HARRIS, JOHN CHANTREY (1830-95) was born at Bath, England, his father being a sculptor and friend of Sir Francis Chantrey. At the age of thirteen he apprenticed himself on a West India trading ship. In 1851, when he had been four years qualified, his ship was wrecked at Cape of Good Hope and he was stranded. Early in 1852 the Gwalior put in in distress. Harris shipped as first mate, and soon afterwards put the captain under arrest for drunkenness and brought the vessel to Auckland. He then had command of the Governor Wynyard, the first steamer built in New Zealand, took her across to Melbourne and ran her for a few months on the Yarra. Leaving this to go to the Forest Creek diggings, he had the usual vicissitudes there and finally settled down to journalism. For many years he was mining reporter at Thames for the Southern Cross. Then he joined the Otago Daily Times as representative at Port Chalmers (1873). In 1878 he was commissioned by the Union Steam Ship Co. to describe the hot lakes of the North Island for a guidebook. He spent a year or two with the Southland Times and in 1880 became proprietor and publisher of the New Zealand Times and the New Zealand Mail (Wellington). This connection lasted till 1890, when Captain Baldwin bought the paper. Harris invested disastrously in silver mines at Puhipuhi, and with his remaining capital bought the Bruce Herald (Milton). He died on 12 Feb 1895.

Harris was a free-thinker and lectured on that subject in Wellington (1884). His character was marked by honesty, humanity and straightforwardness.

Brett, White Wings, ii; Will Lawson, Steam in the South Pacific (1909); J. T. M. Hornsby in Southland Times, 12 Nov 1912; N.Z. Herald, 22 Oct 1873; Otago Daily Times, 14 Feb 1895.

Reference: Volume 1, page 198

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