Mr. Alan Hall, M.E., Manager of the New Zealand Portland Cement Company, Ltd., is a son of the late Mr. Charles Hall, who was page 551 the well-known manager of the Rugby Portland Cement Company. He was born in Warwickshire in 1867, and educated at Rugby, and subsequently studied for a year at Leicester where he learnt mechanical engineering, and became acquainted with the principles of cement-making. He then joined his father at the Rugby Portland Cement Works, and gained wide experience in the manufacture of cement in all its branches. In 1894 Mr. Hall came out to New Zealand in the s.s. “Doric,” as cement-maker to the Milburn Lime and Cement Company. At the close of his engagement with that company, he was offered the Limestone property and went Home to see Mr. Rutherfurd (then in England), with whom he completed arrangements. At the same time he had the stone tested and the results proved it to be highly satisfactory for cement-making purposes. Mr. Hall returned to New Zealand in April, 1896, and was successful in forming in Dunedin the New Zealand Portland Cement Company, Ltd. Mr. Hall was at first a provisional director but he resigned that position to take up his duties as the company's manager at Limestone Island. He prepared all the drawings for the works and has carried out all the details in a thoroughly systematic manner. Mr. Hall is married to a daughter of the late Mr. Blundell, of Coventry, England.