The Hokitika Gas Company , Registered Offices, Tancred Street; Works, Stafford Street, Hokitika. Directors: Messrs A. Stevenson (chairman), W. Williams, John Maunders and the Very Rev. Dean Martin. Mr. P. Wilson is manager, and Mr. W. Duncan secretary. The buildings, which are of brick, include a retort house, purifying house, gasometer, offices, and workshop. The retort house contains eleven retors, and the gasometer is capable of holding 20,000 feet of gas. The company makes over 3,000,000 feet of gas annually, and charges ten shillings per thousand feet net for lighting, and six shillings and eight-pence for cooking purposes.

Mr. Peter Wilson , Manager of the Hokitika Gas Company, Limited, was appointed to his present position in the year 1880. He is a native of Lanarkshire, Scotland, and came to New Zealand about the year 1863.

The Hokitika Fire Brigade was established in the year 1866. Mr. Mallard was its first captain, as well as one of its founders. The brigade has a complete plant, including a steam engine, and two manual engines, all valued at £1000. Several concrete tanks and wells, together with the water of the Hokitika river, serve for fire purposes. There are three fire bells, and a night-watchman is one duty from 11 p.m. till 6 a.m. The brigade is supported by grants from the Borough Council, and voluntary subscriptions; and the annual expenditure, including the salary of the night-watchman, who is an officer of the Council, is about £250. Officers for the year 1905: Messrs H. L. Michel, captain: W. Thompson, lieutenant; A. A. Andrewes, might-watchman.

Captain H. L. Michel, who is further referred to as a former Mayor of Hokitika, has been associated with the brigade for many years. In 1896, he was president of the New Zealand Fire Brigade Association, and has attended the annual conferences for the last fifteen years. With other members of the association, he has worked hard to secure legislation with a view to placing the fire brigades of the colony upon a sounder footing.

Mr. William Braddon , formerly Lieutenant of the Hokitika Fire Brigade, has been associated with the brigade since 1880, and has rendered valuable services during that time. At competitions he has been singularly successful. Mr. Braddon has made himself extremely popular with the members of the brigade and the citizens generally. He was born in Sandridge, Victoria, in 1862, and came to New Zealand with his parents at an early age. He was brought up to the brewing trade, has been on the same premises for the past twenty-five years, and now holds the position of brewer to Messrs Mandl and Co. He first worked under Mr. Stennard in Hokitika, and later on he gained further experience, under the late Mr. T. I. Hudson. On Mr. Mandl taking over the whole management of the brewery, Mr. Braddon remained in his employment, and in 1890 he was promoted to the position of brewer.

Mr. W. Braddon.

The Hokitika Town Hall , the property of the Borough Council, is one of the finest public buildings of its kind on the West Coast. It was erected in the year 1866, and is a two-storied wooden building. The Council Chambers are, with the Town Clerk's office, on the first floor, and the second floor includes a public reading room, library and museum. The land attached to the Town Hall comprises an acre and twenty perches, with a frontage to Revell Street, in the centre of the borough.