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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Auckland Provincial District]

Mr. A. R. Harris

Mr. A. R. Harris, J.P., of Huntingdon Farm, East Tamaki, sits on the Auckland Harbour Board as one of the members appointed by the Government. He is a son of
Hanna, photo.Mr. A. R. Harris.

Hanna, photo.
Mr. A. R. Harris.

the late Captain Harris, and brother of the Hon. Major Harris, M.L.C., and was born at Wellington, New Zealand, in 1848. Mr. Harris was educated at East Tamaki. On leaving school he went to the Thames goldfields, where he remained for three years learning the important lesson that gold seeking and gold finding are widely different things; and he then determined to enter on the less alluring but more certain business of planting potatoes and rearing sheep and cattle. He secured two farms; one was at Waiuku, and the other was the fine estate, where he now resides. He farmed these properties with great success; but owing to the distance between the two places, he gave up the Waiuku property after holding it for fifteen years, and devoted his whole attention to Huntingdon farm, which is now one of the finest places in the neighbourhood of Auckland. Mr. Harris began his public career in 1880 by being elected a member of the East Tamaki Road Board, of which he was chairman for ten years; he was chairman of the East Tamaki school committee for fifteen years. He has long taken a keen interest in racing. At one time he was chairman of the committee of the Otahuhu Racing Club, and he has been judge for the Otahuhu Trotting Club since the original club was merged into it, and he has also been judge for the Auckland Trotting Club since its initiation. Mr. Harris owns one of the finest private race-courses in the North Island, and with great liberality he throws it open free, to the public, for the East Tamaki races. Mr. Harris has never, during his connection with racing, laid a wager or put money on the totalisator, although he has raced horses with more or less success. He has been a Justice of the Peace for twenty years, and in 1900 the Government appointed him a country member of the Auckland Harbour Board. He was a member of the Franklin Licensing Committee for several years, and member of the Auckland Board of Education for three years, but was compelled to resign owing to his private and public duties. Mr. Harris has for years been a member of the Franklin Agricultural Association, for over fifteen years a member of the Auckland Agricultural Association, judge at the Whangarei Agricultural Show for thirteen out of fourteen years, and has acted as a judge at every agricultural show in the provincial district Mr. Harris has only once been beaten as a candidate for a public position, but at the election following his defeat he was returned at the head of the poll. He is a member of the Pakuranga Hunt Club, in which he has hunted twenty-four years continuously. Mr. Harris is a cordial supporter of athletic sports and exercises, and was for some years a volunteer in the Otahuhu Cavalry. He has often been asked to stand for Parliament, but prefers to spend his time in comparative retirement, and in the enjoyment of the confidence and friendship of those with whom he is associated. Mr. Harris married Miss Parche, and has four daughters and two sons.