John Blackett (engineer)
John Blackett (8 October 1818 – 8 January 1893) was an engineer who helped build New Zealand’s roads, railways and lighthouses.
He was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, and trained with the Hawthorn engineers. He worked as a draughtsman and office engineer for the Great Western Steamship Company (1841–44), then led iron shipbuilding and railway work with T. R. Guppy (1844–46). He also worked for the Copper Mines in Cwm Avon, South Wales (1846–48). After private practice (1848–51), he moved to New Zealand in 1851, settling first at New Plymouth.
In 1859 he became Provincial Engineer at Nelson. In 1867 he served on the Executive of the Nelson Provincial Council, and he declined invitations to stand for Superintendent. Under Sir Julius Vogel’s public works program (1870–78) he oversaw road construction across the colony. He also worked under John Carruthers, the Engineer-in-Chief of the Public Works Department, who led railway construction. Blackett became Marine Engineer in 1871. In 1878 he was Engineer-in-charge of the North Island, and in 1884 he was Engineer-in-Chief of the colony. He later served as Consulting Engineer for the New Zealand government in London and was responsible for planning and building 14 lighthouses around the coast.
He died in Wellington in 1893 and was buried at Karori Cemetery. The John Blackett Prize, funded through the will of his artist daughter Isabel Mary Houston, is awarded to outstanding engineering students at the University of Canterbury.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 08:10 (CET).