Sir James Mills of the "Southern Octopus"

SIR JAMES MILLS

Sir James Mills, whose death has occurred in London, will be remembered as one of the chief builders of New Zealand's economic structure. He took his part in public affairs also, devoting 16 of the best and busiest years of his life to service in Parliament. But his chief achievement was the founding and vigorous development of the Union Steam Ship Company from small beginnings to the largest and most powerful shipping concern in the Southern Hemisphere. In serving this creation of his active brain and steady will, Sir James also served New Zealand well. New Zealand's passengers, mails and trade were carried in her own ships to most parts of the Pacific and into the Indian Ocean. The colony and later the Dominion was thus saved from a limiting dependence on the enterprise of other countries for ocean transport; her needs in this department were considered by a New Zealander and from a New Zealand point of view. Not only that, but from the Rotomahana of almost 60 years ago to the great motor-ship Aorangi, Sir James kept his fleet in the van of progress. Although he lived to be 88, he never became too old for new ideas; he was ever ready for experiments, although he brought to bear on them the practical gift of insight as well as foresight. He watched the development of the internal combustion engine and helped to put it to work in road as well as sea transport. More than that, he had great faith in its future harnessed to the aeroplane, and before he died had the satisfaction of seeing his company launched into the new world of air transport. New Zealand is the poorer for his death, but the richer for his full and constructive life. -NZ Herald, 25/1/1936.

James Mills was brought up in Dunedin, the son of a customs officer (the first in Otago, starting at Port Chalmers in 1849), and worked for Johnny Jones, starting as a shop assistant.  Eventually he was the manager of Jones' Harbour Steam Company and, on his death, the main trustee of his estate.  By 1871 he was the main shareholder of the Company and floated the Union Steam Ship Co in 1875 in partnership with a Scottish shipbuilder.  The USSCo achieved a near monopoly of trans-Tasman trade and owned 75 ships by 1914, earning it the nickname of the "Southern Octopus."  He spent his later years, before retirement to England, in local politics, representing the Port Chalmers electorate from 1887 to 1893. He was knighted in 1907 and made a KCMG (Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George) in 1909.