Mr. John Sewell, Workshops Foreman at Eastown Railway Workshops, has had a long experience in connection with large engineering works in different parts of the world. A native of Cumberland, England, where he was born in 1810, Mr. Sewell served a six years' apprenticeship in Carlisle, and afterwards worked in Liverpool, Manchester, Nowcastle-on-Tyne. Hartlepool, and in London, becoming out-door foreman to Messrs Jacobs, Mennell and Co. page 1349 shipbuilders in the world's metropolis, for two years. Coming out to Melbourne, he fitted out the steam tug “Despatch,” built by that firm, and ran her across to Greymouth in 1865. After a goldfields' experience, Mr. Sewell started the “Despatch” Foundry, Greymouth, which he worked for some years on his own account, subsequently forming a company, of which he was manager till 1879. In this year he entered the Railway Workshops as a bench-hand, being promoted to the position of foreman a year later. With the exception of a year (1894-5) as foreman at Petone, Mr. Sewell has held the office since his appointment. A member of the craft, his mater lodge is that of Greymouth, No. 1233, E.G., of which he is a P.M.; he is also a second principal in the Royal Arch Chapter, a Past Mark Master and a Past Noah in the Ark Lodge, and a Past Sovereign in the Rose Croix. In 1862 Mr. Sewell was married to a daughter of Mr. Harvey, of North Shields, who died in 1877, leaving two sons and four daughters. The present Mrs. Sewell is a daughter of Mr. George Walker, of Wanganui, settler. Mr. Sewell has served many years on the Aramoho School Committee, and has occupied the position of chairman several times, and now (1897) holds that office.