BASTINGS, HORACE (1831-1909) was born at Islington, London, and educated at the Bluecoat school. He emigrated to Victoria with his father in the Medway (1849); had some experience of mining, and went into business as a storekeeper at Ballarat. He married (1850) a daughter of Samuel Aldred (Bungay, Suffolk).

Bastings took an interest in public affairs and was once mayor of Brunswick. In 1862 he came to Otago in the City of Hobart and settled at Dunedin. From the first he was prominent in public life. In 1863 he was elected to the Dunedin town board, of which he was a member until it dissolved, when he was a city commissioner pending the election of the first city council. He was elected to the Provincial Council for Dunedin City in 1864, took a leading part in the separation movement, and resigned (Aug 1865) on going to live in Lawrence. There he built the Commercial hotel, with the Black Horse brewery at Wetherstones. He purchased the interest of Cobb and Co. in the South Island coaches.

Bastings represented Tuapeka in the Provincial Council (1871-75) and in the last two years of the provinces he was a member of three executives, as provincial secretary, secretary of lands and works, and goldfields secretary. When Southland proposed to return into the union with Otago he accompanied Macandrew to discuss with the smaller province the conditions of reunion. He was mayor of Lawrence (1868-72), was for some time chairman of the Tuapeka county council, and a member of the first Otago land board. In 1875 he was returned to the House of Representatives by the Waikaia constituency, which he represented until 1881. He returned to Dunedin to live in 1876 and was senior partner in Bastings, Leary and Co. auctioneers and forwarding agents. He was secretary-manager of the Waimea plains railway, which he sold to the Government.

In 1882 Bastings went to Australia, where in conjunction with George Duncan he constructed the first cable tramway (at North Shore). He contracted for the Bacchus Marsh-Ballan railway in Victoria, the estimate for which was £225,000. Returning to New Zealand, he entered into business as an auctioneer in Auckland, and in 1896, after a visit to Great Britain, settled in Invercargill as proprietor of Deschler's hotel. He died in Auckland on 28 Jun 1909. He was a prominent oddfellow and was provincial grand master of the Otago district, M.U.I.O.O.F.

Otago P.C. Proc; Who's Who N.Z., 1908; Cycl. N.Z., iv (p); Otago Daily Times, 29 Jun 1909; Southland Times and N.Z. Herald, 29 Jun 1909. Portrait: Parliament House.

Reference: Volume 1, page 39

🌳 Further sources