WILKIN, ROBERT (1820-86) was born at Tinwald Downs, Dumfriesshire, his father being a farmer and his mother, Rachel Douglas Laurie, a daughter of the parish minister. Wilkin received the usual education of a Scots boy. Then he went for seven years to Dumfries Academy, a well-managed school under the town council; and finally proceeded to Edinburgh University, where he attended lectures which he considered would be of service to him as a farmer.

At the age of 19 he sailed for Melbourne in the Midlothian. Passing on to Sydney, he went as far as the Namoi river, and inspected the Liverpool plains. There he spent some years managing grazing stations for George Hobler. With two partners he took up several stations in the Richmond river district. He then went farther north and settled as a runholder in the Burnett district of Queensland. Apparently he moved south again before coming to New Zealand, for he was a magistrate for the Port Phillip district of Victoria. In 1858 Wilkin came to New Zealand, and purchased the Avon Park estate in Canterbury. He was uniformly successful in his choice and management of land. At different times he was interested in various important properties, sometimes alone, sometimes with Robert Heaton Rhodes and sometimes with his wife's uncle, Archibald Thomson, with whom he took up Maronan. He was interested also in Racecourse Hill, Carleton, and St Leonard's (Amuri). About 1871 he commenced business in Hereford street as a general merchant and stock and station agent. Wilkin took a great interest in importing and breeding purebred stock, especially horses. He was one of the founders of the Middle Park Stud Co., and shortly before his death he imported on his own account the American trotting sire Berlin, who made his mark upon the trotting history of the Colony. He took a keen interest in agricultural shows. The first of these, held the year after his arrival in the Colony at Benjamin Moorhouse's Shepherd's Bush property, Rangitata, was practically confined to merino sheep.

Next year it was held where Ashburton now is. In 1862 a general show was held in Judge Gresson's paddock in Latimer square. Wilkin was president, and he took steps to organise an association, of which he became the first president. He was, in fact, its founder, and just before his death was elected a patron. At his suggestion the New Zealand Country Journal was founded in 1877, and its pages show constant evidence of his interest. He promoted the publication of the Canterbury herd books and the New Zealand draft horse stud book. He presented to the Association some of its first paintings and a complete set of the transactions of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland (1812-81).

Wilkin had not been long in New Zealand before he was led into public life. In Aug 1860 he was elected member for Timaru in the Provincial Council. Though he did not reside in the district, and his views on the new provinces bill were at variance with those of the electors, they re-elected him in 1861. He was a strong champion of the out-districts, and got many things done for the Timaru locality. It was due to him that the district was divided into four electorates. He was then elected for Waitangi (1864). Wilkin strongly supported Moorhouse, and was a member of his executive for three years (first under Blakiston, and then as president of the executive for two years). In 1862 he was for a while deputy-superintendent, and when Moorhouse resigned (1863) he was invited to stand for the superintendency. He had no such ambitions, and was glad to see the election of Bealey, under whom he continued to serve as president of the executive, with Moorhouse as an occasional colleague. He retired from the Council in 1866, but served in several executives later. He was also for three years (1863-66) member of Parliament for Kaiapoi.

Wilkin was neither a good speaker nor a brilliant parliamentarian. The Lyttelton Times pictures him as 'a wealthy stockowner and a portly-built Scot getting into the sere leaf' who was chiefly to be found seconding the motions of his colleagues with so much diffidence as scarcely to be audible. He had a high sense of probity in business and in the relations of men. Hall once remarked, 'We might ask what public institution there is to which Mr Wilkin was not willing to lend a helping hand; what movement did not receive his cheerful aid.' He was a governor of Canterbury College (1875-76), and first president of the Timaru Mechanics' Institute and public library (1862), for which he obtained a handsome grant from the Provincial Council. In 1874 he was a provisional director of the Timaru Woollen Co. He took a great interest in acclimatisation. Late in the sixties he presented to the Canterbury Society some black swans, and in 1881 he introduced hedgehogs into south Canterbury. Wilkin died on 20 Jun 1886.

Canterbury P.C. Proc.; Andersen; Cox, Men of Mark; Acland; Woodhouse; The Press, 31 May 1930 (p). Portrait: A. and P. Association, Christchurch; Parliament House.

Reference: Volume 2, page 257

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