Mr. James Leithead, formerly Manager of the Kaiapoi Woollen Mills, is of Scottish descent. Born in New Hampshire, in the United States, he was taken to Scotland at the age of six, and educated at Selkirk, and was afterwards in the employment of Messrs. Geoige Roberts and Co., of that town. He went to Westmoreland in 1857 to take charge of the tweed department in Mr. John J. Wilson's manufacturing works, and retained the position for twenty-two years. Mr. Leithead arrived at Port Chalmers in 1879 by the ship “Wanganui,” and for the first year was engaged at the Mosgiel woollen mills, at the end of which time he came to Canterbury to take charge of the Kaiapoi woollen mills, the largest establishment connected with that industry in New Zealand. He was married in 1858 to a daughter of Mr. James Scott, of Selkirk, and had ten children, of whom four are living. He afterwards married the eldest daughter of Mr. James Johnson, of Sunderland.