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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Taranaki, Hawke's Bay & Wellington Provincial Districts]

Sundry Manufactures

Sundry Manufactures.

The Dannevirke Gas Works occupy a section of two acres between High Street and Denmark Street, with the main entrance from Denmark Street. They were established in the year 1898 by Mr. William Henderson, from whom they were purchased, in 1905, by the Dannevirke Gas Syndicate. There are two gasometers, capable of holding 35,000 cubic feet of gas, and forty gas cookers, ten gas engines, and 250 private houses are supplied. The Company have secured a contract for the erection and lighting of all Borough lamps. There are in the town about three miles of four inch mains, and a large mileage of gas pipes of smaller gauge. The total output of gas from the works is 8,000,000 cubic feet. The company also do a large amount of gas-fitting, have a coal depot for all classes of coal, are sole agents in the Dannevirke district for the National gas engine and producer plant, and for the Blocklight. The works are under the management of Mr. Charles J. Johnston.

Mr. Thomas Alexander Kennedy, formerly manager and engineer of the Dannevirke Gas Company, was born at Invercargill, in January,
Henderson, photo.Mr. T. A. Kennedy.

Henderson, photo.
Mr. T. A. Kennedy.

page 566 1881, and is the third son of Mr. James Kennedy, manager of the Greymouth municipal gas works. His eldest brother, Mr. M. J. Kennedy, is manager of the Palmerston North gas works, and another brother, the Rev. Dr. J. A. Kennedy, D.D., is the parish priest at Akaroa. He was educated partly at the Greymouth public schools, and afterwards completed his studies under Mr. Kenneth Wilson, of Palmerston North. Later, he was appointed to assist his brother in Palmerston North, and in 1900 went to England for the purpose of gaining a thorough knowledge of gas engineering in the large coal centres of the northern counties. Mr. Kennedy was employed for a time by Messrs J. and J. Braddock and other extensive engineering firms, and also attended technical schools for the study of engineering and gas making. He subsequently returned to New Zealand, was then appointed assistant to the Greymouth gas works, under his father, where he remained until 1906, when he accepted the position of manager and engineer of the Dannevirke gas works.