Granity is on the sea beach, eighteen miles to the northward of Westport, on the Government railway. It is in the North Waratea riding of the county of Buller, in the electoral district of Buller, and in the provincial district of Nelson. Sawmilling is carried on at Granity, but it is noted chiefly as a place for loading coal from Millerton, about two miles distant. The coal is conveyed by a horse track through the bush and by an incline, down which it rolls to the bins, whence the railway trucks are loaded. There is a public school near the settlement on the north side, and the churches are Anglican and Primitive Methodist, in charge, respectively, of a licensed lay preacher and a minister. The extensive engineering works of the Westport Coal Company, in connection with the Millerton colliery, are located at Granity. From these works electric light is supplied to the Company's offices in the township, to the local churches, the Masonic Hall, and the Public Library and reading room; and it is said that the Company supplies free light to these institutions. Granity has a resident medical officer, whose services are retained by the Millerton Medical Accident and Relief Association; and a surgery has been erected by the Coal Company at both Millerton and Granity for the benefit of the residents. The splendid forest, which extends from the base to the summit of the range of hills near Granity, forms a picturesque background from the sea. In addition to the Coal Company's buildings, there are two hotels, several stores, and a considerable number of pretty residences in the township. At the census of 1901 the population of the settlement was 366.

Granity In 1898.

The Granity Railway Station And Post Office contains public offices, a stationmaster's room, separate offices for railway and postal work, and a ladies' waiting room. The Post Office has a special entrance, and the lobby contains a number of private boxes. There is a commodious goods shed, a large passenger platform, and, on an average, twenty trains pass the station daily. The traffic is very large, and the coal shipped in a single day sometimes amounts to a total of 2230 tons. The stationmaster is assisted by two porters and two cadets.

Mr. David Gordon , Stationmaster and Postmaster at Granity, was appointed in August, 1902. He was born at Port Chalmers, in the year 1869, and was educated in his native town, where he entered the railway service as a cadet. In June, 1894, Mr. Gordon was promoted to the position of stationmaster at Kumara, where he continued till he was transferred to Granity. As a Freemason, he is a member of Lodge Kumara, New Zealand Constitution. On the 23rd of March, 1898, he married a daughter of Mr. Thomas Ford, of Ross, and has one son and four daughters.

The Granity Public School was originally established about the year 1879, at Ngakawau, but the present building was erected, in 1894, on a site between Granity township and Ngakawau. It is built on a section of three-quarters of an acre of land; is of wood and iron, and has a long lobby with two entrance doors. A playground surrounds the building, but there is no schoolhouse. The school has accommodation for one hundred children. There are one hundred names on the roll, and the average attendance is eighty-six. The headmaster is assisted by a senior mistress.

Mr. Robert Evan Satchell was appointed Headmaster of Granity school in the year 1885. He was born at Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England, and educated at Epsom College, England, and at Leipzic, Germany. Mr. Satchell was trained for the medical profession, but, having decided not to follow it, he came to New Zealand, was trained as a teacher, and had charge of the Ngatimoti school for two years, before taking charge of the Granity school in 1885. As a Freemason, he is a member of Lodge Phoenix, Westport, but was transferred to Lodge Torea, in Granity. Mr. Satchell married a daughter of the late Mr. R. T. Watson, of Granity, in 1880, and has three daughters and one son.

The Granity Anglican Church is under the pastoral oversight of the vicar of Westport, and a licensed lay reader has been stationed at Granity since the year 1905. Services are held periodically at Mokihinui, Seddonville, Mine Creek, Millerton, Charleston, Brighton, Karamea, and Granity. The church stands on a quarter-acre section, and services are held every Sunday.

Mr. Edward Alfred Parker , Licensed Lay Preacher, stationed at Granity, was born in 1881, in Victoria, Australia, and was educated in his native colony; he afterwards gain- page 199 ed an experience of mercantile life in Melbourne and Queensland. In the year 1902, Mr. Parker came to New Zealand, became a licensed lay preacher, and for some time studied at Bishopdale Theological College, Nelson. He is interested in sports, and started a social club at Nelson College.

Mr. E. A. Parker.

The Granity Brass Band was established in the year 1898, with Mr. J. Burton as conductor, and has a membership of twenty-one. The band possesses a full set of Besson instruments, and competed at the Westport Band Contest in 1904, in which it took third place. It also competed at Greymouth in 1905. Officers for 1905: Messrs T. C. C. Scott (bandmaster), A. Chambers (sergeant), J. Kerr (treasurer), and H. Glover (secretary). The Westport Coal Company contributes liberally to the maintenance of this band.

Railway Hotel (William E. Guy, proprietor), Granity Creek. This hostelry was built by Miss Moriarty, and established in 1892, and in November, 1895, Mr. W. E. Guy married the proprietress. The Railway Hotel is well patronised, and contains in all about fifteen rooms, with a detached dining-room, which affords accommodation for twenty guests.

Mr. W. E. Guy , the proprietor, was born in Barns, Northumberland, England, in 1870. He came to New Zealand in the ship “Hereford” when he was but ten years of age, and went to school at Springfield, Canterbury. After six years' experience with Messrs Cassidy and Co., the well-known coach proprietors, he tried mining at Brunnerton, and was employed by the Westport Coal Company at Denniston. In 1892 he established himself as a butcher at Denniston, and two years later removed to Granity Creek, where he followed the same occupation. Mr. Guy is an old Oddfellow.

Mr. W. E. Guy.

Watson's Hotel (James Harold Martin, proprietor), opposite the Railway Station, Granity. Watson's hotel was established many years ago, and was the first hotel in the settlement. The present building, which was erected in 1901, is of two stories in wood and iron, and contains twentyeight rooms, including seventeen bedrooms, six sitting-rooms, a commodious commercial room, and dining hall, besides kitchen and outhouses. Mr. Martin has been proprietor of the hotel since the year 1904. He was bora at Milton, Otago, in May, 1863, and was educated in his native town. For twenty years he was a miner in Otago, and in 1902 became the proprietor of Ormond's Hotel, Roxburgh, where he remained till 1904, when he settled in Granity. As an Oddfellow, Mr. Martin passed all the chairs in the Loyal Roxburgh Lodge. He was a member of the Roxburgh racing, sports, cricket and football clubs, and is chairman of the local sports club. In the year 1890, Mr. Martin married a daughter of the late Mr. Saunders, of Glenore, near Milton, and has one son and two daughters.

Austin And Friend , Butchers, Granity; branch at Millerton. This business was established in the year 1901 by Mr. Austin, and Mr. Friend entered into partnership with him in 1905. The premises at Granity stand on half an acre of freehold land, and consist of a substantial wood and iron building with a large verandah, a private residence, and a cellar. The machinery includes a chopping and sausage plant, and is driven by an oil engine. There is also stabling for three horses. The branch at Millerton is conducted by Mr. Austin, and was the first of its kind in that settlement.

Mr. Charles Austin , Senior Partner of the firm of Austin and Friend, was born in 1868, in Cornwall, England. He arrived at Nelson by the ship “Caroline,” in 1875, and was educated at Nelson, Westport, and Reefton. Mr. Austin learned his trade in Reefton, and found employment at it until starting on his own account, at Denniston, in the year 1898. After three years in that township, he removed to the Granity district. Mr. Austin has been a member of the Granity Athenaeum and school committees, and is a member of the Ngakawau sports committee. As a Freemason, he is attached to Lodge Aorangi, Denniston. Mr. Austin married a daughter of Mr. Nicholas Mills, of Dunedin, in the year 1895, and has three sons.

Mr. Charles Friend , who became partner in the firm of Austin and Friend, butchers, of Granity, in 1905, was born in Kent, England, in 1858. He was educated in Kent, and in the year 1871 landed at Nelson from the ship “Fernglen.” Mr. Friend learned his trade with Mr. H. Warren, and after five years' experience, arrived in Westport, in 1881. Eight years later, he began business on his own account, at Waimangaroa, and after four years, turned his attention to goldmining, after which he joined Mr. Austin in partnership. Since the year 1892, he has served as secretary of the local school committee, and was appointed chairman in 1905. In the year 1889, Mr. Friend married a daughter of Mr. William Harris, miner, of Addison's Flat, and has four sons and two daughters.

Lamplough, George Robert, Butcher, Granity, headquarters, Westport. The Granity branch of this business was established in the year 1902. The premises consist of a wood and iron building, and contain a shop and small goods room.

Mr. Albert Jephcoate has been manager of Mr. Lamplough's Granity butchery since the year 1903. He was born in March, 1876, in Westport, where he was educated, and learned his trade. Mr. Jephcoate afterwards had fifteen months' experience as a journeyman in Dunedin, and returned, in 1893, to Westport, where he follow- page 200 ed goldmining for four years. He was then employed at the Oterahanga sawmill, and worked for a short time on the Midland railway. Mr. Jephcoate returned to Westport in 1901, when he found employment as a butcher, and afterwards worked as a coalminer at Denniston. Later, he was employed in the railway yards, Westport, and was appointed to the management of Mr. Lamplough's butchery in Granity, in the year 1903. Mr. Jephcoate was a member of the Oterahanga Football Club, and is a member of the Granity Athletic Club. He married a daughter of Mr. Herman Bettjemann, of Fairdown, in August, 1901, and has one son.

Granity Creek Sawmills (George H. Watson, proprietor), Granity Creek, Bankers, Bank of New South Wales, Westport. The mill was established in 1846, and is situated on the freehold property of Messrs Watson Brothers in a wood and iron building, 80 feet by 26 feet. The motor power consists of an eight horse-power engine (by Messrs Ruston and Proctor) which drives a vertical saw for breaking-down purposes, and there are the usual bench saws and planing and moulding machinery. When in full swing the mill turns out 3000 feet of sawn timber daily. Plenty of white pine is found on the firm's freehold of 100 acres, and adjoining leasehold of fifty acres.

Watson, Robert Tannahill, Farmer, Granity, Mr. Watson is a son of the late Mr. R. T. Watson, who for some years carried on a bakery business in Denniston, and latterly managed the Granity Creek Hotel, which he had erected several years previously. Mr. Watson was born in Dunedin in 1865; he served his time to the trade under his father at Denniston, and worked with him for about eleven years. Since 1891, Mr. Watson has resided at Granity Creek, except for two years, which he spent in not very profitable mining at Coolgardie, West Australia. As manager of the estate of his late father, Mr. Watson holds valuable building allotments in the township of Granity Creek and can offer inducements to intending purchasers. As a lover of manly sports Mr. Watson takes special interest in football and cricket.

The Late Mr. R. T. Watson.

Mr. B. T. Watson.

Kincaid's Siding is situated on the railway line, fifteen and a-half miles from Westport, and two miles from Granity Creek. The freehold property is about 150 acres in extent, has a frontage of a mile and a-quarter to the railway, and is owned by Mr. Thomas Kerr. Most of the land is cleared, and is under cultivation; and is well-grassed and sub-divided into paddocks. It is well suited for dairying, in connection with which it is worked by Mr. Kerr, who grazes about seventy head of large cattle.

Mr. Thomas Kerr , of Kincaid's Siding, was born in Lanarkshire, Scotland, in 1836, and served his apprenticeship as a cabinetmaker in the city of Glasgow. In 1854 he went to Melbourne, Australia, by the ship “Homer,” and underwent the vicissitudes of a goldseeker at the Ballarat, Smythe's Creek, and Linton diggings. In 1861, Mr. Kerr was attracted to New Zealand by the Otago goldfields, where he followed up the Gabriel's Gullv “rush.” When the West Coast came to the front in 1865, Mr. Kerr crossed to Hokitika, and tried his fortune on the fields at Waimea, and afterwards in the Grey Valley. For ten years, before buying his present property, he was mining in the Mokihinui district.

Mr. T. Kerr.

The Millerton Colliery at Granity is the property of the Westport Coal Company, Limited. Operations for the development of this mine were commenced in the year 1891, and some five years later coal was put on the market. The property consists of about 2000 acres of land, held under coal lease, and extends south from Granity for three miles, to a spot between Mine Creek and Mangatini Creek, and to the south of Mangatini Creek for about 180 chains. The main seam varies in thickness, but mantains an average of about twenty-five feet of true coal, which has been traced throughout the entire area of the mine. The workings are approached by a system of inclines; the lower one, which connects with Granity, and whose brake is situated on the top of Millerton Hill, is fifty chains in length, and passes through two tunnels. The second incline extends eighty chains to its terminal from Millerton, and the brake for this section, known as the middle or upper incline, is situated about midway between its terminal and Millerton. The third incline, or Mine Creek section, is fifty chains in length; the brake is at the upper end, and the terminal wheel is at the inner end of this section. The entire page 201 plant is worked by hydraulic pressure, and by gravitation, and there are also band brakes on each drum. About 400 men and boys were employed in connection with this colliery in March, 1905, and of this staff about twenty persons were engaged in driving a new tunnel, for opening up the southeastern area of the colliery. In addition to this, a water drive, measuring six feet by five feet, has been driven to drain the workings. This drive was completed in the early part of the year 1905, and is twenty-six and ahalf chains in length. At the Granity end of the colliery, there are immense bins, capable of containing 4000 tons of coal, with every necessary appliance for facilitating the loading on the railway trucks.

The Engineering Department of the Millerton Colliery is situated at Granity, and adjoins the railway line. The buildings, which are of wood and iron, are extensive, and contain complete machinery for the large amount of construction and repairing work, which is carried on. The engineering department, which includes a fitting shop and smiths' shop, measures one hundred feet by sixty feet. In the fitting shop there are machines for turning, boring, planing, serewing and other operations. There is a sixhundredweight steam hammer, which is driven by compressed air, a large Tangye punching and shearing machine, and an improved machine, invented by the engineer in charge, Mr. Skilton, for rolling the outside iron for the mine tubs. The motive power is supplied by water, which has a fall of 600 feet, and works Pelton wheels for the various departments. Attached to the fitting shop is the smiths' shop, in which there are four forges, with blasts supplied by a teninch Schielie fan. There are also two punching machines, a large emery wheel, and various other kinds of machinery. The carpenters' shop contains a circular saw, planer, and a wood-boring machine, which is driven by a four horse-power Tangye oil engine. The tub-repairing shop measures sixty feet by thirty feet, and contains forges and rivetting apparatus. The electric lighting plant, from which the entire mine, the shops, offices, and some portions of the township are lighted, is contained in a building which adjoins the workshops. It consists of a large Crompton dynamo, driven by a separate Pelton wheel, and the machine is known as the 300 volt machine, 112 amps. The water from the 600 feet fall is brought down in seven-inch pipes, and split up into five or six pipes to supply the various Pelton wheels worked in connection with the establishment. These wheels were made by Messrs A. and T. Price, of Auckland. The electric light is supplied, gratis, from the works, to the local churches, Masonic Hall and Public Library, About twenty persons are employed in the department.

Mr. Francis George Skilton has been engineer in charge of the engineering department at Millerton Colliery, since the year 1894, He was born, in 1864, at Nelson, where he was educated, and learned engineering at Soho foundry. In 1886, Mr. Skilton qualified as an engineer, and, two years later, entered the service of the Westport Coal Company as assistant engine fitter at Denniston, where he afterwards had charge of the machinery for a year. He was subsequently transferred to Granity, to take charge of the erection, and organise the plant in connection with the Millerton colliery, under Mr. Ashley Hunter, civil engineer, and was appointed engineer in charge in 1894. As a Freemason, Mr. Skilton is a member of Lodge Torea, Granity, of which he was the first Worshipful Master, and is a trustee of the Granity Library. He married a daughter of Mr. Francis Max, of Carterton, in the year 1893, and has one son.

Mr. F. G. Skilton.

Mr. William Mann , who has been underground foreman at the Millerton Colliery since the year 1900, was born, in 1855, in Lanarkshire, Scotland, and attended school there, till he was nearly ten years of age, when he commenced to work in the coal mines. In the year 1879, he arrived at Port Chalmers, by the ship “Timaru.” Soon after he had landed, he went to Southland, and had twelve months' experience of country life, before he removed to Shag Point, where he worked for a year in a coal mine. Mr. Mann then went to Denniston, and, after a short time, removed to Brunner, where he was employed for about twelve years in the local mine. He then returned to Denniston, where he worked for four years, and was appointed underviewer at the Mokihinui mine. In 1896, Mr. Mann obtained employment as a coal hewer at Millerton colliery, but was soon afterwards appointed deputy foreman, and, in the year 1900, he became underground foreman. As a Freemason, he was initiated in Lodge No. 557, Scottish Constitution, and, later, affiliated with Lodge Phoenix, Westport. Mr. Mann was one of the founders of the Brunner Lodge, of which he became Worshipful Master. On the 4th of July, 1884, he married a daughter of the late Mr. William Henderson, mine manager, of Elphinstone, near Edinburgh, Scotland, and has, surviving, one son and five daughters.

Vinsen, photo.
Mr. W. Mann.