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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Taranaki, Hawke's Bay & Wellington Provincial Districts]

Mr. John Dinwiddie

Mr. John Dinwiddie, formerly a member of the Napier Borough Council, was born in the year 1834, in Manchester, England, where he was educated. He left the Old Land in 1859, by the ship “Caduceus,” and landed in Auckland. In January of the following year he removed to Napier, and, having a knowledge of carpentry, obtained employment on the old Government buildings, near the present Post Office. Devolving into a builder and furniture manufacturer, Mr. Dinwiddie soon had a very fine business on those lines, and during his first fifteen years in the district gained a competence. In 1876 he took a trip Home, via the United States, returning by way of Suez. Mr. Dinwiddie then chose the life of a farmer, and settled in Patangata County. In this, however, he was not particularly successful, and he sold his farm, returned to Napier, and assisted his brother, Mr. Peter Dinwiddie, of the “Hawke's Bay Herald,” for some two or three years prior to his final retirement. During the time of the Maori troubles Mr. Dinwiddie saw active service, and was at the engagement of Omaranui. He took great interest in volunteer matters for about seven years, was one of the first to start the movement in Hawke's Bay, and held the New Zealand war medal. Mr. Dinwiddie died in 1900, leaving a family of one son and three daughters.