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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Wellington Provincial District]

Mr. Charles William Brown

Mr. Charles William Brown, J.P., who represents the Hutt County Council on the Wellington Harbour Board, was born in Wellington in 1842. His father, Mr. Charles Brown, arrived in Port Nicholson by the ship “Martha Ridgway,” and a daughter being born to them before landing, the infant was appropriately named after the vessel. The subject of this notice who was educated at the schools of Mr. Finnimore and Mr. Toomath, has chosen a farmer's life. He settled in the Waiwetu district, where he lives on his farm. Mr. Brown remembers the earthquake of 1855, which threw down every chimney, and raised the foreshore of the harbour so that the wharves known as Brown's and Baron Alzdorf's, which before could be approached at low tide by topsail schooners, were left high and dry fifty feet away from the water. His father then built a wharf 350 feet long, and a boat could then only land passengers at low water. This wharf was removed when the reclamation was made opposite the Royal Hotel. In 1863 Mr. Brown had a trip to England, Hamburgh, and Heligoland. Of the twelve months spent on this holiday trip, seven months were occupied in going and returning. Mr. Brown was first elected to a seat on the Hutt County Council in 1884. On this occasion he was returned unopposed. At each election since he has had to fight for page 318 his seat, but has always been victorious, having been continuously a member up to the present. He was appointed to represent the Council on the Harbour Board in 1834, and sits as a trustee of the Wellington Hospital in the same interest. Mr. Brown is president of the Hutt Producers' Association, which seeks to establish a central market in Wellington so as to find a market for garden and farm produce, and counteract Chinese aggression. He has taken a deep interest in settlement in the Forty-Mile Bush, and is a trustee for the Hutt Small Farm Association, which has purchased a township site lying between Eketahuna and Pahiatua, which has been named “Brownstown,” in his honour. This settlement is on the line of railway to Woodville, and as it is the centre of a fine country, a good sale is anticipated when it is placed in the market. Mr. Brown was married in 1866 to the eldest daughter of Mr. George Copeland, one of the earliest settlers in the Waiwetu, who had to fly for his life in the troublous days of the Maori disturbances now past. Mr. Brown has a family of four sons (three of whom are settled near Brownstown) and two daughters.