John Carruthers

John Carruthers (21 June 1836–2 September 1914) was a British engineer and economic theorist from a Scottish literary family. He was born in Inverness, Inverness-shire, Scotland on 21 June 1836.

He worked on railway construction in Canada, America, Russia, Mauritius and Egypt before being recruited by Julius Vogel for his great Public Works policy of the 1870s which emphasized railway construction and immigration. He was made Engineer-in Chief of the new Public Works Department, responsible for railway construction.

He resigned in 1878 after the new minister (James Macandrew) effectively demoted him to having charge of the North Island only. He returned to England and became consulting engineer to the New Zealand Government.