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

Mr. John Johnson Spence

Mr. John Johnson Spence was for several years a Member of the Oamaru Borough Council, as representative of Severn Ward, and has also taken an interest in educational matters, as a member of the local school committees. Mr. Spence was born in 1830, in London, where he was educated, and served his apprenticeship as a builder. He was attracted to the Victorian goldfields, in 1854, and was at Maryborough, Clunes Flat, Back Creek, Beech worth, McIvor, and Fiery Creek, where he was successively engaged actively in mining, or in carrying on his business as a builder till 1862, when he arrived in Port Chalmers, where he was in business for two years. Subsequently Mr. Spence was farming for two years at Blueskin, and began business as a builder in Oamaru in 1868. He was afterwards senior partner in the firm of Spence and Grave, general merchants and shipowners. Among the vessels owned by the firm was the “Wave,” which ran in the coal trade from Newcastle; the firm was also part owner of the “Nil Desperandum,” trading to China. Having secured the interest in the flaxmill owned by Mr. John Hunt, the firm altered the mill into what is now known as the Phoenix Flour Mill, and afterwards owned by G. Bruce and Co. Mr. Spence sold his interest in the firm to Mr. McIntosh, and went into the milling trade under the style of Spence and Hay. This new firm built the first stone mill in Oamaru, now owned and worked by Messrs Ireland and Co. For many years afterwards Mr. Spence was a partner in the firm of Spence and Bee, from which he retired in 1884. He subsequently went into sheepfarming, from which he retired in 1897. Mr. Spence has taken an interest in local societies, and was director of the first Oamaru page 505 Permanent Building Society. He was married, in 1857, in Victoria, to a daughter of the late Mr. H. R. Williamson, of London, printer, and has one son and two daughters.