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Thomas Beck (engineer)
Thomas George Gordon Beck (2 August 1900 – 6 January 1948) was a New Zealand civil engineer who had a leading role in public works engineering projects in New Zealand. Early life Beck was born in Palmerston, New Zealand, Palmerston, Otago, in the South Island of New Zealand. He attended primary school at High Street School, Dunedin, High Street Normal School, Dunedin, and secondary school at the Normal District High School and Otago Boys' High School, Otago Boy's High School in Dunedin. Beck passed his university matriculation examinations in 1919. He gained early work experience with the Ministry of Works and Development, Public Works Department (PWD) as a cadet, and then undertook tertiary studies at the University of Canterbury (known at that time as Canterbury College). Career After completing his tertiary studies, Beck took up a role in the Dunedin District office of the PWD. In December 1928, on behalf of the PWD, he took part in an inspection of the Graves-Talbot tra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Palmerston, New Zealand
Palmerston is a town in Otago in the South Island of New Zealand. Located 50 kilometres to the north of the city of Dunedin, it is the largest town in the Waihemo Ward of the Waitaki District, with a population of 890 residents. Palmerston grew at a major road junction: New Zealand State Highway 1, State Highway 1 links Dunedin and Waikouaiti to the south with Oamaru and Christchurch to the north, while New Zealand State Highway 85, State Highway 85 (known colloquially as "The Pigroot") heads inland to become the principal highway of the Maniototo. The Main South Line railway passes through the town and the Seasider (train), Seasider tourist train travels from Dunedin to Palmerston and back once or twice a week. From 1880 until 1989, the town acted as the junction between the main line and a branch line that ran inland, the Dunback and Makareao Branches. Palmerston stands near the banks of the Waihemo / Shag River, five kilometres inland from the Pacific coast. Between it and th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Press
''The Press'' () is a daily newspaper published in Christchurch, New Zealand, owned by media business Stuff (company), Stuff Ltd. First published in 1861, the newspaper is the largest circulating daily in the South Island and publishes Monday to Saturday. One community newspaper—''Northern Outlook''—is also published by ''The Press'' and is free. The newspaper has won the title of New Zealand Newspaper of the Year (in its circulation category) three times: in 2006, 2007 and 2012. It has also won the overall Newspaper of the Year title twice: in 2006 and 2007. History Origins James FitzGerald (New Zealand politician), James FitzGerald came to Lyttelton, New Zealand, Lyttelton on the ''Charlotte Jane'' in December 1850, and was from January 1851 the first editor of the ''Lyttelton Times'', Canterbury, New Zealand, Canterbury's first newspaper. From 1853, he focussed on politics and withdrew from the ''Lyttelton Times''. After several years in England, he returned to Cante ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fritz Langbein
Fritz Langbein (15 March 1891 – 28 April 1967) was a New Zealand civil engineer, engineering administrator and company director. Langbein was born on 15 March 1891 in Nelson, the son of Frederick John Langbein, a commercial traveller and farmer, and his wife, Mary Ross. He was educated at Nelson College from 1904 to 1908.''Nelson College Old Boys' Register, 1856–2006'', 6th edition During World War I, Langbein served with the New Zealand Tunnelling Company of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force The New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF) was the title of the military forces sent from New Zealand to fight alongside other British Empire and Dominion troops during World War I (1914–1918) and World War II (1939–1945). Ultimately, the NZE ... on the Western Front in France. Langbein was responsible for the design of many highway bridges in New Zealand, including the Rakaia Bridge. References 1891 births 1967 deaths New Zealand civil engineers 20th-century ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christchurch
Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over half a million. It is located in the Canterbury Region, near the centre of the east coast of the South Island, east of the Canterbury Plains. It is located near the southern end of Pegasus Bay, and is bounded to the east by the Pacific Ocean and to the south by the ancient volcanic complex of the Banks Peninsula. The Avon River / Ōtākaro, Avon River (Ōtākaro) winds through the centre of the city, with Hagley Park, Christchurch, a large urban park along its banks. With the exception of the Port Hills, it is a relatively flat city, on an average around above sea level. Christchurch has a reputation for being an English New Zealanders, English city, with its architectural identity and nickname the 'Garden City' due to similarities with garde ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heritage New Zealand
Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga (initially the National Historic Places Trust and then, from 1963 to 2014, the New Zealand Historic Places Trust; in ) is a Crown entity that advocates for the protection of Archaeology of New Zealand, ancestral sites and heritage buildings in New Zealand. It was set up through the Historic Places Act 1954 with a mission to "...promote the identification, protection, preservation and conservation of the historical and cultural heritage of New Zealand" and is an autonomous Crown entity. Its current enabling legislation is the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Act 2014. History Charles Bathurst, 1st Viscount Bledisloe gifted the site where the Treaty of Waitangi was signed to the nation in 1932. The subsequent administration through the Waitangi Trust is sometimes seen as the beginning of formal heritage protection in New Zealand. Public discussion about heritage protection occurred in 1940 in conjunction with the centenary of the signing of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pipe Shed
The Pipe Shed in Methven, New Zealand, is a section of pipe cast in 1940 that was converted to a shed for storing explosives. The pipe was one of approximately 800 manufactured for the Rangitata Diversion Race (RDR), and is the only one that remains visible. It serves as a memorial to what was the largest public works project of its time, and is registered as a Category I structure by Heritage New Zealand. Rangitata Diversion Race The Rangitata Diversion Race (RDR) was an irrigation project commenced in 1937 and led by the irrigation engineer Thomas Beck. At the time, it was the largest public works scheme undertaken in New Zealand, replacing several small-scale irrigation schemes. Part of the objective was to create employment, coming out of the Great Depression. The main canal extends from the Rangitata River to the Rakaia River. There were several major rivers to cross, and the land near the foot of the Surrey Hills, a range between the two branches of the Hinds Rive ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Methven, New Zealand
Methven is a small town in the Canterbury, New Zealand, Canterbury region of the South Island of New Zealand. It is located near the western edge of the Canterbury Plains, north of Ashburton, New Zealand, Ashburton and west of Christchurch, and at an elevation of . The town is a service centre for agriculture in the surrounding area, and is a base for skiing at the nearby Mount Hutt skifield. The town slogan is "Amazing Space". History In 1869, Robert Patton purchased a farm property and called it ''Methven'', after the name of his old Methven,_Perth_and_Kinross, home town in Perthshire, Scotland. The name of the farm subsequently became the name of the town and surrounding district. Sections in the township were offered for sale by public auction on 24 June 1878 at South Rakaia, and sold for between 20 and 95 pounds. In 1879, Robert Patton applied to the Ashburton Licensing Court for a license to operate a new house at Methven to be called the Methven Hotel. A hotel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ashburton Guardian
The ''Ashburton Guardian'' is a tri-weekly newspaper published in Ashburton, New Zealand according to the Audit Bureau of Circulation in New Zealand it has a readership of approximately 11,000 and a circulation of 5,554. It was founded in 1879 and has since 1900 been owned by the Bell family. History According to the Newspaper Publishers Association of New Zealand the ''Ashburton Guardian'' was first published in September 1879. Almost 11,000 editions of the ''Ashburton Guardian'' have been digitised and are available through PapersPast, a service offered by the National Library; those editions cover the period from 1 January 1887 to 31 December 1921. In 2000, the ''Ashburton Guardian'' was the first newspaper in New Zealand to go to a compact format; this was done for the Saturday edition only. In July 2013, the weekday editions also went from broadsheet to compact. The newspaper was a member of the now defunct New Zealand Press Association. Ownership Charles Dixon and Hora ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal Society Te Apārangi
The Royal Society Te Apārangi (in full, Royal Society of New Zealand) is a not-for-profit body in New Zealand providing funding and policy advice in the fields of sciences and the humanities. These fundings (i.e., Marsden grants and research fellowships) are provided on behalf of the New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. History The Royal Society of New Zealand was founded in 1867 as the New Zealand Institute, a successor to the New Zealand Society, which had been founded by Sir George Grey in 1851. The institute, established by the New Zealand Institute Act 1867, was an apex organisation in science, with the Auckland Institute, the Wellington Philosophical Society, the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, and the Westland Naturalists' and Acclimatization Society as constituents. It later included the Otago Institute and other similar organisations. The Colonial Museum (later to become Te Papa), which had been established two years earlier, in 1865, w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rakaia River
The Rakaia River is in the Canterbury Plains in New Zealand's South Island. The Rakaia River is one of the largest braided rivers in New Zealand. The Rakaia River has a mean flow of and a mean annual seven-day low flow of . In the 1850s, European settlers named it the ''Cholmondeley River'', but this name lapsed into disuse. The name ''Rakaia'' comes from Māori language, Māori "Ō Rakaia", meaning the place where people were arranged by ranks. Description It rises in the Southern Alps, travelling in a generally easterly or southeasterly direction before entering the Pacific Ocean south of Christchurch. It forms a lagoon as it reaches the ocean. For much of its journey, the river is braided river, braided, running through a wide shingle bed. Close to Mount Hutt, however, it is briefly confined to a narrow canyon known as the Rakaia Gorge. The Rakaia River is bridged in two places. The busiest crossing is at the small town of Rakaia, from the river mouth, where State High ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rangitata River
The Rangitata River is one of the braided rivers of the Canterbury Plains in southern New Zealand. It flows southeast for from the Southern Alps, entering the Pacific Ocean northeast of Timaru. The river has a catchment area of , and a mean annual flow of at Klondyke. The Māori name "Rangitata" (Rakitata) has been variously translated as "day of lowering clouds", "close sky", and "the side of the sky". The river formed the Rangitata Valley, in the center of the Southern Alps, and the on-location photography of the Edoras set from '' The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers'', and ''The Return of the King'' was filmed in this valley, on and around Mount Sunday. Several remote sheep stations are located near Mount Sunday. These include Mesopotamia, Mt Potts, and Erewhon. Erewhon was named by Samuel Butler who was the first white settler to live at the Mesopotamia sheep station. Erewhon is also the name of a novel written by Butler anonymously in 1872. In 1932 an outdoor ice ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Timaru
Timaru (; ) is a port city in the southern Canterbury Region of New Zealand, located southwest of Christchurch and about northeast of Dunedin on the eastern Pacific Ocean, Pacific coast of the South Island. The Timaru urban area is home to people, and is the largest urban area in South Canterbury, and the third-largest in the Canterbury Region overall, after Christchurch and Rolleston, New Zealand, Rolleston. The town is the seat of the Timaru District, which includes the surrounding rural area and the towns of Geraldine, New Zealand, Geraldine, Pleasant Point, New Zealand, Pleasant Point and Temuka, which combined have a total population of . Caroline Bay beach is a popular recreational area located close to Timaru's main centre, just to the north of the substantial port facilities. Beyond Caroline Bay, the industrial suburb of Washdyke is at a major junction with State Highway 8 (New Zealand), State Highway 8, the main route into the Mackenzie Basin, Mackenzie Country. This p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
