Other formats

    TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Otago & Southland Provincial Districts]

Kingston

Kingston.

Kingston is situated at the south end of Lake Wakatipu, and is the terminus of the railway from Invercargill, eighty-seven miles distant. It lies at an elevation of 270 feet above the lake level, on a terrace or moraine, and is the starting point for the fine steamers that ply to Queenstown, Glenorchy, and Kinloch, a passage that commands very magnificent scenery, little altered from the primeval conditions of nature. Kingston has excellent hotel accommodation for travellers and tourists; it has a telegraph service, daily mail communication with Invercargill, and a money-order office and post office savings bank. Queenstown is twenty-five miles distant, and thence to the head of the lake, is thirty-three miles. The lake steamers are comfortable and well conducted, and good meals are served on board at two shillings per meal. The country in the neighbourhood of Kingston is both agricultural and pastoral in character, and the climate is healthy and bracing. The local railway station stands at an elevation of 1,023 feet above the level of the sea. The Kingston riding of the Lake county had a population of 312 at the census of 1901, and of that number, sixty-one resided in Kingston, and a similar number in the vicinity. Kingston is a portion of the electoral district of Wakatipu.

Railway Station, Post And Telegraph Offices , Kingston. The building was erected in 1878, and comprises the usual public offices and waiting rooms. Adjacent to the station are residences for the stationmaster, guard, and engine driver. The district sends away wool, grain, and fruit; and there is a very considerable and increasing passenger traffic in the tourist season, when pleasure-seekers from all quarters are attracted by the marvellous scenery of the Lake country.

Mr. William Charles Barlow , Guard on the Kingston-Gore express train, was born in 1874, at Invercargill, and educated at the North and Central Schools there. He was employed at coach painting with the late Mr W. H. Matheson for four years, and then entered the railway service as a porter at Invercargill. For some time he served as a shunter, but was promoted to be guard in February, 1902, and, two years later, was transferred to Kingston, where he now resides. Mr Barlow is attached to the Shamrock, Rose and Thistle Lodge of Oddfellows, Manchester Unity, Invercargill, and was a member of the committee of the Railway Sick Benefit Society for two or three years. He was married, in 1899, to a daughter of Mr John O'Hara, of Toiro, and has one son.
Mr. John Harold Atkinson , Engine Driver on the Kingston -Gore express, is stationed at Kingston. He
Gerstenkorn, photo.Mr. And Mrs J. H. Atkinson,

Gerstenkorn, photo.
Mr. And Mrs J. H. Atkinson,

was born in Dunedin, in 1873, educated at the South School, Invercargill, and started to learn flourmilling, but entered the railway service in 1890 as a cleaner. In 1899 he obtained his second-class driver's certificate, and was appointed in 1902. Mr Atkinson is a member of the Invercargill Railway Library and Debating Society Committee, and is also a member of the committee of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, Invercargill. He was at one time a member of the Pirates Football Club, Invercargill. In 1901, he was married to a daughter of Mr D. Warnock, farmer, Bay Road, Invercargill, and has one daughter. Mr Atkinson's father came to New Zealand in 1863, and saw some service in the Maori war. He had previously page 1020 been a captain in the 4th West Indian Infantry, Jamaica, and had resided in India and on the Gold Coast, West Africa.