DOBSON, EDWARD (1816-1908) was born in London, the son of a Mediterranean merchant. He was educated in London and articled to a well-known architect and surveyor (Herring) from whom he learned the practical side of his profession as a civil engineer. He studied also at University College, London, under Professor Vignoles, and spent several months in a continental tour studying architecture. In 1842-43 he won his first certificate in architecture as a fine art, and in architecture as a science. For two years in succession his drawings were exhibited in the Royal Academy.

In 1844 Dobson joined the firm of John Rastrick, railway engineers, and he had several years' experience in railway construction throughout England. Dobson was one of the original purchasers of land under the Canterbury Association and left for New Zealand by the Cressy in 1850 with his two eldest sons. He selected 50 acres of land at Sumner, and built there and in Christchurch. Mrs Dobson followed a year afterwards with the remainder of the family in the Fatima. In 1854, when the provincial government was fully established, Fitzgerald appointed Dobson provincial engineer, a position which he occupied for the next fourteen years. He not only designed and carried out many of the more important public works in the province, but undertook explorations, especially in the effort to establish communications with the western seaboard, which on the discovery of gold was being visited by ships direct from oversea. First was the track from the plains to Purau, at the head of Akaroa harbour. The tunnel through the hills, and the railway to Lyttelton were impressive works for a colony at such an early stage of its development. At Lyttelton Dobson constructed the breakwater from Officer's Point, which made the inner harbour safe for shipping. He planned the system of railways for the province and before he retired the Lyttelton line was completed, and the southern line had advanced 29 miles (to the Selwyn river). Another important work was the draining of the low-lying land about Rangiora, of which he reclaimed 10,000 acres. His advice was sought also by the province of Otago, which appointed him to make a report on the harbours of Moeraki, Waikouaiti and Oamaru (1865).

In Sep 1857 Dobson investigated a Maori track through the pass of the Hurunui river at Mount Noble, and cut a track for horses to a higher plateau, where they found flat land of superior quality with several lakes through which the Hurunui flowed. Along this track (nowhere more than 1600 feet in height) he laid out the road which eight years later was the first thoroughfare to the west. When the diggings broke out in 1865 Dobson (accompanied by Hall) laid out the road through the Otira, and set gangs to work in the severest weather in order to open a road for the diggers to get through. He named the pass after his son Arthur (q.v.). Another son, George, was murdered by the Burgess and Kelly gang in 1866.

Dobson was afterwards city engineer in Christchurch. In 1869 he became engineer to the Melbourne and Hobson's Bay United Railway Co. Two years later the company's lines were purchased by the Victorian government, under which Dobson took service and (until 1876) carried through the water supply scheme and built the Anakies dam and the Malmesbury reservoir. He was resident engineer at Geelong, and for a while acting-chief engineer of the department.

In 1876 Dobson returned to Canterbury and in private practice with his son constructed the Timaru waterworks; surveyed the railway line from Waikari through the Hurunui pass to Lake Brunner, erected many bridges, and constructed irrigation races and river protection works. Dobson was lecturer in engineering at Canterbury College (1887-92), and was for some years on the board of governors of Christ's College. He was in 1887 one of the electoral boundaries commissioners. In 1842 Dobson was elected a life member of the Oxford Architectural Society, and an associate member of the Institute of Civil Engineers (of which he became a full member in 1881). The institute awarded him the Telford Medal for a paper on the engineering works of the Canterbury provincial government. In 1843 he was elected an A.R.I.B.A. He wrote many other professional papers, notably those on Foundation and Concrete, The Railways of Belgium, Pioneer Engineering, The Art of Building, Museums and Stonecutting, and Bricks and Tiles. He was a member of the Canterbury Philosophical Institute, and president in 1866. Dobson was the first man enrolled in the Heathcote Volunteers in 1861, and subsequently transferred to the engineers. He died on 19 Apr 1908.

Canterbury P.C. Proc; Cycl. N.Z., iii (p); Cant. O.N.; Cox; Dobson; Lyttelton Times, 14 Oct 1857; The Press, 19 Apr 1908, 8 Feb 1930 (P); N.Z. Surveyor, Jun 1908.

Reference: Volume 1, page 123

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