Born: 11 February 1838, Fifefield, Wiltshire, England
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Died: 28 July 1925 (aged 87), Gisborne, NZ
James William Witty, Secretary and Treasurer to the Gisborne Harbour Board, was born in Wiltshire, England, in 1837, and is a son of the Rev. John F. Witty, Vicar of St. Matthew's, Sheffield. He served his articles as a solicitor in London, but owing to failing health, left England for the Colonies, and arrived in Melbourne in 1861. After a sojourn in Australia he came to New Zealand, and landed in Otago, at the time of the Dunstan “rush,” in 1862. He joined a prospecting party which went into the interior of Otago, and was on one occasion snowed in for five days. The party, in fact, suffered great hardships, and Mr. Witty himself had to be taken to the Dunedin Hospital, where he was for twenty-six weeks. He went to Hawke's Bay in 1865, and was enrolled among the military settlers. Mr. Witty acted as private secretary and orderly sergeant to Lieut.-Colonel Fraser, and accompanied him through his East Coast campaign, at Poverty Bay, Wairoa, Petane, and Waikaremoana. After serving under Colonel Whitmore at Taupo, the military settlers were marched to Wairoa, and then disbanded and placed on their land. On the return of Te Kooti from the Chatham Islands, Mr. Witty was placed in charge of the militia in the Wairoa district. He then went with an expedition to Waikaremoana, and met the advance guard of Te Waru, who was attacking Wairoa. The Maoris were repulsed, and the force, hearing that Mohaka was attacked by Te Kooti, formed an expedition for its relief. Mr. Witty was left in charge at Mohaka, and followed Te Kooti to Waikaremoana, where he recovered sixty-six horses, which had been stolen by the rebel. After another visit to Waikaremoana under Colonel Herrick, Mr. Witty had charge of the Transport Corps at Taupo, and had 135 pack horses loaded with stores and ammunition. Then he had command of an expedition which Sir Donald McLean organised from the friendly tribe of the Ngatipawhero Maoris, and was at Waikaremoana for five months engaged in conflict with the Uriwera natives. Ultimately, having “dug out” two canoes, he crossed the lake and attacked the pa from the rear, when the defenders surrendered, and the hostile chiefs were marched to Wairoa to meet Sir Donald McLean. After this Mr. Witty was put on the unattached list, and settled at Napier. He then engaged in sheepfarming in the Wairoa district for four years, and experimented in hop-growing. Mr. Witty then went to Gisborne, where for seven years he held the position of wharfinger, and in 1890 he was appointed secretary and treasurer to the Harbour Board.
