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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Wellington Provincial District]
Cameron and Christie
Cameron and Christie
(Maurice P. Cameron and William F. Christie), Ironmongers, 93 Lambton Quay, Wellington. Telephone 61; P.O. Box 33. Cable address, “Throb;” code A.B.C. Bankers, Bank of New South Wales. This English and American hardware house was established in the sixties by Messrs. Robert Gardner and Co., Limited, and has been conducted by the present proprietors for the past seven years. The situation is one of the best in the City, being right in the centre of Lambton Quay, and the building is large and handsome. The entire floor space occupied is nearly 10,000 square feet. The retail shop is well arranged, and well lighted with electric light; and from the centre customers ascend by a wide and easy flight of stairs to the showrooms, where handsome house furnishings, etc., are temptingly displayed. A thoroughly experienced and attentive staff is employed, some of the hands having been with the firm since its inception. A short time ago Mr. Cameron took a trip Home on business, with very satisfactory results. He made negotiations for
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the sale of butter and cheese in the Home markets, and so successful was the firm in this line of business that in the following year they headed the list of Wellington cheese exporters, having bought up the total output of the three Wairarapa factories. The agency for Symes' patent butter box and that of the Alexandra cream separator are also in the hands of this firm. Messrs. Cameron and Christie are in addition sole agents for Enfield bicycles, and for the manufactures of the Quinton and Rover Cycle Companies. In their own special lines, those of hardware and general ironmongery. Messrs. Cameron and Christie are large importers from America, as well as England. Their English buyer is Mr. E. J. Stout, of Birmingham, and their American buyers are Arkell and Douglas and Strong and Treubridge, of New York. Mr. Cameron, who is a Justice of the Peace for the Colony of New Zealand, is a native of Glasgow. He was apprenticed in the Old Country to the well-known firm of Messrs. A. and J. Nisbet, West of Scotland Ironmongery Establishment, Glasgow, and came here via Melbourne in 1884. In 1894, Mr. Cameron married Miss Nellie McKenzie, third daughter of the Hon. John McKenzie, Minister of Lands, and has one son. Mr. Christie is a Wellingtonian, though, on completion of his apprenticeship with Messrs. John Duthie and Co., he sought and gained experience in the sister colony of New South Wales. In 1896 Mr. Christie married Miss Crease, eldest daughter of the late Mr. E. H. Crease, of Wellington. Both the partners are popular in the City, and there is an air of brisk business about the establishment which in these hard times is very cheering. The firm's motto is “To buy well is to sell well”; and in advertising their cutlery lines they remind their customers that “a bad knife spoils a good dinner.”