The Wellington and Marlborough Lime and Cement Works are situated on the railway line at what is known as “The Elevation,” about one mile and a-half out of Picton. For some considerable time the presence of suitable material there in great abundance had attracted the attention of manufacturers, but no decisive: step was taken until 1904, when the Wellington and Marlborough Lime and Cement Company, Limited, after having tested and re-tested the material, bought an extensive site. The whole of the works are practically under one roof. The building is of corrugated iron, and measures 450 feet by ninety feet. The plant throughout is up-to-date, and no expense has been spared in making it thoroughly efficient for the purpose. The kilns, which are of the American rotary type, are sixty feet long, six feet in diameter, and weigh eighty tons. There are also three Krupp ball mills, two Askham cube mills, and a coal grinding mill. The machinery is driven by a Haslam converted engine of 225 horse power, together with two large boilers of 131 horse-power each. The capacity of the works is about twenty-two tons per day.

Mr. John Alexander Hart Kelly , Manager of the Wellington and Marlborough Lime and Cement Works, was born in Lancaster-shire, England, in December, 1851, and served an apprenticeship as an engineer and millwright. At nineteen years, he was appointed manager of the firm with which he had served his time, and at few years later went to Newcastle-on-Tyne to manage the firm's lime and cement works. Shortly afterwards, Mr. Kelly resigned, in order to go to China, under engagement to the Green Island Cement Company, and after erecting, and for six years managing, lime and cement works near Canton, he went to Australia. In New South Wales, not far from Paramatta, he put up a large lime and cement factory, and for six years managed it. Then he went into the interior, about 140 miles west of Sydney, and started what is now the Commonwealth Cement Company, and after spending about eleven months there he came to New Zealand. Shortly after landing, Mr. Kelly was appointed manager of the Melbourne Lime and Cement Company's works, close to Dunedin, and in 1904 he resigned this post to assist in the promotion of the Wellington and Marlborough Lime and Cement Works at Picton.