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

Mr. James Grieve

Mr. James Grieve , one of the earliest pioneers of Southland, was born in Roxburghshire, Scotland, in 1834. He was brought up to mercantile life, and served in a large Edinburgh tea house, where he became an expert in the trade. For a time Mr. Grieve was in business at Burnt Island, and came out with his father's family, in 1856, to Port Chalmers, by the ship “Strathmore.” With three of his brothers, Mr. Grieve walked
The Late Mr. J. Grieve

The Late Mr. J. Grieve

overland to Invercargill, which was then being surveyed, and was almost covered with dense bush. Mr. Grieve bought one of the horses from the first shipment from Sydney, and started a carrying business, conveying goods from the present site of the Bank of New Zealand, on the banks of the Puni creek, in a sledge. He started the first butcher's shop in Invercargill, on the edge of the bush, on the line of what is now Tay Street. After a time he sold out and commenced business as a grocer in a rough slab building, which he called Murihiku store. It stood on the site now occupied by Messrs J. E. Watson and Co.'s fine building in Esk Street. Mr. Grieve continued in that business till early in the seventies, when he removed to Wallacetown, where he carried on business as a storekeeper till 1883, when his son took it up. He resided with his son till his death in 1901. Mr Grieve was a member of the first Town Board of Invercargill. He was married, in 1850, to Miss M. Brown, of Moffat, Dumfriesshire, Scotland, who died in 1895, leaving one son, Mr J. S. Greive, who is referred to on another page as postmaster at Wallacetown.