Gerald FitzGerald

Newspapers - Press 5 July 1937 Page 10

LATE MR GERALD FITZGERALD

NOTABLE WORK AS CIVIL ENGINEER

BON OF FIRST SUPERINTENDENT OF CANTERBURY

[THE PRESS Special Service.] WELLINGTON, July 3. The planning'of many of the early roads and railway routes in the northern part of the South Island is recalled by the recent death of Mr Gerald FitzGerald, who was for several years engineer in charge of the Marlborough district. Mr FitzGerald was the eldest son of Mr James Edward FitzGerald, first Superintendent of the Province of Canterbury and first Premier of New Zealand. Mr Gerald FitzGerald studied civil engineering at and after he left the old Wellington Grammar School, and was in the Government service in that capacity for 20 years from 1874. Later, when he was appointed trustee in the estate of the late Mr W. H. Levin (who founded the firm of Levin and Company, Ltd., of Wellington), Mr FitzGerald resigned his position in the Government service and took up his residence in Wellington. He did not, however, remain idle, being a most industrious man, but became a partner in th~ firm of Clere and FitzGerald, architects and engineers, in which Mr John Swan also became interested. Mr FitzGerald was an associate member of the Institute of Civil Engineers, a member of the Concrete Institute, a Fellow of the Public Accountants' Institute of New Zealand, and a member of the New Zealand Society cf Civil Engineers. Mr FitzGerald was a man of many interests. Besides being trustee in the Levin Estate, he was chairman of the New Zealand board of the Colonial Mutual Life Assurance Company, chairman of Billiards, Ltd., chairman of directors of the New Zealand Investment, Mortgage, and Deposit Company, Ltd., deputy-chairman of the Wellington Gas Company, chairman of FEShicns.Ltd., chairman of theKelburn and Karori Tramway Company, Ltd., chairman of the Plimmer's Steps Private Hotel Company (the Rutland Hotel), besides having a position on directorates of other companies at various times. Mr FitzGerald was active and cheerful up to the time of his death. He attended at his office for an hour or two t very morning, and was always interested in gardening, being one of the first to experiment with electricity as a means of promoting herbaceous growth. A Yachting Enthusiast In his younger days he was a great yachting enthusiast and he retained to the last his love for yachts, as wel) as for ships, in which he was always greatly interested. Years ago Mr FitzGerald introduced to Wellington the Rob Roy canoe, which he sailed under a yawl rig. On his annual visit to the Marlborough Sounds, Mr FitzGerald used to take with him his Rob Roy canoe, in which he explored practically every bay and inlet. The canoe used to be transported over the portage from Queen Charlotte Sound to Pelorus Sound Mr FitzGerald always looked forward to his annual holiday which invariably was spent in the Marlborough Sounds for between 30 and 40 years. His favourite camping ground, whicL ne used for many years, was a little inlet bshind Pickersgill Island, in Easi Bay, Queen Charlotte Sound. It is not generally known that he was respons ble for the formation of many 01 the tracks in the sounds. Mr FitzGerald was a great lover of Nature, and in the sounds as well as in his fine garden at his home in Tinnkori road, Wellington, he was always a protector and friend of the birds.

The late Mr. FitzGerald first married Miss E. J. Budge, and after her death he married Mrs. M. E. Pharazyn. Of his family of one son and three daughters only two daughters, both in England, survive him.