Other formats

    TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Wellington Provincial District]

Luke, S. and Co., Ltd.

Luke, S. and Co., Ltd., (Directors: Samuel Luke, Charles M. Luke, and John P. Luke), Engineers, Ship Builders, Boilermakers, and makers of Cooking Ranges, Manners Street, Wellington. Telephone 234. Bankers, Bank of Australasia. This business was founded in Wellington in 1876 by Messrs. Gilchrist and Waters, on part of the site at present occupied. The firm of Luke and Son purchased it in 1879, and conducted the business till March, 1895, when the present company was inaugurated. The company have one of the largest works of the kind in the Empire City, the entire premises occupying a space of an acre and a half. The buildings are of iron, and are two stories in height. A thirty horsepower horizontal steam-engine, made by the firm, is used to drive the necessary machinery of the establishment, which is up-to-date in every respect. The usual number of hands employed is from eighty to ninety, but during busy seasons as many as from 130 to 150 are kept hard at work. The firm have built eleven hydraulic cranes for the Harbour Board, and they are the builders of the largest steamghip yet built in the Colony, the s.s. “Matai,” of 300 tons register. They have built many small vessels from fifty to 100 tons, and have manufactured steam cranes for the Government with great success. The specialties of the firm are marine engineering hydraulic and dairying utensils. They hold a patent for cooking ranges, the fame of which has spread throughout the Colony, and orders for their celebrated stoves are received from all parts. The trade mark for these ranges is a representation of a leg of mutton on a dish, with the letters W.E.X.L., and the firm's initials S. L. and Co., written below. Messrs. Luke and Co., Limited, are large importers of all sorts of raw material, including pig, bar, sheet and plate iron, copper and sheet copper, tools of all descriptions, and many other things required in connection with the business. The three directors of the firm were all born at or very near Penzance, in Cornwall, and came to the Colony in 1874, per ship “Waikato,” arriving in Wellington.