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
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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.