Mr. Henry Aitken , who was Mayor of Oamaru for four consecutive years, and had been for the previous two years a member of the Council, was born in 1840, in the Shetland Islands, where he was educated and brought up to the building trade. He arrived in Dunedin in 1860, by the ship “Lady Egidia,” and settled in Oamaru three years later. For about five years he was engaged with Messrs Young and Dalgety, and in 1868 he established himself as a timber merchant and commission agent. He conducted a large and successful business in both lines till about 1883, but after a time he confined himself to the shipping trade, and was the Union Steam Ship Company's representative at Oamaru. By virtue of his office as mayor, Mr. Aitken was a member of the Harbour Board, and was at one time chairman of that body. He was a member of the Board of Governors of the Waitaki High Schools, and of the Oamaru Caledonian Society, and as a Freemason under the Scottish Constitution he had passed all the chairs. Mr. Aitken, who was married, in 1863, to a daughter of the late Mr. W. Williamson, of Shetland, died on the 18th of March, 1899, leaving a widow and one son.

The late Mr. H. Autken.

Mr. David Dunn , who was Mayor of Oamaru for five years, from 1888 to 1893, was born at Kilsyth, near Glasgow, in 1840. He has been an Otago settler since early in 1863, and has long been in business as a butcher in Oamaru. Besides his services to the ratepayers of the borough, he has occupied the position of vice-chairman of the Harbour Board, and has been a member of the Waitaki High Schools Board.

Mr. John Campbell Gilchrist , J.P., who was the first Mayor of the Borough of Oamaru, was born in Argyleshire, Scotland, in 1830. He was educated at the Normal School, Glasgow, and became a teacher in Scotland, and after serving about a year, came out to Victoria in 1853. Mr. Gilchrist settled at Oamaru in 1860, and has since then engaged in agricultural and pastoral pursuits. He resides at Brookfield, Waiareka, where he has 300 acres of land. His sheep station, which is known as “Rosebery,” consists of from 5000 to 6000 acres. Mr. Gilchrist is also owner of land in Tyne and Itchen Streets, Oamaru. In the early days Mr. Gilchrist was connected with the Kakanui Road Board, of which he was chairman, until it was merged into the Waitaki County Council, and for a number of years he served as a member of the Harbour Board. He was married in 1862 to a daughter of the late Mr. Taylor, of Edinburgh, and has, surviving, two sons and three daughters.

Mr. J. C. Gilchrist.