MILLS, EDWARD WILLIAM (1829-1900) was born in Kensington and came to New Zealand with his parents in the Birman (1842). Their house being burned down later in that year, causing them considerable loss in material and tools, Mills took employment, and in 1846 assisted in a building contract for the Imperial government. After spending two years on the goldfields at Ballarat, he returned to Wellington (1854) and founded a hardware business which he carried on for many years. He established the Lion foundry and undertook the repair and building of steamers, the construction of locomotives and the erection of sawmills. He was a promoter and director of the Wellington Tramway Co. and a director of the Patent Slip Co. and the Colonial and the Commercial insurance companies. Mills was a member of the first Wellington town board and the first City Council (1870-77) but refused to stand for the mayoralty. He was president of the chamber of commerce (1889) and a member of the licensing committee (1896). He served in the militia, patrolling the bounds of Wellington in 1846, and joined no. 1 company Royal Rifle volunteers, of which he was captain from 1868 till it disbanded. He was a keen yachtsman and commodore of the Port Nicholson yacht club. Mills married (1854) a daughter of John F. Fortescue Wright. His death occurred in 1900.

Ward; Cycl. N.Z., i; Wellington Independent, 14 Apr 1864.

MILLS, SIR JAMES (1847-1936), the third son of William Mills (1809-1900, for many years collector of customs), was born in Wellington and educated in Dunedin. His first business experience was with James Macandrew and Co., whom he left to join John Jones, merchant and shipowner. In 1869 Mills, J. R. Jones and others organised a company to take over the Golden Age and other steamers and run a service between Dunedin and Port Chalmers. He became manager of this Harbour Steam Co. In 1875 he took a leading part in the foundation of the Union Steam Ship Co., of which he was appointed managing director. Under his management the company prospered and expanded widely in New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific. He was made chairman of the board in 1906.

While still a young man Mills represented Waikouaiti in the Otago Provincial Council until the abolition in 1875. From 1887 to 1893 (when he retired) he was member for Port Chalmers in the House of Representatives. In 1904 he was elected honorary associate of the Australasian Institute of Marine Engineers, and in 1907 he attended the navigation conference in London as a representative of New Zealand shipping.

Mills married in 1871 Annabella Langlands, and in 1888 Sadie Gertrude Fosbery. He was knighted in 1907. His death occurred on 23 Jan 1936.

Cycl. N.Z., iv; Who's Who N.Z., 1908; Auckland Star, 27 Sep 1887; Otago Daily Times, 29 Jun 1907, 24 Jan 1936 (p).

Reference: Volume 2, page 45

🌳 Further sources