South Waimakairi River Board. Officials for 1902: Messrs: R. W. England (chairman), H. W. Peryman, C. F. Carpenter, Thomas Gapes, Charles Burgess, W. E. Samuels, J. Glanville, R. M. Taylor, and C. F. Money; and Mr. H. Allison (secretary). This board, which was established about 1868, has jurisdiction over the country which is affected by the overflow of the Waimakariri River, and comprises the City of Christchurch, Boroughs of Sydeuham. Linwood, Woolston, St. Albaus, and New Brighton, and part of the Avon, Riccarton, Templeton, Courtenay, Tai Tapu, Springs, Lincoln, Halswell, Spreydon, and Heathcote Road Boards Districts. The south bank of the river, extending from the Estuary to a point about twenty-five miles from its mouth, is the particular care of this body, which generally conserves the interests of property-owners from damage by floods, there being three principal overflow channels, or old river beds, within the district.

Mr. Robert West England, who has been chairman of the South Waimakariri River Board since January, 1897, and acted in the same capacity in 1883, has been a member of that body since 1881. Mr. England is a native of Leamington, Warwickshire, England, where he was born in 1838, and brought up to the building trade. He arrived in Lyttelton in 1860 per ship “Robert Small,” and he and his brother carried on business as builders and contractors in Lyttelton for ten years. Removing to Christchurch in 1870, the firm acquired premises in Tuam Street, and continued the business till 1878, since which Mr. England has conducted it in his own name. Three years later he discontinued the building trade and confined his attention more particularly to that of a timber merchant. Mr. England was elected to the Christchurch City Council in 1880, and sat on that body for three years.

Mr. R. W. England.

Mr. Henry Allison, Secretary of the South Waimakariri River Board, was born in Mansfield, Nottingham, in 1847, and arrived with his parents in Lyttelton per ship “Isabella Hercus” in 1856. He was educated at local schools and privately, and got his early business experience in the office of his father, the late Mr. Charles Allison, a well-known accountant and building society secretary. Mr. Allison entered the office of Messrs. Harman and Stevens in 1871, in which he has risen to the position of chief clerk. He was appointed secretary to the river board in 1881, and was for many years on the vestry of St. John's Church, Christchurch, and a member of the synod for that parish. He was married in 1880 to a daughter of Mr. Charles Kiver, and has four sons and a daughter.