Arthur Wilbraham Dillon Bell (4 April 1856 – 29 May 1943) was a civil engineer active in New Zealand and Western Australia. Bell was a son of
Francis Dillon Bell; his father was at the time of his birth a member of the
New Zealand House of Representatives
The House of Representatives () is the Unicameral, sole chamber of the New Zealand Parliament. The House passes Law of New Zealand, laws, provides Ministers in the New Zealand Government, ministers to form the Cabinet of New Zealand, Cabinet, ...
. His elder brother,
Francis Bell, would later be
Prime Minister of New Zealand
The prime minister of New Zealand () is the head of government of New Zealand. The prime minister, Christopher Luxon, leader of the New Zealand National Party, took office on 27 November 2023.
The prime minister (informally abbreviated to P ...
. Bell received his secondary schooling in New Zealand and after a time in journalism and as a public servant, he went to England to train as an engineer. After a short period of engineering work in England, he returned to New Zealand in 1879, and in 1891 he went to Western Australia. He retired young in 1907 and returned to live in New Zealand. In 1917, the Bells moved to Melbourne to be with their daughter's family.
Early life
Bell was born on 4 April 1856 in
Parnell,
Auckland
Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...
, to Margaret Joachim Bell, née Hort, and
Francis Dillon Bell. His father was a land surveyor in New Zealand, sent out by his cousin
Edward Gibbon Wakefield
Edward Gibbon Wakefield (20 March 179616 May 1862) was an English politician in colonial Canada and New Zealand. He is considered a key figure in the establishment of the colonies of South Australia and New Zealand (where he later served as a ...
to help with the settling of New Zealand in September 1842. Arthur was his fifth child, part of a family of six brothers and one surviving sister. He was educated at
Christ's College in
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 hal ...
and at sixteen gained a senior scholarship. At eighteen he left school and began acting as secretary to his father, who was then
Speaker of the House of Representatives, and in his spare time did free-lance journalism for ''The Wellington Independent'', making three hundred
pounds a year. Bell also spent a short time in the civil service.
Like several members of his family he went "home" to England for the grounding of his new career. He was apprenticed to the British engineer Sir
John Hawkshaw
Sir John Hawkshaw FRS FRSE FRSA MICE (9 April 1811 – 2 June 1891), was an English civil engineer. He served as President of the Institution of Civil Engineers 1862-63. His most noteworthy work is the Severn Tunnel.
Early life
He was born ...
. In 1877 he ‘received back his articles’ and was made Assistant Engineer to the York and Lancaster Railway.
Career in New Zealand
In 1879, on hearing of proposed large extensions to public works in New Zealand, Bell returned home and took up the position of Assistant Engineer in
Otago
Otago (, ; ) is a regions of New Zealand, region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island and administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local go ...
, working on railway lines, roads, bridges, harbours and waterworks, and living in
Dunedin
Dunedin ( ; ) is the second-most populous city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from ("fort of Edin"), the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of S ...
.
In 1881 and 1882 Bell did surveying work for the
Picton-
Hurunui Railway and at the end of 1882 he became responsible for all classes of work in Dunedin. While there, Bell met Catherine Emily "Katie" Hughes, the second daughter of W. Kersey Hughes of
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India
* Victoria (state), a state of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital
* Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...
in Australia. On 2 April 1887 they were married at
All Saints' Church in Dunedin. In 1888 their only child, a daughter, Rena Dillon, was born.
From 1884 Bell worked mostly on defence works, and in these years he and his family moved to
Wellington
Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...
, where he became Resident Engineer, his work including harbour fortifications. He subsequently became engineer for defences for the colony, including submarine mining defence. New Zealand authorities at that time were beginning to realise how vulnerable the country was to invasion, and were particularly alarmed about the possibility of Russian aggression.
Later Bell also took on the role of engineer with regard to public buildings and had charge of the designing and construction of a number of important public buildings in New Zealand. In 1890 he was elected a member of the Institute of Civil Engineering. As a member of a commission to look into such matters, he also had a hand in the building of a complete system of sewerage and drainage for
Wellington City Council
Wellington City Council is a Territorial authorities of New Zealand, territorial authority in New Zealand, governing the city of Wellington, the country's capital city and List of cities in New Zealand#City councils, third-largest city by popul ...
.
Career in Western Australia
After a dispute with the authorities about his status and pay, a dispute in which he was supported by Lieutenant-Colonel F. J. Fox, Bell resigned from his engineering positions in New Zealand and accepted a position in West Australia.
Bell's appointment came about through the suggestion and support of
C. Y. O'Connor, a prominent engineer in New Zealand at that time. O'Connor was born and trained in Ireland, and migrated to New Zealand as a young man where he worked first as a surveyor. At the early age of 29 he became district engineer for
Canterbury Province
The Canterbury Province was a province of New Zealand from 1853 until the abolition of provincial government in 1876. Its capital was Christchurch.
History
Canterbury was founded in December 1850 by the Canterbury Association of influential En ...
and eight years later he took up the position of inspecting engineer for the
South Island
The South Island ( , 'the waters of Pounamu, Greenstone') is the largest of the three major islands of New Zealand by surface area, the others being the smaller but more populous North Island and Stewart Island. It is bordered to the north by ...
.
By the time Bell moved to West Australia, O'Connor and he had worked together for some ten years and the two became friends. By 1891 O'Connor, like Bell, had become dissatisfied with his treatment by his superiors and accepted the position of Chief Engineer in West Australia, offered by
John Forrest
Sir John Forrest (22 August 1847 – 2 SeptemberSome sources give the date as 3 September 1918 1918) was an Australian explorer and politician. He was the first premier of Western Australia (1890–1901) and a long-serving cabinet minister in ...
, the
Premier
Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier.
A premier will normally be a head of govern ...
. The ''
Australian Dictionary of Biography
The ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'' (ADB or AuDB) is a national co-operative enterprise founded and maintained by the Australian National University (ANU) to produce authoritative biographical articles on eminent people in Australia's ...
'' describes Forrest and O'Connor thus: "Both were big men, O'Connor, lithe and athletic; at over , he was slightly the taller. Both had known the toughening experience of surveyors working in unexplored places. O'Connor was the more sensitive, with wide and cultivated tastes and a passionate sense of justice for men of all degree."
He was charged by Forrest with the responsibility for all engineering initiatives in the state, and was also made manager of the railways.
In 1892 and 1893 huge numbers of people were rushing to unearth the newly discovered gold at
Coolgardie and
Kalgoorlie
Kalgoorlie-Boulder (or just Kalgoorlie) is a city in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, located east-northeast of Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway. It is referred to as Kalgoorlie–Boulder as the surroundi ...
in the distant east of West Australia. O'Connor became responsible for the supply of water to the miners, water not just for domestic needs but also considerable supplies for the extraction of gold; very difficult in these arid regions.
By 1895 O'Connor had produced a plan to supply water to Coolgardie. of whom Bell must have been one.
The plan for supplying the goldfields with water involved creating a reservoir west of the
Darling Range
The Darling Scarp (), also referred to as the Darling Range or Darling Ranges, is a low escarpment running north–south to the east of the Swan Coastal Plain and Perth, Western Australia. The escarpment extends generally north of Bindoon, West ...
by damming the
Helena River
The Helena River is a tributary of the Swan River (Western Australia), Swan River in Western Australia. The river rises in country east of Mount Dale and flows north-west to Mundaring Weir, Western Australia, Mundaring Weir, where it is dammed. ...
, a short distance inland from Perth. This was to be the
Mundaring Weir
Mundaring Weir is a concrete gravity dam (and historically the adjoining locality) located from Perth, Western Australia in the Darling Scarp. The dam and reservoir form the boundary between the suburbs of Reservoir and Sawyers Valley. The ...
. The water had to be lifted over the escarpment east of the reservoir, and pumped some across the inland plateau into a reservoir at Coolgardie. It was to take three years and cost 2.5 million pounds (over 5.5 billion in today's values). To do this Forrest had to convince parliament of the feasibility of the plan and of the necessity of raising an enormous loan in London. By 1898 the first contracts, for piping, were going through.
Bell took up the positions of inspecting engineer and chief assistant to O'Connor, there being no Assistant Engineer-in-Chief position at that time, a position he held from May 1893 until December 1896. A eulogy about him published in ''The Morning Herald'' on his retirement and imminent return to New Zealand stated that he was "... practically assistant engineer-in-chief through the exceptionally busy period in this state from 1894 to 1897, when the West was beginning to feel the full force of the boom consequent upon the rich gold discoveries." After surveying in the goldfields he was involved in special constructions for them such as roads, railways and bridges. He worked also on the
harbour
A harbor (American English), or harbour (Commonwealth English; see American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, spelling differences), is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be Mooring, moored. The t ...
in
Fremantle
Fremantle () () is a port city in Western Australia located at the mouth of the Swan River (Western Australia), Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. The Western Australi ...
, and then in the works at the Mundaring Weir. He also, as in New Zealand, held the office of superintendent of public buildings, from 1897 to 1902.
After controversy attached to the Coolgardie plan, Forrest resigned in 1901 to join the new Federal parliament. There followed a series of unstable governments in West Australia and O'Connor encountered criticism from the parliament and the press. The eulogy to O'Connor in the ''Herald'' described the end of these events:
O'Connor's confidence in his scheme was vindicated on 8 March 1902 by a successful preliminary pumping test of of the water main over the most difficult part of the route. That evening one small leak was discovered near Chidlow's Well. He arranged to accompany the engineer in charge of construction to the site on Monday. That morning, 10 March 1902, he prepared for his customary early ride but his usual companion, his youngest daughter, was unwell. He rode alone along the Fremantle beach past the new harbour, then south to Robb Jetty, where he rode his horse into the sea. His deft revolver shot ended his life.
He had left a note: 'The Coolgardie Scheme is alright and I could finish it if I got a chance and protection from misrepresentation but there is no hope of that now and it is better that it should be given to some entirely new man to do who will be untrammelled by prior responsibility'.
By the end of 1902 the work was successfully completed. After the death of O'Connor the Public Works Department was reorganised and Bell was moved to the office of principal engineer for harbours and rivers, "... in which capacity he... controlled a number of very important marine engineering undertakings along the extensive seaboard of the State." These were the completion of works at Fremantle Harbour, including extending the quays, installing the shed and cranes, designing a graving dock, and preparing for future expansion. Bell also worked on land reclamations on the sea front and the building of a swing bridge to
North Fremantle; and the reclamation of the
Swan River foreshore at Perth. He also designed and supervised works on harbours at
Bunbury and
Albany and along the north west coast, and designed and constructed all the lighthouses on the coast. In 1901 he had been in addition made acting engineer for railway construction.
The family returned to New Zealand later that year and settled in
Auckland
Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...
, in Arney Road.
Family and death
On 21 February 1917, his daughter married Norman Robert Mackintosh at
St. Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of St Paul the Apostle, is an Anglican cathedral in London, England, the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London in the Church of Engl ...
in Wellington. Her husband was the New Zealand manager of the Sun Fire Insurance. The reception was held at her uncle's place—
Francis Bell—who was at the time a member of the
New Zealand Legislative Council
The New Zealand Legislative Council () was the upper house of the General Assembly of New Zealand between 1853 and 1951. An earlier arrangement of New Zealand Legislative Council (1841–1853), legislative councils for the colony and provinces ...
. In 1921 he and his wife followed their daughter to
Melbourne
Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...
where she had moved with her husband and two daughters.
Arthur Bell died on 29 May 1943 at
Caulfield West, a suburb of Melbourne, aged 87 years. Catherine Bell died on 9 May 1946 in
Toorak, Victoria
Toorak () is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, south-east of Melbourne's Melbourne central business district, Central Business District, located within the City of Stonnington Local government areas of Victoria, ...
.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bell, Arthur
1856 births
1943 deaths
Australian engineers
New Zealand people of Jewish descent
History of Western Australia
People educated at Christ's College, Christchurch
People from Auckland
19th-century New Zealand engineers
20th-century New Zealand engineers
Arthur
Arthur is a masculine given name of uncertain etymology. Its popularity derives from it being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur.
A common spelling variant used in many Slavic, Romance, and Germanic languages is Artur. In Spanish and Ital ...
Colony of New Zealand people
19th-century Australian engineers
Colony of Western Australia people