Captain North was born at Gravesend, England, in the year 1848. When fifteen years of age, he went to sea, and sailed to all parts of the world. In 1870, he came to New Zealand in the barque “Rapedo,” and left her at Nelson, but shortly afterwards entered a steamboat service, in which he eventually secured a master mariner's certificate. Captain North was for many years in the Union Steam Ship Company's service, as well as in other colonial lines, and is, therefore, well known throughout the New Zealand and Australian ports. His seafaring life has not been without hardships, trials, and adventures; on many occasions, he was dismasted while in wid-ocean, and he was once shipwrecked on the East Coast of England. Captain North is a Freemason and an Oddfellow. He was married, in Wellington, to a daughter of the late Mr. Duncan McIntosh, who came to New Zealand with Colonel Wakefield, in the “Will Watch,” and has two sons and three daughters. He resides at Blenheim, and is now (1905) master of the steamer “Blenheim.”