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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Otago & Southland Provincial Districts]
Mr. Andrew Burns
Mr. Andrew Burns , Secretary and House Steward of the Dunedin Hospital, was born in 1840 in County Down, Ireland, and was educated partly at national schools and partly at Queen's College, Belfast. Mr. Burns went through a course of instruction in agriculture, science, mineralogy, geology, and experimental physics, and in his second year at college took a scholarship. In 1860 he came to New Zealand by the ship “Mermaid,” and for about two years was engaged in agricultural pursuits in the north of Auckland. At the time of the Maori disturbances in the northern part of New Zealand he joined the volunteers and went to the front, was ensign in the Waikato Militia, and subsequently promoted to lieutenant, serving altogether three years. Mr. Burns was afterwards some years on the Thames goldfield, where he engaged in mining and earried on business as a legal manager. Subsequently, he was engaged in mercantile life in Auckland. He came to Dunedin about 1876, and was appointed to the position he now holds at the hospital on the 3rd of February, 1877. Under his special care and direction a very large number of improvements have been effected in connection with that institution, which owes a great deal of its present efficiency to his intelligence and zeal. As a volunteer, Mr. Burns has had considerable experience; in Auckland he was captain in the Hobson rifles, and in Dunedin captain became in the North Dunedin rifles; he retired from the first battalion of Otago volunteers with the rank of major.