James Howlison died at Gambela, Abyssinia, on April 27th, 1920, at the age of 56 years.
He was a New Zealander by birth and became engaged in mining and metallurgical operations in that colony and Tasmania in 1887. In 1896 he entered the Otago School of Mines and passed out two years later with the School Certificate for Mining and Metallurgy. In about four-and-a-half years from 1901 he was in charge of the Ashanti Goldfields Corporation’s alluvial properties in West Africa, from the commencement of gold-dredging operations and after the incorporation of the auxiliary company.
At the middle of 1905 he started practice in London as a consulting engineer, specializing in gold dredging, and in July, 1906, he began a two years’ engagement with the Cia. Rio San Juan de Oro, at Tupiza, Bolivia, where he made examination of their properties and had charge of boring and dredging operations. Between 1909 and 1911 Mr. Howlison was in Spain examining properties, and in 1912 he was in charge of boring and dredging operations in that country. Shortly before the outbreak of the war he went to Abyssinia to examine properties for the Abyssinian Development Syndicate, Ltd, and in 1919 he started out again for the same company on a three years’ expedition, during which, unfortunately, he fell ill and died. His wife was with him at the time.
Mr. Howlison was elected an Associate of the Institution in 1905 and transferred to Membership in 1919.
Vol. 30, Trans IMM 1920-21, pp.475-6
