THE MAYOR OF DUNEDIN.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume V, Issue 44, 1 November 1890, Page 1

THE MAYOR OF DUNEDIN.

jj JOHN ROBERTS, the present Mayor of ) Dunedin, and President of the Exhibition lately held in that city, is a member of the great firm of wool exporters — Murray, _ . Roberts and Co. It is now about two and twenty years since Mr Roberts arrived from -V(§* Melbourne, where he had already spent four years in the acquisition of special knowledge of the wool business, gathering it on the stations of Victoria, and in the employment of J. Sanderson and Co. So successful have been his efforts and those of his coadjutors, that the firm of Murray, Roberts and Co. now ranks as the second of the wool exporting businesses in New Zealand. Mr Roberts, previously to making his appearance in Victoria, had his home in the old country, where he was bom at Selkirk, Scotland, forty-five years ago. There his father was member of the woollen manufacturing firm of George Roberts and Co., so that Mr Roberts’ antecedents and associations are all with the calling in which he has achieved so distinguished a position. His fiist steps in business were indeed made in the employ of his father, having ' passed thither after Completing his studies at the Edinburgh Academy and the Queen-street Institute of that city. Ever since he has been in Dunedin Mr Roberts has figured prominently in a variety of public undertakings. At present the characters in which he appeal’s most conspicuously are those of Chairman of the Mosgiel Woollen Factory Company, Chairman of the New Zealand Refrigerating Company, Director of the Colonial Bank, member of the Otago University Council; and Chairman of the Finance Committee. Politically Mr Roberts has also played a part previously to obtaining the honours of the Mayoralty. He once represented the Kaikorai district of Dunedin in the Otago Provincial Council, he has been Chairman of the Taieri County Council for many years, and was for some time a member of the Otago Harbour Board. It is believed also that he will seek the suffrages of some constituency at the approaching election, which will be re-assuring to those who desire to see the House of Representatives embodying that which is most experienced and conscientious of the intellect of the community. In the course of his long and distinguished public career the general impression left by Mr Roberts upon those immediately around him, is that he is a man who seeks public position not so much for the purpose of self-glorification as for the love of work and the desire of being serviceable to his fellows. In Dunedin he is very popular, and his never-failing kindness and courtesy to all in his capacity as President of the Exhibition conduced much to make the course of that celebration easy, and to impress the minds of its visitors- In religion he is a Presbyterian, and an elder of the, Knox Church. In 1870 he was married to the daughter of ,Mr C. H. Kettle, who made the original survey of the Otago block and laid out the City of Dunedin.