Mr. Alexander Stuart , J.P., Of Clifton, Highcliff, was born in the parish of Enzie, Bannfshire, Scotland, and was brought up to farming. In 1855 he emigrated to Victoria, where he worked on the goldfields with considerable success, and also on the Lamond Flat and Lachlan diggings, New South Wales. He was altogether seven years in Australia, whence he returned to Scotland in 1862. After being nine months in the Old Country, he sailed for New Zealand, in 1863, by the ship “Wave Queen,” and landed at Port Chalmers. Shortly after his arrival he bought the property which he still holds on the Peninsula, but it was then in its rough, native state, and covered with heavy bush. After the usual pioneering difficulties of clearing the bush and building a house in a locality then all but inaccessible, Mr. Stuart started dairy farming; which he has carried on practically ever since; and he is now one of the largest dairy farmers in the Peninsula. Mr. Stuart has always taken an active interest in the affairs of his district, and has been for over thirty-six years a member of the Peninsula Road Board, of which he was chairman for sixteen years. He was a member of the old Peninsula County Council for nine years, and of the Waikouaiti and Peninsula Licensing Committee for a similar period. Mr. Stuart has been a member of the Highcliff school committee since its inception; he was for over twenty-four years continuously its chairman, and signed the appointment of the district's first teacher. He has been a Justice of the Peace since 1889. On two occasions Mr. Stuart was requested to stand for the Provincial Council, but declined. Much of the success of the Taieri and Peninsula Milk Supply and Butter Company, Limited, may be attributed to Mr. Stuart, as he was one of the original promoters, and has been one of its directors ever since its inception. It is now (1904) in its twentieth year. Mr. Stuart is a deacon of the North East Harbour and Portobello Presbyterian church, and has been its clerk and treasurer for thirty-six years. He married at Home, previous to his departure for New Zealand, and, of a family of six, five sons are alive.