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

Councillor John Tait

Councillor John Tait was first elected to a seat on the Port Chalmers Borough Council in 1897, and has served continuously ever since. He is at present (1904) a member of the Finance Committee. Mr. Tait was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1864, arrived in the colony in 1878, and was for a time engaged in agricultural pursuits. After a short time spent in Dunedin with Messrs Findlay, Murdoch and Co., and at
Wrigglesworth and Binns, photo. Councillor J. Tait.

Wrigglesworth and Binns, photo.
Councillor J. Tait.

page 428 McLeod's soapworks, he entered the employment of the Union Steamship Company, as an apprentice to the plumbing trade. He subsequently worked for five years as a journeyman; and since 1891 has held the responsible position of foreman of the plumbing department in the company's works at Port Chalmers. Mr. Tait is one of the elders of the local Presbyterian church, and superintendent of the Sunday school. He was a member of the District High School committee for three years, and has also been a member of the All Nations Lodge of Good Templars, and is at present a member of the local committee of the Temperance Reform Council. Mr. Tait was married, in 1892, to a daughter of the late Mr. J. Mawson, an old colonist of Purakanui, and has a family of two sons and three daughters. Mrs Tait's grandfather, Mr. David Millar, came out to New Zealand in the ship “Philip Laing,” in 1848, and was for a long time one of the leading residents of Port Chalmers.