Central & Western Archive/GLAMThe word for Day 26 in English then Māori of #Museum30 #Colleague #Hoamahi
A couple of colleagues or hoamahi of the Clifden Limeworks with their boiler. See more in our Central and Western Murihiku Southland Archive here: https://ehive.com/collections/202139/objects/1597951/clifden-district-business-industry-clifden-lime-works-company-ltd
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Clifden - District Business & Industry, Clifden Lime Works Company Ltd.; Unknown... on eHive
Photos of Clifden Lime Works Company machinery plant and vehicles: Photo 1: The wood-fired boiler mentioned in the historical account below. Photo 2: One of the Clifden Lime Works trucks & Harry Laurie, Jim's son. The Clifden Lime Works are well known by most who live or work in the area. However, the first person who is recognized as commercial working this site in most historical accounts, is James Nelson (Jim) Laurie of Ōrawia. It is recorded in the history of the area written by Ann MacGibbon, that in 1915, Jim started working the lime here with his traction engine he had purchased new, along with a J (Jack?) Chamberlain, but this was not where the current quarry is, it was near what was George Fowle’s house in the 1970’s, further along the gorge than the limeworks is now. In MacGibbon’s history, we are told that at this early stage, the men used the Burrell traction engine of Jim’s to operate a small devil crusher. (A photo of this traction engine can be seen on entry CWA.007.20 in this archive). The workers had to manually nap the lime into smaller lumps so they could process it for crushing. The property that was used for this operation was owned by the Hill’s at this time. As these operations were tedious and did not produce a high yielding result, the local farmers would snap up all that the small operation could make and as they were primarily operating the chaff-cutting contract operations, they could only extract the lime when they had no other work on. The MacGibbon account continues, by telling us how with regular payment instalments owning on the new engine, it was vital that the engine paid its way. Mr Chamberlain would ride off around the district obtaining what was owed by farmers for their lime, so as to meet the financial obligations. It has been recorded that on one such visit, while Chamberlain was out collecting cash for their operations, that he returned to find Jim Laurie laying in front of his tent, badly injured and cut up on the face after an accident grinding knives. It is said that the Ōtautau physician Dr Stewart was called out and travelled on his motorbike to check up on Jim. Dr Stewart got Jim stitched up and into the horsedrawn local ambulance, which delivered the injured man to Riverton Hospital, where Dr Trotter from there, took over his care. But from that day forward, Jim had nasty scarring on his face, which can be seen in a few photographs the family have of him from afterwards. The family have also verified having heard about this accident from their ancestors, and remember how Jim’s face was badly marked. Bonny (née Laurie) relates that: "Grandads (James Laurie) face was smashed at the Lime Works. From memory, I think it was a grinding wheel exploded??? He was taken to Riverton Hospital where they didn't expect him to live, and I always remember that disfigured face as a child." Another of her siblings also verifies the story that Jim was not expected to live and remembers being told how his face had ended up so disfigured, as the doctors at the hospital had not even expected him to live, so they just tried to save his life in the beginning and only after he survived, did they try to do surgery on his face. MacGibbon continues the story, to say that a year later in 1916, James (Jim) Laurie went into partnership with three other local men to form the first Clifden Lime Company, which had their Memorandum of Agreement and the Articles of Association agreed to at their first meeting on 6 October 1916 at the Durie’s boarding house at Clifden. Present at this inaugural meeting were: J Laurie, S Fowle, A Anderson, S Price and someone Scandrett. (NOTE: some of these names and/or initials are different in other reports). Apparently, being appointed manager for the new company at £5 per week, Jim Laurie was now elected to an official position. It was further agreed that the new elected Chairmain who was S Fowle, would be paid £5 per acre for lime rights and a further £1 per acre for “the privilege of taking lime from the property.” Secretary was voted as being Mr CE Borne, who interestingly is not mentioned as being present at the meeting?! Whereas John Fraser’s account of the district has quite different information to that recorded above. He claims that the Clifden Lime Works was started by Jim Laurie and Samuel Fowle on 19 October 1917. Then in Jim Laurie’s obituary from 1959, it tells us the story of how he started operations at the limeworks in 1915 with his traction engine, and his business grew to the point he took on partners of Sam Fowle, Alex Anderson and James Price, with the first lime company on this site formed to operate the very first lime company on the Fowle’s property, where it still operated at the time of his death. As there are two quite different accounts of the early history, it will take some investigation to sort out the correct history. Ann MacGibbon’s book tells us the early work at the limeworks site was accomplished with a large stationary boiler which was fired by wood. I was beyond excited to find what I believe is a photo of this machine in the Laurie photographic archive, which is shown above! While the machine may well have been stationary, it appears to have been fitted out with a great array of railway wheels, probably so that it could be moved around the site as needed. But you can see the boiler stack and the piles of wood at the back to feed the machine with fuel. It is further recorded how rock had to be first bored out with a hand auger that took the men all day to drill deep enough for a big shot of explosives to be used, which had to be napped by hand with just hammers and wedges. The price of lime at this stage was only £12.6s a ton. John Fraser’s 'Clifden Area Notes of Interest' history carries on with the information on the limeworks, telling us how the site’s lime was retrieved “predominantly by blasting and jaw crushers with much manual labour.” Fraser’s account goes on to tell us that a big day’s production was 30 tons, and how much of the lime was carted to the closest rail station in the day, which was Tūātapere, by the traction engine and trailer. He says the engine was meant to be taken over the Clifden Bridge by itself (20 ton limit) and how the 6-ton trailer with another 6 ton load was meant to be winched over afterwards. But, apparently Jack Chamberlain who has also been recorded in MacGibbon’s history book as working at the site, would drive the traction engine over the bridge “on the first pass using the early hours of the morning to his advantage.” Fraser retells the story of how when the works people would attempt to catch out the traction engine and trailer doing this, it had already passed over sometime earlier. But if you read entry no. CWA.007.20 of this archive, you will see that the ‘works people’ were well aware and already onto Jim Laurie for this! The Ōrawia district history book goes on to say how AW Rodger (of Birchwood) sold the limeworks an engine and trucks for £500, in September of 1918, and the company then put the price of lime up to £17.6s a ton “at the kiln”. It was claimed in this record that it was at this time that the Company was carting its lime to Tūātapere in the traction engine of Jim’s. The cost of a 12 ton load was said to be £15 a ton. However, I note here the 1917 complaint from the WCC about Jim’s excessive travelling around the district with his traction engine, largely the trips between Clifden and Tūātapere, so I am guessing this issue was rectified by this time, or that the Fraser timeline from above is more the more accurate version of events? The truck in the photo above could well be one of the original trucks provided by AW Rodger, according to someone who has dated parts seen on it. We are told in the same account from Ann MacGibbon’s book, that later on the Company used hard rubber tyred trucks to transport the lime instead of the traction engine, but this more modern technology would not have been available at the time we are talking about. Records in the MacGibbon history of Ōrawia, say that the Company increased its capital to £2,000 in 1919. Then in 1920, we are told that as the price of coal had increased so much, deliveries to neighbouring Tūātapere were ceased. It is also recorded here, that when the Ōrawia railway station was opened up in 1925, the Limeworks would cart three or four lorry loads of lime to there daily. Frasers account tells details of how the lime from the Clifden works was railed all over Southland for free, and that many shell and shark’s teeth fossils were found in the limestone. This sounds quite fascinating, but what a loss of historical knowledge of the past environment of our local area. Once again Jim’s obituary provides some more interesting details. Apparently there was a slump in the lime industry and the partners leased the plant out for a year, and during this time Jim went off to work at Messrs Hay and Vickerman, up at their Monowai based Diggers Hill sawmill, as the foreman there. They were said to be producing the timber specified for the Southland Electric Power Station building, which was totara. According to MacGibbon’s history, by 1925 the Company had installed new technology with electric machinery being used, and a new K B Crusher was also purchased in March of that same year. However, once again the Fraser account differs in dates, claiming that it was about 1935 when the site was electrified, which provided better light at night. Fraser also tells us how most of the lime was carted to crushers by trolleys on rails, and these would turn upside down at their destination, like the coal miners ones did. It carries on to tell us how the quarry would be kept around the same height as the crusher being used, so it prevented the need for power to run them, apart from the manpower to push them. John Fraser’s historical record then tells us that the limestone face at the quarry was mostly blasted using gelignite and how for quite some years, the men worked three shifts around the clock, and that the limeworks employed around 60 men and had two cook shops on the site. It carries on to inform us that the workers were living around the local district, some living in the Rabbit Board Cottages and others coming on foot or cycling in from Ōrawia. He suggests that a lot of the work at the lime quarry had occurred prior to the Cement Works at Ōrawia, which also employed a lot of people, but this account differs from that of Ann MacGibbon. We are told in the MacGibbon account that this early Company continued for some years, and is recorded as being voluntarily wound up in November 1936. So, I pick that this first company lasted from the early days of WW1, until nearly the start of WW2, that was quite a feat for those days. And, it is still operational, although in very different form, today (2022). The Ōrawia history by MacGibbon records that from 1936 until 1956, the Clifden Limeworks was run as a public company and Jas Chamberlain was installed as the works manager from its 1936 inception until 1949, when he transferred to the Totoroa Lime Works at Oamaru. An A Mathieson took over his position when Jas left. After this the next Quarry manager was Henry Pearce, with Ron Black following on from him. Then after that was Mr McMillan, followed by George Campbell then Jim Mills. However, I note that government records of the company tell a somewhat different story. They have the former Clifden Lime Company Ltd running from 1936 to 1946, with a change in ownership from 1947 to 1958, which is about when the Cement Works was said to have started. And, the historical NZ Companies Office background checks seem to back these different years up, as they have the company listed as changing ownership in 1947 also, which can be tracked in the information copied from NZ Companies Office below. The largest file I have seen of old records covers the years 1936 to 1970, which I believe will be about the time the Southland Cement Company Ltd closed down, but I have yet to verify this. I am wanting to buy a copy of this file so I can check the records for accuracy of this site and company history, but at a cost of $130, that is beyond the capacity of my volunteer labour on this community archive, without donations of time and money to take this further, if anyone can help. But then in 1951 a most terrible accident occurred at the site. In a nasty work accident where things went drastically wrong, three men were killed and two more escaped serious injury in a massive rockfall. The only news report I can find, from the Christchurch Press, leads with the headline, “Quarry Face Collapses, three men killed, bodies buried under tons of rock.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The accident happened on 22 February 1951 and this story below was published on 23 Feb: “NZ Press Association. Invercargill, Feb 22. Three men were killed and two others had remarkable escapes when a fall of rock occurred at the Clifden Lime Company’s quarry this afternoon. Those killed were: Urich Bierwirth, Samuel Albert Payne and Alec McNaughton. The fall occurred without warning about 3.30pm. A rock face more than 60 feed high fell into the quarry where the men were working. Thousands of tons of rock came down. A mechanical shovel which Mr Bierwirth was driving was a complete loss. Two lorries, one of them driven by Mr McNaughton, were also buried under thousands of tons of rock. Mr Anthony Rohan was in another truck backed up to the face of the quarry when the fall occurred. He had the presence of mind to lie on the floor of the cab. The truck was badly damaged, but a steel covering over the cab saved Mr Rohan from death. Mr McNaughton jumped from his truck, but was buried under the falling debris. Mr Payne and Mr David Bungard were working at the top of the quarry face. Mr Payne fell and was buried under the slip. Mr Bungard fell down on top of the slip. Mr Bierwirth’s body was recovered early this evening from the wreckage of the shovel, after searchers had dug for about three hours. The search party was still looking for the other two bodies and was then expected to work throughout the night. Inspector J McKie, officer in charge of the Invercargill Police District, led the searchers. The men faced tremendous difficulties in trying to move rocks almost as big as houses.” (copied word for word from the Christchurch Press article, off PapersPast). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Those who lost their lives are now remembered below – if anyone has more information on them, I will happily add it in, as I would like to know more about them so more of a tribute can be made in their memories. The names below are taken off the inquest report which I am awaiting a copy of, some were spelled wrongly in the book or not written in full in the news: DEATHS: Bierwirth - Uric Barrett, 29, married, a mechanical shovel driver, lived at Reefton. McNaughton - Alexander Robert, (Alec) 46, single, lorry driver, lived at Clifden Payne - Samuel Albert, 45, widower with 2 children, quarry foreman, lived at Clifden. The men who escaped by a mixture of sheer luck and good management are recorded in the Orawia School and District history as being those below, but I am unsure of their full names: Rohan, Tony (Anthony – according to the news report) Bungard, Dave (David – according to the news report) According to Ann MacGibbon’s history, we are told how men and machines from the Winton Lime Works travelled to the scene to help the men clear up the mess. Police came from as far away as Invercargill, which matches the above news report, apparently along with the local Tūātapere Constable Skipworth, and Dr Eric Elder was also present, attending the accident. Les Bennet who was at school in Pukemāori, remembers hearing the loud rumble of the fall and he recalled the accident, which sent me searching for more information on it, as not much seemed to have been recorded in online searches or news articles available today, about this tragic event. I was told, but have not been able to confirm these facts yet, that the shocking tragedy let to new safety measures being employed across the board in quarrying/mining work, which is quite possible, but if I find any more new information on this or can verify that particular fact, I will update the record here. Hopefully the inquest report will shed some more light, as these usually carry recommendations. I note also that the Fraser account of the history also mentions the accident, but puts it in the late 1940’s. I can verify that this horrific accident was definitely in 1951, as I have found the inquest file, as noted above, and eagerly await the contents of its findings on this dreadful day. Apparently according to Fraser’s record, it was a face which had been made ready for blasting which came down prematurely, as it had been undermined too deeply and when it crashed, “it killed 3 or 4 people including Payne – the loader driver, and McNaughton.” He says several others who dived under trucks etc., had their lives spared, but they were not rescued for a day or two. I can verify that there were 3 men who lost their lives in the fall. Ann MacGibbon’s account tells us how the original Limeworks building that Jim Laurie had built was burned down and the building that was there in the 1970’s when the history was written, had been built by Sid Buckfield in 1952. This was developed to accommodate the more modern methods of extracting and supplying lime which had come about in later years. Apparently, according to the Ōrawia and district history of MacGibbon’s, in 1956, the name of the Public Company was changed from Clifden Lime to the Southland Cement Company and this company decided in 1957, to build a new Cement Works plant. They were said to have “canvassed Southland for shares and got the required amount and built the cement works at Orawia.” However once again, Public Company records tell a somewhat different story to this. They have the following account of the Clifden Limeworks Ltd: Overview: CLIFDEN LIME WORKS LIMITED is a NZ Limited Company from NEW ZEALAND. It was incorporated on 15 Jul 1947 and dissolved on 18 Apr 2012 and has the status: Removed. On searching through the current Companies Database, more details on this find is noted below, in the prior records of this company, showing the name and date changes of it: "Certificate of Incorporation CLIFDEN LIME WORKS LIMITED - 154751 NZBN: 9429040266718 This is to certify that H.F. LAURIE LIMITED was incorporated under the Companies Act 1933 on the 15th day of July 1947 and changed its name to CLIFDEN LIME WORKS LIMITED on the 27th day of November 1980 and was reregistered to become a company under the Companies Act 1993 on the 1st day of July 1997 and was removed from the register on the 18th day of April 2012." I do know that Harry (HF) Laurie had sold his transport business to Basil Jackson who then renamed it Western Haulage, and these parties were owners of the Clifden Lime Works Ltd, and both of these above companies were incorporated the same day. So ultimately, the plot thickens and I will have to do more research into the actual ownership over the years. It seems that DT Kings now own the Quarry at Clifden, which is backed up by their website: "Our Limeworks situated in Clifden have been operating for over 105 years. From this site we supply a range of different materials for a variety of jobs across Southland, such as: Lime - Used for agricultural purposes Naprock – Used on dairy lanes, forestry roads, tracks etc Big rocks – Great for flood protection Grey Rock - Roading" (the above is taken from DT Kings Clifden Lime Works website) Interestingly, the King's advertising logo used online, seems to indicate the correct date for the site’s establishment as a Commercial Lime Works operation, being 1915 when Jim Laurie is said to have first started there. Rob Hall is listed as the current Quarry Manager at the Clifden site, in 2022 when this history has been compiled. Carrying on further with the Limeworks and the Southland Cement story as per the account given by Ann MacGibbon, this tells us that the Company commenced their cement making operations in May of 1957 and production at the Quarry helped to dramatically increase production at the Limeworks site. There were apparently Government subsidies available for cartage at this stage of proceedings and so the limeworks operation prospered, carting hundreds of tons a day for the cement plant. But when these subsidies were removed, the demand fell off. The Cement Works were said to have been sold off to NZ Cement Holdings in February of 1968 and this company is said to have closed the plant around May of the same year. There will be other entries on the Cement Works in the archive in the future. Interestingly, the Hocken Library, who has the history of the Millburn Cement Company in its holdings, gives the following history: “One company, Milburn Lime & Cement Co. Ltd, dominated lime and cement production in Otago and Southland, The company changed its name to New Zealand Cement Holdings Ltd in 1964 (the head office moving from Dunedin to Christchurch in 1974), to Milburn New Zealand Ltd in 1987, and finally to Holcim New Zealand Ltd in 2001. Lime production was mainly centred at Milburn.” Rather fascinatingly, included in this history is the fact that over the years, the company absorbed many other local operations across the region, including the Southland Cement Co. Ltd (formerly Clifden Lime Co.) in 1968. This information ties in nicely with the above date of 1968 for closure. It does however, still not account for the fact that the Clifden Lime Co. seems to have only been removed from the company register in relatively recent years, this bears investigation. The account by MacGibbon informs us that with the Cement Works closed the Lime works still continued, but at a much reduced capacity. It says that Hec Woods who was still managing the limeworks in the early 1970’s, had been appointed in 1965/66. As the limeworks still had a contract but not much, Hec himself and Murray Laing, were the only ones still employed at the limeworks in the 1970’s. DT King’s, Western Haulage Co., South Freight Haulage, Herrick Bros, Bennet’s and Evan’s were all local freighting companies who used to cart lime from the works, as well as farmers using their own trucks. This concludes the history of the Clifden Lime Works at this stage, hopefully DT Kings can add more to the story, as I have contacted their General Manager to ask for help with this historical archive. More information about both the Clifden Limeworks will be added in due course. In the meantime, please do share your memories and stories of the business, the farms that used the lime from here and families or men involved in this long-standing local business. You can do this by adding a comment, at the bottom of this page under the images and information. Also, if you have any photos or info to share on any of this, can you please let us know, by using the contact details on this archive front page, or also leave a comment. Thanks. If anyone can identify the men in the wood-fired boiler on railway wheels photo please let us know, thanks. Also, if anyone knows what kind of truck this is or the year of it, too, that would be fabulous too.
