James Stewart Stewart (1833-1914) was born and educated in Perthshire, where he served his engineering articles. He commenced practice in Auckland as a civil engineer in 1859, designing a water supply scheme that year that won him a £50 prize for design. In partnership with engineer Samuel Harding, Stewart surveyed the railway route from Auckland to Drury in 1862, when he was also appointed the first Engineer to Auckland City. On the outbreak of war in the Waikato in 1863, he went to Australia to purchase steamers that were to be used by the British forces as gunboats. In 1864, he and Harding were appointed engineers for the construction of the Auckland to Drury railway. When work stopped for lack of finance in 1867, Stewart became Inspector of Steamers for the General Government. He designed the Bean Rock and Ponui Passage lighthouses before resurveying the Auckland to Drury railway in 1870. With the recommencement of construction of the railway line in 1872 and the proposed extension of the terminus to Mercer, Stewart was reappointed Resident Engineer. Within two years he was responsible for all railway works in the Auckland province and from January 1877 held responsibility for all road works north of Auckland. Following staff retrenchments in 1881, Stewart left the Public Works Department to open a private practice in 1882 with Ashley Hunter. In this capacity, he was engineer for the company that built the Rotorua Railway, the Thames Valley Railway and Te Aroha County's tramways. In partnership with Hunter, he laid Auckland's electric tram network in 1896 and also designed the pumps for Calliope Dock.