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

Author: Cyclopedia Company Limited

Publication details: The Cyclopedia Company, Limited, 1905, Christchurch

Part of: The Cyclopedia of New Zealand

License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 New Zealand Licence

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Councillor Hugh Cameron , who served on the local Road Board, and was almost continuously a member of the Town Board and several times its chairman, was one of the first councillors of the borough, and has been twice Mayor of Mataura. Mr Cameron was first elected Mayor in 1897, and during his term had the honour of receiving the Governor, when His Excellency officially visited Mataura, and he was elected Mayor for a second term in 1902. Mr Cameron was born in Scotland, in 1834, was educated in his native village, and sailed with Dr. Menzies for Sydney, by the ship “Star of the East,” from which he transhipped to Otago in 1854. Dr. Menzies took up a run in the Wyndham district, where Mr Cameron remained up to 1864, when he launched out for himself, and was principally engaged in mining at Switzers for several years. He then kept an accommodation house at Mataura, and subsequently built the present hotel, which he conducted for thirty years. Then he leased it to Mr M. Kett in 1898; but has since resumed possession. Mr Cameron has always identified himself with the welfare of the district, and also takes a keen interest in football; he was president of the Southland Rugby Union and Mataura Football Club; has been president of the Mataura Rifle Club since its inception; has served on the local school committee, the Lyndhurst and Waimumu Road Board and the Mataura Town Board; and is an enthusiastic member of the Southland Gaelic Society, of which he is vice-president. For many years Mr Cameron farmed 200 acres adjoining the borough, but has since sold fifty acres containing lignite. In 1854, Mr Cameron was one of a party who walked overland from Dunedin to Invercargill to pay over the purchase money of the Southland block of land to the Maoris, who assembled at the Bluff, where they received the cash. The party consisted of the commissioner, Mr Mantell, with Dr. Menzies, Captain Bellairs, Mr John Studholme, Mr William Stuart, and others, besides Maoris and policemen. In 1869, Mr Cameron married, Catherine, daughter of the late Mr Donald Bain, of Blueskin, and nine children have been born of this union.