JAGO, JOHN WESLEY (1830-1904) was born at Nailsworth, Gloucestershire, and at the age of eight was taken to Glasgow and then to Alloa, where he served a four years' apprenticeship to brassfounding. Then he joined the staff of the North British Railway and Shipping Journal and later the Examiner, and then the Caledonian Railway Co.'s Gartsherrie ironworks. Transferred to the company's works at Lugar, Ayrshire, he was dismissed for refusing to assist the Conservative candidate for Ayr Burghs. He found employment with Schrader and Mitchell (leather, bark and hide merchants).

Having signed the pledge at the age of seven, Jago gave temperance addresses when he was 15 as chief ruler of the Phoenix Hope tent of the Juvenile Rechabites at Alloa. About 1861 the Dunedin Total Abstinence Society sought in Scotland for a man to act as agent, and Jago was selected. He sailed for Otago with his wife and family in the Cheviot (1862), and when the engagement expired went into the timber trade with Allan Galt. Later he was a flax exporter and proprietor of a bonded warehouse in Stuart street. In 1872 he was appointed manager of the Evening Star, which he controlled until his death (on 18 Nov 1904). Jago was an officer of the Congregational Church in Moray place, which he helped to found, and was chairman of the Congregational Union of New Zealand in 1889. He also took a deep interest in the Salvation Army.

In provincial politics he supported Reid against Macandrew, and he contested the Parliamentary seat for Port Chalmers against Macandrew. He stood also at a Provincial Council election for Dunedin. He was a member of the Otago education board in 1890, and some years chairman of the George street school committee. Having superintended a temperance mission in Glasgow, Jago, on arriving in New Zealand, collaborated with Sir William Fox and helped to introduce the Order of the Sons of Temperance (of which he became Grand Worthy Patriarch). He was chief templar of the first Good Templar lodge in Dunedin (1872) and was G.W.C.T. at the grand lodge at Christchurch in 1877. He edited the Temperance Advocate and its successor, the Temperance Herald; was president of the New Zealand Alliance (1898-99) and wrote and spoke a great deal on the subject of temperance. (See JOSHUA STRANGE WILLIAMS)

Cycl. N.Z., iv (p); Evening Star, 19 Nov 1904.

Reference: Volume 1, page 234

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