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

Mr. John Sibbald Grieve

Mr. John Sibbald Grieve , Postmaster at Wallacetown, was born in Dumfries-shire, Scotland, in 1852, and accompanied his father, the late Mr James Grieve, to Port Chalmers by the ship “Strathmore,” in 1857. Mr
Gersteukorn, photo.Mr, J. S. Grieve.

Gersteukorn, photo.
Mr, J. S. Grieve.

Grieve was a pupil at the first school opened in Dunedin, and also at the first school in Invercargill, and completed his primary education at the Invercargill Grammar School, then known as McDonald's. He was brought up to storekeeping, having assisted his father in Invercargill, and has been proprietor of the Wallacetown store since 1883, when his father retired. On removing to Wallacetown, Mr Grieve took up 157 acres of swamp land at Waianiwa. This proved to be a very rich little farm, as high as 123 bushels of oats to the acre having been threshed from it. Mr Grieve has also a flock of Shropshire sheep, and is always an exhibitor and prizetaker at the Invercargill show. When the frozen meat industry was in its infancy, the Agricultural and Pastoral Association offered a silver cup for the best pen of wethers suitable for the frozen meat trade, and this medal was won by Mr Grieve with his Down crosses. He also sent Home in the first small consignment of frozen mutton from Southland, twenty-five Down carcases; since that time he has been quite an enthusiast in producing freezers, and has taken prizes at Invercargill, Dunedin and elsewhere. Mr Grieve's time is now fully occupied by his business at Wallacetown, but his sons are proving quite as good judges of Shropshires as himself, and carry on the business. In 1903 they sent twenty two-tooth ewes to South Africa, to the order of Mr Saunders, who is starting a pure flock in that country; and their latest additions to the flock consist of one ram and five ewes, which were prize-takers at the Christchurch show of 1901. These sheep were bought from a well-known breeder; namely, Mr Rupert Parry, of Salisbury, near Timaru, South Canterbury. Mr Grieve has been secretary and treasurer of the Wallacetown Presbyterian church for over twenty years, and was for a number of years chairman of the Waianiwa school committee. He was married, in 1878, to a daughter of the late Mr John Morton, of Oatlands, Wallacetown, and has five sons and four daughters.