PATITI POINT
John Liddington Higgs (1864-1919)
Timaru Coastline, 1884
Oil on board
Algantighe Art Gallery Collection 2002.1
In this painting John L. Higgs captures the view from Patti Point looking north towards central Timaru and its harbour in 1884.He has given prominence to a large six-storey building known as the Timaru Milling Company.
The Timaru Milling Company building was built in 1882, replacing a wooden mill that burnt down on this site in in 1881. The mill was the first in New Zealand to use steel rollers rather than grindstones for milling. This fact and how the painting records the height and size of the new brick Timaru Milling Company, seems to be a celebration of the feat of engineering human accomplishment depicted alongside, and as a comparison, to the natural beauty, but also vast wildness, of the Timaru coastline.
John L. Higgs was the son of John and Alice Higgs who had a farm on Wai-iti Road. Higgs later moved to Blenheim, where he ran a picture framing and signwriting business for many years.
