VETERAN ENGINEER

Gisborne Times, Volume LXV, Issue 10299, 7 January 1927, Page 5

VETERAN ENGINEER

Ml! 13. ELLIS’S EXPERIENCES

FROM PADDLE STEAMER TO I i A CE-STAETING MACHINE.

(Special to the Times.) AUCKLAND, Jan. 6. Mi - , and Mrs. George Ellis, of Mount Eden, celebrate their diamond wedding next Monday. Mr. Kills was horn in 1837 and was trained to he an engineer. He was on the (.'Unard liner Arabia, the last of the wooden paddle boats built for that Coy., which was at that time considered a crack boat. Mr. Ellis arrived in Australia in the early 60's, coming to New Zealand some months later, lie was engineer of the NewZealand’s first- gunboat Avon, which arrived in the Manaknu in November 1862. under instructions from Capt. Mercer (afterwards killed at Rangiriri). He converted the Avon and other small vessels into ironclads for service in the Waikato river. _After the war in the Waikato, in 1860, Mr. Ellis was engineer of the Government steamer Sturt used for the coastal service. After leaving the service his attention was drawn to other branches of business. He Avas the first to introduce into New Zealand the starting machine for the races, and erected machines at Ellerslie, Takapuna, Hawke’s Bay, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin. He built a brewery at Tauranga and carried on that business for some time. After selling cut ho went to Napier, and was elected to the Napier Borough Council. He then went to Hastings when it was only a small village and when it became a Borough he was elected Mayor six times. Mr. E-llis came back to.Auckand about 18 years ago.