BAIN, JAMES WALKER (1841-99) was born in Edinburgh and educated at the Free Church Normal School there. He trained as a compositor with Constables and Oliver and Boyd, and after coming to New Zealand in the Jura (1858) he was employed for two years in Auckland. In 1861 he established (with Smallfield) the Southland News and Foveaux Straits Herald, which a few years later they sold. Bain paid a visit to Scotland, and on his return to Southland in 1868 he again acquired a partnership in the News and afterwards in the Southland Times, which he held until it was purchased by a company. In 1883 Bain was elected to the Invercargill borough council and in the following year he was mayor. He was president of the Southland Building Society from its inception in 1869 for 30 years; a director of the board of the Scottish and New Zealand Investment Co. from 1876 (chairman from 1890), president of the chamber of commerce, and a member (and at times chairman) of the High School board of governors, the education board and the hospital board. He was also an Otago school commissioner. In 1879 Bain was elected to Parliament for Invercargill, defeating Feldwick by two votes. Defeated by Feldwick at the next election (1881), he contested both Awarua and Invercargill at later elections, but without success. He died on 29 Sep 1899.

Cycl. N.Z., iv; Southland Times, 12 Nov 1912, 30 Sep 1899, 23 Jan 1931; Lyttelton Times, 12 Sep 1879. Portrait: Parliament House.

Reference: Volume 1, page 31

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