Wakapatu is a sawmilling district on the Invercargill-Orepuki line of railway; its flag station is thirty-six miles from Invercargill, seven from Orepuki, and three from the celebrated Colac Bay. The station stands at an elevation of 102 feet above the level of the sea. Wakapatu is in the Wallace electorate, and in the Orepuki riding of the county of Wallace, and its population, at the census of 1901, was twenty-eight. There are two sawmills right alongside the railway station, and sawmilling appears to be the only industry. There is a Maori settlement in the district, which is bounded by the south coast, and extends to Wakapatu Point, between Oraki Point and Pahia Point.

The Wakapatu Sawmill (William John Perry, proprietor), Wakapatu. This mill, which has cutting rights over some fine timber country, is situated close to the Wakapatu siding, with which it is connected by a tramway. It has an up.to-date plant, including a twenty horse-power boiler and engine, planing machine, and ten horse-power hauling engine; and there is an output of from 60,000 to 70,000 feet of timber per month. The proprietor owns another mill at Oraki (between Colac Bay and Riverton), at which the monthly output is between 50,000 and 60,000 feet; and this mill also has a complete and up-to-date plant.

Mr. William John Perry , the Proprietor, was born in 1847, at Bodmin, Cornwall, England, and educated there and at Falmouth, where he served his apprenticeship to the shipbuilding trade. He landed at Wellington in 1872, and proceeded to Invercargill, where he engaged in contract work as a carpenter and bridge-builder for some time.

E. Bingham, photo.
The Mouth Of The Waiau: A Notable Trout Fishing Ground.

Shortly after settling in Southland, however, he saw the possibility of the timber trade, and has carried on sawmilling ever since. Mr Perry was married, in 1870, to a daughter of Mr John Jenkin of Cornwall, England, and has a family of six sons and two daughters. All the sons are engaged in sawmilling.

Mr. Irwin Clearwater , Engineer at Mr W. J. Perry's Wakapatu sawmill, is the holder of a second-class competency certificate for stationary engines. He was born in Dunedin, in 1883, and was educated at Riverton, whither his parents had moved when he was a child. For some time after he left school he worked on farms, and when sixteen years of age, started engine-driving at sawmills. He has for a number of years been constantly engaged in engine-driving, and joined the staff of the Pahia mill in January, 1904. Mr Clearwater is a member of the Aparima Lodge of Oddfellows.