Public Works Office. The Auckland Branch of the Public Works Department is located in the Supreme Court Building. The area under its control is very large, and the rapid growth of the goldfields districts necessitates a correspondingly rapid extension of all public institutions, which at once make their demand upon the Public Works Office for the needful accommodation. The charge of the construction of the defence works is vested in the Public Works Office. Civil marine works are also undertaken, such as wharves at Howick, Manukau Heads, Waiuku Channel, and Maraetai. At Whakatane harbour, about fifty miles south of Tauranga, the rock obstructions at the entrance were blown out and removed by the Department. Government House, the departmental buildings in Customs Street, the court-houses, and the quarantine station are all looked after by the Public Works Office. The principal officers of the Department in Auckland are:—Mr. Charles Ranken Vickerman, resident engineer-in-charge of the district; Mr. Frank M. Hewson, assistant engineer for the railway and other works at Whangarei and neighbourhood; Mr. J. D. Louch, who is engaged on the trunk railway from Mokau southwards; Mr. John S. Stewart, assistant engineer in charge of the Gisborne-Karaka railway; Mr. I. H. Geisow, assistant engineer at Helensville; Mr. C. E. Armstrong, assistant engineer, is stationed on the Kawakawa railway; and Mr. J. J. Hay, assistant engineer on the Paeroa-Waihi railway. Mr. A. Ross is assistant engineer in the Auckland office, and Mr. W. A. Cumming is the architectural assistant. Mr. E. Waddell is clerk, Mr. L. M. Shera, junior clerk, and Mr. G. Glemster, storekeeper.

Mr. John Stephen Stewart, Assistant Engineer of the Public Works Department, Auckland, who is a son of Mr. J. T. Stewart, late district engineer of Wanganui, was born in Foxton in 1866. Educated at the Turakina Classical School, where he passed the Junior Civil Service examination, Mr. Stewart entered the Railway Department as an apprentice in the workshops. In 1887 he completed his term and qualified as a mechanical engineer, was subsequently promoted to the Hillside and Addington Workshops, and in 1889 entered the Public Works Department. For some time he was engaged in railway construction in the Manawatu Gorge and at Ashurst, afterwards being raised to the position of assistant engineer on the Rangatira-Mangaonoho section of railways. He superintended, under the co-operative system, the extension of the line to Mangaweka, and in 1896 received his present appointment. Mr. Stewart was married in 1890 to the daughter of Mr. W. page 186 Jones, of Cheltenham, near Feilding, and has two sons and one daughter.