John Duthie (politician)

John Duthie
Portrait of John Duthie in ca 1900
New Zealand Legislative Council
In office 25 June 1913 – 14 October 1915
Member of the New Zealand Parliament for City of Wellington
In office 5 December 1890 – 14 November 1896
In office 9 March 1898 – 15 November 1899
In office 25 November 1902 – 15 November 1905
9th Mayor of Wellington
In office 1889–1890
Personal details
Born	(1841-02-28)28 February 1841 Kintore, Aberdeenshire, Scotland
Died	14 October 1915(1915-10-14) (aged 74)
Occupation	businessman; politician

John Duthie (28 February 1841 – 14 October 1915) was a politician and businessman in New Zealand. Originally from Scotland, he came to Auckland in 1863. He set up his own ironmongery in New Plymouth, then Wanganui, and he finally settled in Wellington. In the latter city, he was mayor for one term. He then represented Wellington in Parliament for a total of eleven years. For the last two years of his life, he was appointed to the New Zealand Legislative Council.

Duthie was born on 28 February 1841 in Kintore, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. He was educated at the Aberdeen Grammar School. In that city, he undertook an apprenticeship with Glegg and Thompson, an ironmongery. After his training, Duthie was for some years travelling in Scotland and Ireland for a Sheffield firm.

Duthie arrived in Auckland, New Zealand, on 16 November 1863 on the Helvellyn. For some time he acted as traveller for Cruickshank, Smart and Co., ironmongers. About 1866 Dutbie moved to New Plymouth and started in business; about two years later extending the operations to Wanganui, where he opened a branch and conducted a growing trade for many years. He was for many years in partnership with Charles Brown in New Plymouth. In 1879 he came to Wellington, and started the business that developed into John Duthie and Co. Limited. Until 1887 or 1888, Duthie retained an interest in the Wanganui business, which he then sold to his partner, James Thain.

He was the director of several city companies, and was in business with James Gear in the 1880s, where he was a director, and for two years served as the chairman of directors. He was at one time president of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, and was president of the Caledonian Society for some years. Duthie was one of the founding directors of The Dominion newspaper and was chairman of the newspaper's board from 1912 until his death in 1915. That newspaper merged in 2002 with the other Wellington daily, The Evening Post, to form the Dominion Post.