John William Ellis (original) (raw)

John William Ellis was a New Zealand businessman and mayor of Hamilton from 1917 to 1918. His progressive mother encouraged him to integrate with local Māori from an early age, which later facilitated his trading on the borders of the King Country and go on to gain rights to fell and mill timber. That led to formation of one of the largest timber companies, Ellis & Burnand, with its head office in Hamilton, where he became a councillor, then mayor.