Doyleston is a small township twenty-six miles south-west from Christchurch, on the Christchurch-Southbridge railway, and about one mile from the town of Leeston. The land is, with a few exceptions, divided into comparatively small holdings. Doyleston is bounded by the shores of Lake Ellesmere, and the districts of Leeston, Brookside, and Irwell. Formerly cattle sales were held regularly at Doyleston, but Leeston is now the local centre for these and other industrial activities. Doyleston, however, still has a population of about 160 persons, and it has a public school, library, a general store, a town hall, a hotel, in addition to large engineering workshops, and there is also an excellent creamery in the neighbourhood. In 1867 Mr. Joseph Doyle bought some land in the district and afterwards sold it in town lots. Hence the name of the district and township.

The Ellesmere Engineering Works (Adam Werner, proprietor), Doyleston. Mr. Werner was born in 1852, at Uichleritz, Saxony, and was educated at his native place. He served an apprenticeship in the well known engineering shop of Carl Bach, at Weissenfelds, and after passing examinations in the theory and practice of engineering, he received a certificate from the Board of Examiners. For about nine months he was employed at Messrs Hoffman's engineering works at Prenslaw, and was for a year at the locomotive repairing shops at Greilswald. Then he went to England where he was employed by various leading engineering firms, such as Messrs Hawthorne, marine engineers, and Messrs Fletcher, Jennings and Co., locomotive engineers, at Barton, near Whitehaven, where he helped to construct locomotives ordered for the Governments of New Zealand and Mauritius. In 1872 Mr. Werner returned to Germany, and was employed by Messrs Heiden and Hollman, engineers, Hamburg, and with Messrs Schweffel and Howald, leading marine engineers at Kiel. He came to New Zealand by the ship “Waitangi” in 1875, and followed various occupations in town and country for about twelve months. After that he was for eighteen months engine driving at Wallsend coal mine at Malvern, and then obtained employment with Mr. Dixon, of Ashley, for whom he drove a threshing machine. His skill in engineering was soon recognised, and for over nine years he was employed in repairing and following machines throughout Canterbury. Mr. Werner then determined to begin an engineering business at Doyleston. He began in a small way, but he has succeeded so well, that he now has extensive premises, with all the latest machinery, employs eight men, and has a connection which extends from Christchurch to Ashburton. He has been the patentee of numerous labour saving inventions, such as rod-lifters, bag-lifters, chaff-feeders, and clover-shellers, and was the first to combine the clover-sheller with the threshing machine. This contrivance is extensively employed in the Ellesmere district. Mr. Werner is a member of the Doyleston school committee, and was chairman for four years. He is also a member of the Ellesmere Agricultural and Pastoral Association, and takes prizes with machinery of his own manufacture. Mr. Werner founded the Druid Lodge in the Ellesmere district, and held the office of District President for two years. He has also been a member of the Christchurch Liberal Association for several years. Mr. Werner married Miss Emily Tucker, in 1883, and has three daughters.

Boag And Cook (J. Boag and H. H. Cook), Grain and Produce Merchants and Threshing Machine Owners, Doyleston. This business was established a few years ago by Messrs Boag and Cook. Latterly the active management has been under the sole control of Mr. Cook, whose enterprise has done so much to extend the business. The firm was one of the first in New Zealand to prepare fodder for South Africa; they prepared 800 tons in 1900, and later on they prepared still larger quantities. The firm's operations in grain are very extensive, and its plant is one of the largest in Canterbury.

Marshall, James, Farmer, Doyleston. Mr. Marshall is a son of the late Mr. David Marshall. He was born in Scotland, in 1845, and accompanied his parents to New Zealand. For many years he helped in the pioneer work on his father's farm at Lakeside. In 1882, he bought his present property, which consists of about 180 acres. He is a member of the Ellesmere Agricultural and Pastoral Association. Mr. Marshall married Miss Jane Shaw, a daughter of Mr. William Shaw, a very well known colonist, and there is a family of two sons.

McLachlan, John, Farmer, Doyleston. As Mr. McLachlan represents Ashburton in the House of Representatives, the sketch of his life appears under the chief town of that electorate—namely, Ashburton itself.

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Osborne, Job, Farmer, Winfield Farm, Doyleston.—Mr. Osborne was born in Somersetshire, England, in 1842. When fourteen years of age he removed to London, and in, 1859 he came to New Zealand, in the ship “Cresswell.” A few years later he visited the goldfields of Otago, where he passed a year with fair success. he then returned to Canterbury. Mr. Osborne first bought land at Prebbleton, and was for several years engaged in contracting for roads and railways A year or two later he sold out at Prebbleton, and moved to the Ellesmere district, where he bought the first portion of his present farm from the Crown in 1864. It was heavy swamp land covered with rank vegetation—toi-toi, flax and raupo. The area was at first gradually increased until it reached to 230 acres, but Mr. Osborne now owns 2130 acres. His land is devoted chiefly to the raising of white and green crops, and the fattening of sheep for the export trade. Mr Osborne was the first to introduce threshing machinery into the Doyleston district. He has, however, a colonial reputation as a sinker of artesian wells, for which he devised and patented a method of his own many years ago He first began to sink for the public in April, 1888, when he sank a 2-inch well for the Christchurch Drainage Board on the Windmill Road, now Willowbank. Before that time a 2-inch well sunk by hand to a depth of 200 feet cost £100. Now it is done by means of Mr. Osborne's machinery for about one-fourth of that sum. Mr. Osborne has seven deep-well machines at work, and each machine requires two men to work it. All deep-well sinkers in New Zealand now use the Osborne machine. In the Maniototo Plain, Central Otago, a depth of 654 feet has been reached with a two-and-a-half-inch pipe; at Wellington a depth of 815 feet has been reached; and at Cheviot a depth of 825 feet. At Wanganui water has been obtained with a 2-inch pipe from a depth of 675 feet, with a yield of 180 gallons per minute, and propulsive power rising to fifty and sixty feet. This is the record result for the North Island. In Gisborne, Mr. Osborne has sunk wells, which not only give a plentiful water supply, but gas as well. The gas is used for lighting cooking and other purposes. Wells have also been sunk successfully at Palmerston North, Longburn, Awahuri, Waitara, and Tura kina, and nearly in every district where the Osborne machine has been tried, it has led to success. This has been the case, not only in the North Island but at Christchurch, and throughout the Ellensmere district, and north of Christchurch as far as Rangiora. Probably this method of boring for water will yet be applied with success to the discovery of minerals; indeed it has been used in boring for coal at Poponga, Collingwood, Nelson, and for oil at Gibsborne. Mr. Osborne has served on the Ellesmere Road Board and on the River Board of Conservators. He was married, in 1867, to Miss Jamieson, and has one son and two daughters. Mr. Osborne has visited Australia twice since his first arrival in New Zealand. In 1884, his wife and daughter accompanied him to America, England, Scotland, Ireland and Paris. The party returned by way of Cape Colony. A year later Mrs. Osborne, with a nephew, visited England, and brought Mr. Osborne's mother out to New Zealand, she being at that time eighty-three years of age. After three years' resihere, she died at Tai Tapu, and was buried at Lincoln.