and pulled down, its chimney remained standing, and it was there that the Burgess and Kelly gang met and divided their spoil after murdering Kempthorne, Mathieu and Dudley. In 1866 he settled down at Collingwood, where he has a farm of 150 acres of first-class land, mostly undulating sheep country. Mr. Lash is a Freemason of nearly forty years' standing. He is a director of the Golden Bay and Sounds Steamship Company, Limited, and has long been connected with the County Council and with the road boards throughout the district.

Tyree, Frederick, Farmer, Collingwood. Mr. Tyree established a photographer's business in Takaka, in 1889, and revived it in 1896, after having been absent from the district for a year or two. As a photographer, he travelled through the whole province of Nelson, and had 9000 negatives of some of the district's finest and most beautiful scenery. He had orders for copies from all parts of the Australasian colonies. Mr. Tyree, who, eft photography at Takaka to take up farming at Collingwood, is a brother of Mr. William Tyree, of Nelson, and Mr. Alfred Tyree, of Christchurch. He was born in London, England, in 1867, and came to New Zealand with his parents in 1871. Mr. Tyree was brought up to the drug trade, and was with Messrs Sainsbury, Ellison, and Co., of Dunedin, and afterwards with Messrs Clifford and Morris, with whom he gained considerable knowledge of photography. Before establishing himself in Takaka, Mr. Tyree was with Mr. W. Tyree of Nelson, and it was then that he travelled the province of Nelson with the camera in quest of scenery. He married a daughter of Mr. David Scott of Motupipi, and has two sons.

Mr. John Ellis , an old colonist of Collingwood, was born in Cardiff, Glamorganshire, Wales, in 1817. He came to Nelson by the ship “Bernecia,” in 1848, and went to Wai-iti, where he followed his usual occupation as a pit sawyer. After five years, Mr. Ellis removed to Grove, now known as Grove Town, where he was the first sawyer in the district. In 1855 he settled at Collingwood, and bought a section, which is still his home. He and another man, known as Ned James, were the first to find gold at Collingwood. They dug out many valuable nuggets in Lightband's Gully, and one of them is now in the Wellington Museum. He also discovered a seam of coal, which has not yet been worked, but on account of which the Government gave him a reward of £25. Mr. Ellis was married in Cardiff, Wales, to a daughter of the late Mr. Christopher Williams, and has eight children, all of whom are married.

Mr. Magnus Manson was one of the earliest settlers in Golden Bay. He was born in the Shetland Isles in 1818, and followed the sea and coopering for some years. In the first instance, he settled at a whaling station at Queen Charlotte Sound, and was wrecked in the “Vittoria,” in 1839, when all hands were saved, although the vessel was lost. Mr. Manson went to Wellington about 1842, and was engaged in farming at the Hutt for seven or eight years. Shortly after the Victorian gold diggings broke out, he went to Australia, worked at Bendigo in 1851, and was afterwards at Twofold Bay, New South Wales. Having done fairly well in Australia, Mr. Manson returned to New Zealand, and went to Golden Bay, and took up 600 acres of land at Motupipi in 1853. In 1878 he met with an accident which caused his death. Mr. Manson look considerable interest in educational matters, and was always to the fore in connection with questions affecting the welfare of the district. He left seven sons and three daughters.

Mr. Alfred Peart , who was for some time a dairy farmer in the Collingwood district, now resides in the North Island. Though of English parentage, Mr. Peart was born in Scotland, where his father was engaged in the sawmilling trade. Mr. Peart, senior, afterwards entered into partnership with Mr. John Hall, of Newcastleon-Tyne, and the firm purchased large tracts of country in Sweden, and page 212 erected several sawmills. The venture was not altogether successful, and after spending seven years in Sweden, the partnership was dissolved, and the Peart family came out to New Zealand in 1880; Mr. A. Peart was then seventeen years old. The family carried on the Vanguard Flour Mill in Nelson for some time, and Mr. Peart
Mr. A. Peart.

Mr. A. Peart.

was for ten years engaged in school teaching, his last appointment being at Foxhill and Spring Grove. After being in partnership with one of his brothers in a sheep run at Farewell Spit, Mr. Peart settled at Kaituna, on a dairy farm. He was a member of the local road board, and of the Collingwood County Council.
Slate River Ford, Collingwood.

Slate River Ford, Collingwood.