THE MAKERS OF OTAGO

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20963, 28 February 1930, Page 10

THE MAKERS OF OTAGO

PIONEERS OF THE PROVINCE,

Written for the Otago Daily Times.

By Condor. VIII.—JOHN GILLIES, 1802-1871. When all is said and done there are few families in the whole of Otago which illustrate the Scots virtues of intellect, industry, and public spirit more strikingly than that of Gillies. It gave three Speakers to the Provincial Council of Otago, a Superintendent to the province of Auckland, a judge to the Supreme Court of New Zealand, and a leading minister to the Presbyterian Church. It is proper that the father, John Gillies, should take precedence in this gallery. Born at Rothesay, in Bute, on April 22, 1802,-he was the son of a small crofter and hand-loom weaver. Like all Scots boys, he received in his parish such an education as enabled him in 1820 to enter on his articles under Alexander Irvine, town clerk, sheriff, and clerk of petty sessions at Rothesay, , and Comptroller of Customs for the j town and port. When his articles were completed John entered a merchant’s office in Greenock, and in 1827 he married Isabella, second daughter of John Lillie, of Glasgow, a descendant of Huguenot refugees from France. He soon went back to Rothesay as deputy

town clerk and agent for the Greenock Bank, and when the Reform BUI of 1833 had been passed and the first municipal council elected thereunder he was appointed town clerk of the burgh and clerk to the harbour trustees. He was also admitted as procurator of the sherriff’s court as a notary public. In 1842, when the Greenock Bank was amalgamated with the Western Bank of Scotland he became local, agent for the larger institution. In the following* year Gillies prepared a Bill to provide for the police of the burgh and to supply lighting and water, and he was sent to London to watch its passage through Parliament. It gives us almost to wonder why such_ a well-placed official, so trusted by his townsmen and coreligionists, should have thought of leavmg his home land and settling in the Antipodes. The reason is found in the religious convictions that prompted so man y good Scots 100 years ago to seek peace abroad.

Gillies was a loyal and devout churchman. In 1830 he had been ordained as an elder-of the Church of Scotland. At public meetings, at synod, at presbytery, and in assembly he threw himself heart and soul into the vexed question ot the civil establishment of religion and education. Through him his native parish recmved some of the best men available for its educational institutions. It was natural that he should be deeply moved by the spectre of disruption in the Church, and it was of a piece that he should stand by his minister and leave the Established Church when the crash came.

Tlie seceding portion of the congregation, on the advice-of Gillies, roofed o?er as a church a large open space in the town which had been used as a cooperage. lor the .best part of 10 years thereafter Gillies represented his parish m the Free Church assemblies. Then he uas taken with the idea of immigrating Hls son, John Lillie Gillies, had already gone to Australia, and when the idea occurred to the father in 1851 he pondered it characteristically. An eminently devout man, he never broached such crises to his family until he had taken counsel with himself, and called upon thm to join ui prolonged prayer for sUidaneo. The whole day they thus addressed themselves. In the even in ® they discussed the matter; and,' almost without dissent, they adopted the momentous decision. With his inind at peace Gillies then set about makin" arlangemcnts for his departure. A.t the age o 49 when most men begin to clfS to settled hah'ts and surroundings, he sailed with his family— some' of them already grown. men—in the Slains’

On arriving in Dunedin Gillies nur■Rl°'i aCrO - SeCti ™ and llouseP at HaLway Bush—wnere he lived for many years—and also a farm at Tokomairiro ylnch was earned on by his sons. He TTvfit el yr Vent Hl i? with John Hjde Hams, the only solicitor then practising in Dunedin, and was forthofU«,o'dqitted a > ,arri ster and solicitor of the Supreme Court. He was soon fully involved in the public affairs of the pronnee In 1854 he acted for a anTi“lS w s° t ! 1C ? 1 I ' ovi n ci al Council ana in 1804 was elected a member He was at once chosen as Speaker and re-’ S retiring in 1855. m iboi Gillies was appointed hv (lie general Government sheriff of Ota and esident magistrate, and from 18G1 to .. A -' aS r<2 p lstrAV of births, deaths nd marriages for the province Eduea niea \uth the true Scots zeal and with ideas far in advance of his time- as for instance when ,he advocated ’ setting ir 1 ' “lot™ i°° stauudilj, devoted to rJ g io„)Tdn‘SS a f dS r hlCl . Presented a hell S“ad g?S- h p isl r; .« "•«* intended tne Inst Presbyterian Church in TViU-r. ■5 u ; toxESw it out failed to deliver it at the rtSi.f port, and it was taken back home "'it took »» «ie Henhury, winch fire and sank in the bav at Port Chalmers. The bell was recovered a 5 to I P urchase it uacK again. After doing dutv in two So-ainro ehnrches it cracked and had to he recast, but it is still r limit,to praise every Sunday. Gillies made himself chiefly responsible for the creat'on , of the Sustentation Fund of the church; he was a strong advocate of ?ml Sl of tIIC - Chinese and the Maori, and of the union of the Presbyterian churches of New Zealand, He ns " P* lla 3., of strength of the Sunday schools the Otago Bible Society and the Yonnw Men s Christian Association. a i ? e ? I i e I 1!!! death, which occurred on July 24, 1871, Gillies had seen two of his sons Speaker of the Otago Provincial Council and one of them Superintendent of the province of Auckland. He left a widow and a family of five sous and three daughters, with many grandchil