MR. WILLIAM HENRY WILLIAMS, Crown Lands Ranger and Land Officer for the district of South Canterbury, was born in 1840, and came with his parents to New Zealand when a boy, arriving at Auckland by the ship “Victory” in 1851. He received his education in Onehunga, and on leaving school, served two years in a builder's office with a view to studying for an architect, but, changing his mind, he took an engagement in the Provincial Government office. In 1861 he went to Otago and entered into sheep-farming pursuits with Mr. F. D. Rich and on his own account until 1867, when he returned to Auckland and Joined in the “rush” to the Thames, where rich gold had been recently found, and was speculating for three years on different parts of the fields. In 1870, he was appointed manager of the Bay of Islands Coal Company's mines at Kawakawa. During his term of management he was successful in getting native coal used for the first time in the Union Company's steamers. He relinquished his position in 1878 to take the management of the Shag Point coal mine (of which he was part owner) in Otago, and was identified with that mine till 1890, when he lost his interest and went in for farming. In 1894 he was temporarily appointed in the Land Office in Invercargill, and after serving eighteen months in that town, was appointed to his present position in Timaru. It was through his influence that the Government were persuaded to use native coal on the railways in the South Island. He is a member of the Oddfellows lodge. He has been twice married, having lost his first wife in 1884, and has seven children, all by the first marriage.
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