The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Otago & Southland Provincial Districts]
McMurtie, John
McMurtie, John , Farmer, Little Belmont, Tapui. Mr. McMurtie was born in 1874, in Carrickfergus, County Antrim, Ireland. He was brought up in London and Glasgow, and early learned to manage horses. In 1894 he came to Dunedin, via Australia, and worked his way up the Waitaki Valley to Otiake, where he found employment for four years. Afterwards he commenced cropping on the Otekaike station, and became one of the original selectors of the Elderslie settlement. Mr. McMurtie's property consists of 312 acres of land held under a lease in perpetuity, and the farm is devoted chiefly to cropping and dairying. Forty bushels of wheat and forty bushels of oats per acre were raised in the season of 1903. Mr. McMurtie was married, in 1900, to a daughter of Mr. James McCone, of Otiake, and has two sons.