This operation may never have been run by a Ewing but it is unsurprising that it has Ewing over the door as it was Ralph Ewing who initial identified the deposits of Phosphate.
From the Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand 1868-1961 http://rsnz.natlib.govt.nz/volume/rsnz_38/rsnz_38_00_005530.html
Discovery of the Phosphate.—Meanwhile, Mr. Ralph Ewing, of Whare Flat, Dunedin, had been travelling in America, and had inspected the phosphate-deposits of Florida. Returning to New Zealand, he speedily realised the true nature of the “decomposed limestone,” and in June, 1902, he announced his discovery. Then the lime-burner and the farmer understood why the poor limestone made just as good a land-manure as the ordinary limestone.
Mr William Ewing was a prominent business man and is the Ewing out of Brown and Ewing that we encountered in the Wains Hotel entry. I believe Ralph is his son residing on the family farm at Whare Flat.
As an aside William came to Dunedin on the ship Sevilla in 1859 and a listing of passengers shows a Mary Forsyth listed directly below him (refer)
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nzbound/sevilla1859.htm
She was to become his wife which shows that he put his time on board ship to good use.
The business itself was in operation from 1902 to 1924 and then a brief restart in 1943 to 1944 when I suspect WWII interupted supplies from overseas.
It seems that this business may yet return to life (albeit not Ewing itself but the deposit) as the cost of imported phosphate has rocketed in recent years making this deposit once again economic to mine.
The late Ralph Ewing, son of the late William Ewing, Ewington, 78 Elm Row, Dunedin was the Manager of the Ewing Phosphate Company, but not the Ralph Ewing of Brown Ewing.That was his uncle[of Brown Ewing] who lived in Ross Street Roslyn at a Lawson designed house called Lindiores, the name of my house now..
ReplyDeletehttp://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=OW19070529.2.200
I am not aware of the Wains Hotel entry.
The Ralph Ewing of the Clarendon phosphate works had a brother James and is alleged to have committed suicide on November 23rd 1910, by cutting his throat before 7am in the morning on the main road outside the Clarendon works awaiting a train or coach. The body was found about 200 yards away from his two portmanteaus and travelling rug. An open penknife lay beside the body. Deceased was discovered by a railway ganger walking to work. The deceased had picked up the [paysheets for the Works staff the previous evening and was in good spirits according to inquest witnesses . He had been seeing a doctor ofr insomnia or perhaps depression it is not clear. The deceased was buried within a day and an inquest supported a finding of suicide whilst temporarily insane. I have my doubts as a relative. He was buried at the Clarendon Cemetery and there is an overgrown Hawthorne on the grave conveying Mr Ewing's soul crying out with regards an apparent unsolved murder.
I am in the meat industry, doing research on the origins of the use of phosphates in the meat trade (principally to improve the water holding capacity by manipulating the pH). I live in Cape Town, but yesterday I drove past the buildings of the Ewing Phosphate Co Ltd on our way from Dunedin to Queenstown. The post and your comments are fascinating! I am very interested to learn from someone who has memory of the early phosphate trade if they recall butchers buying products from them and what the reasons were for the purchase. Are you aware of anybody who is still alive who may have memory of those times? any help or information will be much appreciated.
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ReplyDeleteThe building pictured was constructed in 1918 by Fletcher Bros. Also in 1918 Ewing Phosphate Co amalgamated with Milburn Lime & Cement Co
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ReplyDeleteThere was once a tramway between the Ewing deposits and the building next to the railway line. Not well-known.
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