Halswell is within three miles of the Prebbleton railway station on the Christchurch-Southbridge line. It is a fine farming and dairying district, and is especially noted for its large crops of first-rate potatoes. The township has a good store, a bacon factory, and a good hotel, which is much patronised by cyclists. There is also a public school, and a handsome English church. The district is traversed by well kept roads, particularly good for cycling. This applies especially to the road to Tai Tapu, past Lansdowne, between the Port Hills and the Halswell river.

Halswell Road Board. The members of this Board are: Mr Charles Lewis (chairman), and Messrs R. H. Rhodes, C. P. Hugonin, F. W. Quaife, and W. Henderson, junior; with Mr. C. W. Comer, secretary and surveyor.

Mr. C. W. Comer, Secretary and Surveyor of the Halswell Road Board, was born in Devonshire, England, and came to New Zealand in 1861, landing at Auckland. He came to Canterbury in 1866, and started farming on the Lincoln Road. For several years he was engaged in large contracts around Christchurch, and received his present appointment in 1877. Mr. Comer carries on farming, in addition to his road board duty. He is a progressive colonist, and has always identified himself with the general welfare of his district. Since 1875 he has been a member of the Spreydon school committee, and is also a member of the Spreydon Road Board. He is a Freemason, unattached.

Wrigglesworth and Binns, photo.
Mr. C. W. Comer.

St. Mary's Church, Halswell. St. Mary's is a wooden building, which was erected in 1863. It has accommodation for about one hundred worshippers, possesses a fine organ, and has a very good choir. The church stands in well-planted grounds, and is approached through a lych-gate, which was erected to the memory of the late Mr. Bedell. The plate used in the service of St. Mary's was presented by the old Canterbury Association. St. Paul's church, Tai Tapu, and St. Mark's church, Greenpark, both wooden buildings, belong to the parochial district of Halswell, and weekly services are held at both. There is a handsome new vicarage adjoining St. Mary's church, Halswell, and the whole property is all but clear of debt.

The Rev. Henry Williams, M.A., Vicar of Halswell, is the eldest son of the Rev. Henry Williams, Vicar of St. Albans, page 665 and was born in Cookfield, Suffolk, England, in 1871. He accompanied his parents to New Zealand in 1879, and was educated at Christ's College and Canterbury College. Mr. Williams passed the fourth grade of the Board of Theological studies in 1897, took his B.A. degree in 1895, his M.A. in 1896; was ordained deacon in 1895, and priest in 1896 by the Bishop of Christchurch. He was curate of Riccarton and Halswell from 1895 till 1898, and on the formation of Halswell into a parochial district in 1898 he was appointed vicar. Mr. Williams is also Anglican chaplain of the Sunnyside Asylum. He married Miss Thorpe, daughter of Archdeacon Thorpe.

The Lych Gate, St. Mary's, Halswell.

The Halswell Bacon Factory (F. W. Quaife, proprietor), Halswell. This factory, of which Mr. F. W. Quaife is the proprietor, was established in 1883 with the most modern machinery obtainable. It has a yearly output of about 2000 grain fed pigs. and its cure has a reputation for its great excellence throughout Australasia, as well as New Zealand. At the New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition, held in 1889 and 1890, the Halswell hams and bacon won four gold medals against a large number of competitors. The factory's exhibits have also obtained numerous first prizes at various agricultural and pastoral shows.

Mr. F. W. Quaife, Proprietor of the Halswell Bacon Factory, is descended from an old Buckinghamshire family. He was born in 1854 at Ballington, Essex, and educated at the High School, bedford. In 1870 he left home for Canada, where he engaged in agricultural pursuits till 1874, when he returned to England after travelling all over the United States, and visiting the principal cities and towns. The same year he left home for Melbourne, where he engaged himself to Messrs Kitchen and Co., soap and candle manufactures, and under his supervision the firm soon began to turn out, in lieu of a few hundred, 4000 boxes of candles a week. On returning to England in 1877 Mr. Quaife became a partner in Messrs Edgar Mann and Co.'s candle and soap works at Sudbury, Suffolk, but in 1880, deciding to settle in New Zealand, he dissolved partnership, and, procuring a large quantity of the most modern machinery, established a soap and candle factory at the Rakaia, Canterbury. He relinquished this business in 1883, and opened his present curing factory at Halswell. Mr. Quaife has been chairman of the Halswell school committee for the last four years; he has also been chairman of the Road Board, and of the Halswell Domain Board on several occasions, and has been connected with these bodies for the past ten years. In 1874 he was married to Miss Billington Barcock, of Perry Hill Farm, Cranfield, Bedfordshire, England, and has now a family of four sons and three daughters, the eldest son being manager of his father's farm of 400 acres at Ngapara, near Oamaru.

Mr. F. W. Quaife.

Mrs F. W. Quaife.