Mr. John Sidey , “Corstorphine,” Caversham, was born in March, 1823, in Edinburgh, Scotland, where he was educated and brought up to the business of his father, who was a builder and contractor. Until he was twenty years of age he worked with his father in Edinburgh. Subsequently he went to London, where he was joined by his father in partnership, and the firm entered into business as speculative builders. After selling a few of their properties satisfactorily, a period of depression arose, in consequence of which Mr. Sidey, senior, returned to Edinburgh, and Mr. John Sidey joined the Association which had undertaken the colonisation of Otago. He purchased with his passage to New Zealand fifty acres of rural land, ten acres of suburban, and a town section of one quarter of an acre. Mr. Sidey arrived at Port Chalmers by the ship “Blundell,” in 1848, and settled on his ten-acre section, which was situated about half way between Port Chalmers and Dunedin. After a time, believing there was a prospect of successful business as a storekeeper, he sent to England for a shipment of goods, and opened a store on his town section, where now stands the Grand Hotel. This business was carried on till 1857, when, having two years previously purchased land at Corstorphine, he settled on the property on which he has now resided for upwards of forty years. Mr. Sidey has brought his land into a thorough state of cultivation, and has a very fine residence, which is surrounded by most beautiful lawns and ornamental grounds, together with vineries, orchards, and every desirable accessory. The site now occupied by the Grand Hotel was leased on more than one occasion, the interest in the building having been eventually purchased by Mr Sidey. In the early days Mr. Sidey was a member of the Caversham and Green Island Road Boards. With Mr. Macandrew and others, he was interested in the erection of the old Mechanics' Institute, which was built and successfully conducted for some time in the early days. Mr. Sidey was married in Dunedin, in 1858, to a daughter of Mr. Angus Murray, of the Highlands of Scotland, and has two sons and two daughters surviving.