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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Canterbury Provincial District]

Ex-Members Harbour Board

Ex-Members Harbour Board.

Mr. Edwin Rowland Guinness, formerly a member of the Timaru Harbour Board, was born in Calcutta in 1852. He is second son of the late Mr. Frank Guinness, who died in 1892, and brother of Mr. A. R. Guinness, Speaker of the House of Representatives, who is referred to on page 105 of the Wellington volume of the Cyclopedia of New Zealand. The subject of this notice, who was educated at Christ's College, Canterbury, engaged in pastoral pursuits and was sheep-farming in both Canterbury and Otago for a number of years. During this period he displayed much interest in sports and in promoting hunting in South Canterbury, and is a life member of the club. He has been president of the South Canterbury Jockey Club for years; and also represents the Canterbury County Clubs at the racing conferences Mr. Guinness was appointed auctioneer for the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company in Timaru and remained with that association for some eight years prior to 1891, when he entered into partnership with Mr. H. A. LeCren as general merchants, auctioneers, stock and station agents. He was elected a member of the Timaru Harbour Board in 1896. He has long been an active member of the Timaru Agricultural and Pastoral Association, on the committee of which he has been most useful, and was for some time president of that society. Mr. Guinness was married in 1884 to Miss Florence Annie Plaisted, daughter of Mr. John Plaisted, of Melbourne, and has four sons and one daughter.

Mr. Alpheus Hayes, sometime chairman of the Timaru Harbour Board, was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in the year 1847. His parents were descendants of the old Acadians, celebrated in history, romance and poetry as the first white colonists of the country. After attending school in his native town, he worked for some years with his father, who was a farmer, and also an extensive dealer in timber. He then went to Montreal to prepare for the Christian ministry, but, owing to the state of his health he sailed for Scotland, where he passed a year in studying at Glasgow and Greenock. In 1871 he left Glasgow in the ship “Wild Deer.” bound for Otago, New Zealand. Soon after arriving in the colony he found employment at the Rangitata bridge, where his knowledge of timber obtained him a good position with his employers, who sent him repeatedly to the Waimate bush to select material for their contract. These opportunities, together with his previous experience in Nova Scotia, enabled him to see that an extensive trade in timber might be successfully established in the district. He therefore settled at Waimate at the end of 1871, and at once began bush work. His business grew rapidly, and previous to the disastrous fire which practically destroyed the Waimate bush in 1878, Mr. Hayes had fully 100 men in his service. The fire necessarily checked his operations for a time; still he not only continued to work the remainder of the Waimate bush, but established a sawmill at Woodlands, in Southland, and had timber yards at Ashburton and Timaru, as well as at Waimate. In this connection he employed a brigantine, built to his order by a Nova Scotia firm, and also a schooner, to carry timber from Southland for his Canterbury branches. Mr. Hayes afterwards sold his interests in the timber trade, bought land, and turned his attention to stock breeding and agriculture. At his home at “Centrewood,” in the Waimate district, he had 2000 acres of freehold and 14,000 acres of leasehold land; and at “Normanvale,” in the famous Hakataramea Valley, he had 3000 acres of freehold, and 1000 acres of leasehold. Mr. Hayes was a man of much energy and many interests, and had to find scope for his activities outside his extensive private business. He was a Freemason, an active member and liberal supporter of the Wesleyan church, a Justice of the Peace, a member of the Waimate borough
The late Mr. A. Hayes.

The late Mr. A. Hayes.

page 976 and county councils, of the agricultural and pastoral associations, high school board of governors, and chairman of the Timaru Harbour Board. Mr. Hayes also stood twice, unsuccessfully, for election to Parliament. As a sportsman, he was devoted to duck-shooting, fishing, and pig-hunting. His super-abundant energy, acted on by his love of travel and sight-seeing, induced him to leave his home at Waimate on the 31st of March, 1898, as the moving spirit in a party of New Zealanders, bound for the Klondyke gold-fields. Mr. Hayes had no intention of remaining there, but hoped to be back in New Zealand in May, 1899. However, whilst at Dawson city, he contracted typhoid fever, of which he died there in St. Mary's Hospital, on the 3rd of January, 1899, in his 53rd year. Mr. Hayes was married at Dunedin, New Zealand, in 1874, to Miss Groves, of Inverness, and was survived by his wife, five sons and two daughters.