April 2009 (pdf) - Port Nelson

Port Nelson Limited report. April 2009. Page 12
looking back
That’s how Thomas Cawthron
(1833 -1915) was described
by his biographer, David
Miller. The name lives on
with the Cawthron Institute,
and most Nelsonians could
probably tell you that
Cawthron donated the
Church Steps and the chains
along Rocks Road. But it
wasn’t until the end of last
year that the Nelson Tasman
Chamber of Commerce, as
part of its 150th anniversary
celebrations, made Thomas
Cawthron an inaugural
inductee of its Hall of Fame.
It’s also not widely known
that Cawthron’s business
dealings were largely based
around the port, and his first
office was in a wrecked ship.
Thomas Cawthron
Businessman and Benefactor
“Nelson's most philanthropic citizen whose bountiful generosity has
done so much for the welfare of its people.”
Cawthron arrived in New
Zealand with his parents in
1849, but was soon lured
over the Tasman to the goldfields. Returning a few years
later he started out in business with a contract to dig the
test drives for copper deposits on the Dun Mountain; going
on to provide supplies for the copper-mine, and setting up
office in the beached hulk of the Albion at Port Nelson. The
business developed as a general merchant and Cawthron
made the most of new opportunities: when steam ships
brought an increased demand for coal, he got involved with
the development of the Enner Glynn Coal Mine, and when
gold was discovered in Golden Bay, he shipped miners' stores
and equipment to the boom towns. Gold had a huge impact
on Port Nelson, trebling inward cargo between 1860 and
1865, and making the port attractive to regular calls from
steam ships for the first time.
Photo supplied by Cawthron Institute.
Cawthron amassed shipping
agencies, starting with the
Panama Royal Mail Steamship
Co in 1859, and by 1876,
when the Union Steam Ship
Company of New Zealand
took over the New Zealand
Steam Shipping Company, he
had a monopoly of shipping
agencies in Nelson, controlling
practically the whole of the
maritime shipping from the
busy port.
Cawthron’s ‘Midas Touch’
carried over to his investments
in shares and property and
by the time he retired in
the late eighties he had a
considerable fortune. He had
a reputation as a miser, but
quietly gave money to many
causes, and was influenced
by his friends to make his
bigger civic donations.
These include the Church
Steps, the chains and posts along Rocks Road, extensions to
Nelson Hospital and nurses' home, a 1000ha reserve near Dun
Mountain and the organ at the Nelson School of Music. Seven
years after his death the Cawthron Institute was founded, and
has done major research on soils, agriculture and biochemistry,
while playing an important role in stimulating government
scientific research.
Today one of the Cawthron Institute’s strengths is marine
research. Cawthron scientists carry out the surveys and
reports that are used in support of Port Nelson’s consents
for dredging work, and they make a valuable contribution to
our Environment Committee on issues from water quality to
marine invaders.
Sources: Karen Stade, The Prow (local history website); Margareta Gee, Dictionary of NZ Biography 2007; and Theodore Rigg, Encyclopaedia of NZ, 1966.
Image below Edwin Harris from The History of Port Nelson, Ruth Allan 1954.
The Albion Wharf in the late 1870s.