John Roberts (mayor)

Sir John Tonkin Roberts CMG, (October 1845 – 13 September 1934) was a New Zealand politician and Mayor of Dunedin.

Early life

Roberts was born in October 1845 in Selkirk, Scotland.[1][2] He was the son of George Roberts, who was for many years provost of that town.[3] Roberts junior was educated at Cheltenham Grammar School,[1] the Edinburgh Academy and at the Queen Street Institution in that city.[3] On leaving school in 1862 Roberts entered the woollen mill of his father's firm, Messrs. George Roberts and Co., of Selkirk. Two years later Roberts arrived in Melbourne, where he was employed in station management and business in the firm of John Sanderson and Co.[1]

Career in New Zealand

In 1868 Roberts went to New Zealand, and was President of the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce in 1887 and of the New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition held at Dunedin in 1889–1890, in which latter year he was Mayor of Dunedin. On 26 January 1870, he married Louisa Jane, second daughter of the late Dunedin surveyor Charles Kettle.[1][4]

Roberts was an original director, and for many years was chairman, of the New Zealand Refrigerating Company, Limited; and for two years he was a director of the Colonial Bank, from which he retired in 1891. He took a keen interest in agricultural and pastoral matters, and was a leading promoter of the Otago Agricultural and Pastoral Association of which he was a life governor.[1] Roberts has served on the boards of management of many local public institutions, notably the Otago University committee, and as chairman of its finance committee.[1] From June 1873 until its abolition in October 1876, Roberts represented Kaikorai in the Otago Provincial Council.[5] He was a member for Deep Stream riding in the Taieri County Council.[1] His work in connection with the New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition, as president, he succeeded, by ability and untiring zeal, in bringing the exhibition to a successful issue, and for his services in that respect, Her Majesty the Queen conferred upon him the Companionship of the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George, in 1891.[1]

Roberts was deputy chairman of the board of directors of the Union Steamship Company until 1914 when he retired. He was knighted in 1920 and died in Dunedin on 13 September 1934.[6]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Mr. John Roberts". The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Otago & Southland Provincial Districts]. 1905. Retrieved 31 July 2013.
  2. ↑ "Sir John Roberts". The Evening Post. CXVIII (65). 14 September 1934. p. 11. Retrieved 31 July 2013.
  3. 1 2 Mennell, Philip (1892). "Wikisource link to Roberts, John". The Dictionary of Australasian Biography. London: Hutchinson & Co. Wikisource
  4. ↑ "Marriage". Otago Daily Times (2489). 27 January 1870. p. 2. Retrieved 31 July 2013.
  5. ↑ Scholefield, Guy (1950) [First ed. published 1913]. New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1949 (3rd ed.). Wellington: Govt. Printer. p. 223.
  6. ↑ "Death of Sir John Roberts.". The Sydney Morning Herald (National Library of Australia). 14 September 1934. p. 12. Retrieved 27 August 2014.

External links

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