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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Taranaki, Hawke's Bay & Wellington Provincial Districts]

Wood Trade

Wood Trade.

Awatoto Saw-Mill and Timber Yards (W. Ward, Proprietor). Telephone, No. 189; Box, No. 22; Bankers, Bank Of New South Wales. Established by the present proprietor in the year 1892, this industry has steadily increased from year to year, and has developed into one of the largest contracting
Mr. Ward and The Employees Of The Awatoto Saw-Mill.

Mr. Ward and The Employees Of The Awatoto Saw-Mill.

page 395 and building firms in Hawke's Bay. The mill and yards are situated three miles from Napier by road or rail, and cover live and a-half acres of land; and adjacent to the yards are several dwelling houses, and other buildings of a substantial character, the whole forming a small township. Almost the whole of the timber used comes from Mr. Ward's mill in the Seventy-mile Bush, and includes the best rimu, totara, and matai obtainable. The plant in the workshops is one of the most up-to-date of its kind in the colony, and comprises one four-sided planer, one two-sided planer, saw bench, shaper, band saw, turning lathe, and various other machines, which are driven by a twenty-one horse-power “Tangye” oil engine. With a due regard to the safety of his employees, Mr. Ward built his workshops so that all the belting from the main the main engine to the machinery runs beneath the flooring of the shop. The various buildings include joiners', plumbers', and glaziers' shops, an iron store, a moulding shed, a nail store, and a paint, oil, and paper shop. Three teams of horses are employed carting out the finished products to the various buildings in course of erection by the firm. Amongst the more important buildings which Mr. Ward has erected in Napier, mention may be made of the Borough Council's abattoirs, Newton's buildings, Higgin's shop, Thomson's two-storeyed drapery establishment, Blythe's building, and several fine private residences situated on the Marine Parade, and on Bluff and Colenso Hills. The firm also erected the Taradale Hotel, Roach Brothers' shop in Hastings, and successfully undertook extensive works in Dannevicke in connection with the Railway Hotel and the Ruahine Club. Mr. Ward has also done a very large proportion of the moving of buildings in the district, the largest being the Marine Parade Hotel, which was moved a distance of five miles, and the Taradale Presbyterian Church, which was moved a distance of one and a-half miles in one section. There is scarcely a township in Hawke's Bay in which the building operations of the firm have not been carried on, and Mr. Ward's name has become synonymous with first-class workmanship, minuteness of detail, and excellence of finish.

Mr. William Ward, proprietor of the Awatoto Saw-mill and Timber Yards, was born in London, England, in the year 1855, and after receiving his education, served an apprenticeship to the building trade. He came to New Zealand in the ship “Waitara,” arrived in Napier in 1876, and has since been engaged in the building trade and contracting. Mr. Ward is president of the Hawke's Bay Builders' Union, a member of the Napier Bowling Club; as a Freemason, is a member of Lodge Victoria, No. 21, N.Z.C., and has been a member of the Ancient Order of Foresters for twenty-nine years. His residence at Awatoto, which is lighted throughout with acetylene gas supplied by an automatic generator, commands a fine view of Hawke's Bay. Mr. Ward is married, and has one son and three daughters.

Bunting, photo. Mr. W. Ward.

Bunting, photo.
Mr. W. Ward.

Holt, Robert, Sawing, Planing, and Moulding Mills, Sash and Door Factory, Thackeray and Carlyle Streets, Napier. Telephone, 84; P.O. Box, 33. Bankers, New South Wales. Private residence, Cameron Road. Branch at Hastings, and saw-mills also at Piripiri. These are among the largest and best equipped mills in the colony. There is a ten-ton steam travelling crane, suplemented by tramways in every direction, with splendid stocks of seasoned kauri, rimu, cedar, totara, and other kinds of timber. The proprietor has a lease of 12,000 acres of fine forest country at Piripiri. Labour-saving machinery of every description abounds for planing, turnery, mortising, paling-pointing, boring, shaping, tenoning, gulleting, and other work. Power is derived from a forty horse-power steam engine and three boilers. Every variety of timber work is executed at the mills, such as doors, windows, mouldings, architraves, skirtings, verandah and cave brackets, finials, balusters, chair and table legs, gates, shop fronts, mantlepieces, ceiling centres, etc. A well-finished fifty-page quarto catalogue, printed and lithographed by the “Hawke's Bay Herald,” shows the great variety of plain and fancy timber work turned out by Mr. Holt. A very large number of persons are employed, and Mr. Holt and his sons are assisted by competent foremen. Mr. Holt was born in Oldham, Lancashire, England, in the year 1833, and was educated in his native town. He was apprenticed to a joiner and pattern-maker, and at the age of twenty-six years came to New Zealand, and landed in Auckland. Removing to Napier in 1866, he engaged in contract work, and subsequently started a small mill in Hastings Street. Mr. Holt did five years' active service as a volunteer, and was engaged in the Omaranui and Petane fights. For many years he was a member of the old Napier Philharmonic Society. He married, in 1861, a daughter of the late Mr. John Marshall, of Paisley, Scotland, and has two daughters and three sons.