Other formats

    TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Otago & Southland Provincial Districts]

Ex-Councillors

Ex-Councillors.

Mr. William Bee , who was for several years in Member of the Oamaru Borough Council, has long been prominently known as a leading merchant in the town. He was born in 1843, at Dalkeith, Midlothian, Scotland, where he was brought up to the grccery business. Mr. Bee landed, from the ship “Arima,” at Port Chalmers in March, 1863, and obtained employment as a counterman in Dunedin. A year later he removed to Oamaru, and worked for twelve months in connection with the business, which he has since so long conducted. Smitten with the gold fever, he went overland to the West Coast “rush” and after two years' experience returned to Oamaru to join his brother, the late Mr. James Bee, in business under the style of J. and W. Bee. Particulars of the large business now conducted by Mr. Bee are given in another part of this work. Mr. Bee has taken a deep interest in the Oamaru Caledonian Society, with which he has been connected for thirty-five years, during which he has not been absent from one of the annual gatherings, and has filled every office in the institution. He is a steward of the North Otago Jockey Club, and has held office as vice-president, and is also a trustee of the Oamaru racecourse. As a Freemason Mr. Bee was initiated in Lodge Oamaru Kilwinning,
Mr. W. Bee.

Mr. W. Bee.

page 504 S.C. He is a member of the Royal Arch Chapter, a past Z, and an ex-officer of the Grand Lodge. Mr. Bee was married, in 1869, to a daughter of the late Mr. John Stoddart, of Dalkeith, and has two daughters and three sons.

Mr. William Henry Sherwood Roberts , who was a Member of the Oamaru Borough Council in 1879, was born at Tenby, Pembrokeshire, Wales, on the 16th of October, 1834. He comes of a Worcestershire family, and was educated at the Palace school, Enfield, near London. His father was an officer in the Honourable East India Company's Service and owned freehold property in Wales and Worcestershire. Mr. Roberts was originally intended for the profession of medicine, but studied as a book-keeper and land surveyor. He, however, left for New Zealand before becoming licensed, and arrived in Nelson, by the barque “John Phillips,” on the 6th of May, 1855. In the following year Mr. Roberts travelled overland from Nelson to Invercargill and became a squatter in Southland, but lost his cattle run in 1857 through the “Land and Lease Ordinance, 1856.” Two years later he bought a run at Pomahaka, near Tapanui, and named it “Ardmore,” but lost that also in 1871, when the land was opened for sale by the Government. On this last occasion his loss amounted to something like £30,000. Mr. Roberts then purchased a farm at Waipani, where he remained from 1872 to 1878. In December of the latter year, he settled in Oamaru and subsequently purchased three acres of land at Meadowbank, where he built his beautiful residence named “Marapua.” Mr. Roberts held the Commission of Justice of the Peace for twenty one years, and was for a short time engaged as a commission agent, auctioneer, and valuator in Oamaru. He was for six years a member of the Anglican Synod, and frequently officiated as Lay Reader is Oamaru and elsewhere. In addition to serving on the Borough Council, he was also a member of the Hospital Committee. He was initiated as a Freemason in Lodge Otago, 844, E.C., and became a Master Mason in June, 1866, and was exalted as Companion of the Kilwinning Royal Arch Chapter on the 23rd of January, 1871. Mr. Roberts is well known as a literary man, and has written a “History of Oamaru and North Otago,” from 1853 to 1889. It is an interesting volume of over 500 pages, particularly useful as a book of reference, and was published by Mr. A. Fraser, of Oamaru, in 1890. In 1895, Mr. Roberts published “Southland in 1856–1857, with a Journey from Nelson to Southland in 1856.” He was married in October, 1867, to the only daughter of Captain P. Williams, of Dunedin, and of a family of ten children, has, surviving, one daughter and five sons.

Marapua House: The Residence of Mr. W. H. S. Roberts.

Marapua House: The Residence of Mr. W. H. S. Roberts.

Mr. John Johnson Spence was for several years a Member of the Oamaru Borough Council, as representative of Severn Ward, and has also taken an interest in educational matters, as a member of the local school committees. Mr. Spence was born in 1830, in London, where he was educated, and served his apprenticeship as a builder. He was attracted to the Victorian goldfields, in 1854, and was at Maryborough, Clunes Flat, Back Creek, Beech worth, McIvor, and Fiery Creek, where he was successively engaged actively in mining, or in carrying on his business as a builder till 1862, when he arrived in Port Chalmers, where he was in business for two years. Subsequently Mr. Spence was farming for two years at Blueskin, and began business as a builder in Oamaru in 1868. He was afterwards senior partner in the firm of Spence and Grave, general merchants and shipowners. Among the vessels owned by the firm was the “Wave,” which ran in the coal trade from Newcastle; the firm was also part owner of the “Nil Desperandum,” trading to China. Having secured the interest in the flaxmill owned by Mr. John Hunt, the firm altered the mill into what is now known as the Phoenix Flour Mill, and afterwards owned by G. Bruce and Co. Mr. Spence sold his interest in the firm to Mr. McIntosh, and went into the milling trade under the style of Spence and Hay. This new firm built the first stone mill in Oamaru, now owned and worked by Messrs Ireland and Co. For many years afterwards Mr. Spence was a partner in the firm of Spence and Bee, from which he retired in 1884. He subsequently went into sheepfarming, from which he retired in 1897. Mr. Spence has taken an interest in local societies, and was director of the first Oamaru page 505 Permanent Building Society. He was married, in 1857, in Victoria, to a daughter of the late Mr. H. R. Williamson, of London, printer, and has one son and two daughters.