BALDWIN, WILLIAM (1838-1917) was the son of Henry Baldwin, of Bandon, county Cork, and received his commission in the 19th regiment, with which he served in the Indian mutiny. Coming to Otago in 1860, he took up a run at Teviot. He was gazetted a magistrate in 1860 and when gold was discovered at Gabriel's Gully he was appointed commissioner at Waitahuna (1 Oct 1861) and warden and resident magistrate (22 Nov 1862). In 1863 he married Janet, daughter of the Hon A. Buchanan. He was elected to the Otago Provincial Council for the Goldfields (1863-64) and was on the executive in 1863. At the same time he was returned to Parliament for the Goldfields District, which he represented till 1865. He then resigned and represented Manuherikia (1866-67). While in the Provincial Council Baldwin was chairman of a committee which recommended that the number of miners' members be increased by two and that business men and miners who had held a miner's right for nine months should be entitled to the vote. He afterwards gave up his runs in Otago and became a travelling commissioner for the Government Life Insurance department. In 1873 he established the Otago Guardian, which he controlled till 1875. In 1890 he acquired an interest in the New Zealand Times and Mail, which he sold to a company in 1893. He was a director of the Dunedin City Tramways Co. Baldwin died on 30 Jul 1917. His daughter married (1883) the Hon Edmund W. Parker, son of Lord Macclesfield.

Otago P.C. Proc; Pyke; Col. Gent.; Hocken; Otago.

Reference: Volume 1, page 32

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