John Carruthers (21 June 1836–2 September 1914) was a British engineer and economic theorist from a Scottish literary family.
[1] He worked on railway construction in Canada, America, Russia, Mauritius and Egypt before being recruited by the Premier of New Zealand 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.
[2] He resigned in 1878 after the new Minister of Works (James Macandrew) effectively demoted him to having charge of the North Island only.
[3] In the 1880s he was resident in Venezuela, where he was involved in the construction of the Puerto Cabello and Valencia Railway, which connected the country's second city to the coast.