FOOKS, CHARLES EDWARD (1829-1907) was the son of Charles Berjew Fooks and was born at Weymouth. He was educated at Salisbury and Edmonton, London, served his articles with a London architect and surveyor, and trained as a civil engineer. He married at the age of 21 and came to New Zealand in the Steadfast (1851). At first he was in the survey office of the Canterbury Association and afterwards practised as an architect, being the designer of the first church at Avonside. He took up a run of 5,000 acres alongside the Papanui road, of which the better portions were soon bought by speculators. The balance was difficult to work owing to swamps and Fooks lost money on it. He then returned to his profession.

In the late sixties Fooks was asked by Colonel Brett (q.v.) to make a survey to prove the feasibility of watering the plains by irrigation from the rivers. About 1869 he constructed about 12 miles of race on C. Reed's property at Westerfield, which are still being used by the Ashburton county council. In 1871 he reported on the irrigation of the region from the Waimakariri to Rolleston, and in the following year £10,000 was voted by the Provincial Council for this work. Fooks was the first borough engineer of Ashburton. He died in 1907.

Canterbury P.C. Proc., 1 Aug 1871, 4 Dec 1872; Acland; Cycl. NZ., iii; Lyttelton Times, 14 Jan 1886.

Reference: Volume 1, page 151

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