ELECTRIC TRAM PIONEER.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 257, 9 March 1917, Page 1 (Supplement)

ELECTRIC TRAM PIONEER.

MAN* WHO ROSE FROM OFFICE BOY TO MILLIONAIRE. Beginning life as an tiffin hoy, and before lie was />0 reputed to l>e a millionaire, a it mar kal ile career has been closed by the death oi Sir George White, Bt., tlie pioneer of electric tramways in Britain, who died' suddenlv at Bristol. He was engaged in business all day, and while writing a letter after dinner his head fell forward and he parsed away. He was horn in Bristol 111 IS-54, th > Min of the late Mr. Henry White, and obtained his early education at St. Michael's Boys' School, in tho city, but before he had been there long he had' to go out into the world, and while still n Ijov entered the office of Mr. John Stanley, one or the type of mo old school of family lawyer. The library of the Bristol Law Society was kept in the office, and young White became librarian. When only 16 he wa? entrusted with the extensive bankruptcy business in the* offi e. but soon passed to Parliamentary Private Bill work, anifj tjie knowledge he then gained (-stood him in good stead in his after life. In 1874 he wa* appointed sctTetary of the company wiii.h opened t!:e first tramway line in Bristol, but :i year started for himself as a stockbroker, and so for a time lost torn h with the tramway world. He ,-oou showed a lioldnos in business operations which strongly resembles the characteristics cf thei foremost American railway men. His efforts lor a time wero directed to obtaining control of isolated and semi-derelict railway lines, ! and securing their consolidation into ; main-lino systems.

SI'CCKSS RESULTING FROM HARD WORK

and oommercial acumen attended his efforts, and liis operations in railway stock and brewery securities were oil Mie.h a scale that Tic soon became a power in West of England and South Walea finance. About lio and bis brother, his partner, secured control of the Imperial Tramways Company, and with sir Clifton Robinson, who had jks'j returned from the I mt.d States, promoted extensions in Dublin and Mid-dle-brrough, where the company owned lines, substituted electricity for horsepower, and completely transformed the lompmy ltoth financially and from the j.oust of view of tho passenger's comfort-. The Bristol Tramways Company, of which Sir (Jeorge was successively .•-tvrotary, managing director, and chaLrnii'.n, was also marvellously. Iho triumvirate of experts next turned tlieir attention t > w hat was then London's need as far a* street traction was concerned. Th-y 'ought up t.'its West Aletropolitr.n Tramways, reconstructed it- into the London I Tramways, and then, ait» r a- long and strenuous tight, extending over years, s;-c;..vd for London the l-.iie'ii of electric traction, and treat*d a great unueitaJiing, from which sir George ie- : tired in Almost is sihhi as men commenced to rty on hcivier than air ( machines, and when the idea that there could Ih> any commercial possibilities 11 1 tho "nmv plaything" was routed o:t all sides, Sir George White road aright the siL'ns ef the time-, and in May, I'll(established tile British and Colonial Aeroplane Company at Bristol and tho first aeroplane manufactory in England. v.hrre the Bristol aeroplanes have ' been s n-e hirllt for tho Governments of m-iny foreign nations and large num- , bo's of B.K.'s and other cralt for the I War Office and Admiralty. It \yas only fitting t!i it ho should he president ot tY- hi -tdl and West of Kogland Aero Club. As president of t!i Unstol Royal Infirmary, iio rcorganis'd the insrtitu--thn, and gave it princely sanis to clca • il fnuu debt and place it« finances on c, -oun ! basis. A baronet-y was coin lerred on him in 19' H. He marne.l Caroline Rom in, da uirhter of Mr. William Tiioma'i <i Bristol. and tliei" o.i!v v- in . Mr. Gwrgo Stanley White, vv m \*r,s bum in l v l?2, imw siK.eids to I' . \ it.'o