BOPDHB History Whakatāne Hospital History Book | Page 34

Alexander Peebles,
Chairman, 1911-1934

Alexander Peebles. Photo: Bay of Plenty
District Health Board Archive

Alex Peebles put his name forward for election to the Bay of Plenty Hospital & Charitable Aid Board
to represent Ōpōuriao in 1911 and was duly elected. On 13 December 191144 he became Chairman
of that Board and, in 1918, when two separate Boards were formed, he was elected Foundation
Chairman of the Bay of Plenty Hospital Board, a position he held until his death in 193445. At the
time of his death the minutes of the Board to which he had devoted 23 years of his life recorded the
following tribute:
The Chairman moved that a letter of condolence and appreciation be forwarded to the widow
and family of the late Mr Peebles and that an expression of appreciation of his long and faithful
service to the Board be recorded in the minutes. This motion was seconded by Mr Burt and after
all members had spoken in support, was carried by the members standing in silence.
Alex Peebles and his brother Jack arrived from Scotland with their parents in 1861 on board the John
Bunyan. He was born in Kingsbarns in Fyfe in 1856 and the family initially settled in Hawke’s Bay.
At nine years of age he became a mail runner and later a farmer at Waipawa. The lure of gold in the
Thames area led Alex and Jack to move to Te Aroha where they founded a timber carting business
in the Kauri forests. When gold was discovered at Mercury Bay the brothers moved to Kuaotunu
where Alex went prospecting and Jack established a boarding house for the miners. They both had
a very successful few years and at the same time taught themselves a few new skills, Jack doing a
little dentistry and Alex coping with minor surgery and broken limbs. It was here that he gained
valuable experience on the Coromandel Hospital & Charitable Aid Board and this led to him putting
his name forward for election initially to the Bay of Plenty Hospital & Charitable Aid Board to represent
Ōpōuriao, and later to the Bay of Plenty Hospital Board.

Bay of Plenty Hospital and Charitable Aid Board Minutes, Volume 1 [03.12.1902 – 21.06.1917],
13 December 1911, (Auckland, Archives New Zealand, Reference ADHL A1669 22975 7)
45
Alison B. Heath, The Opouriao-Taneatua Settlement of 1896, (Whakatāne, Whakatāne & District
Historical Society, 1989), pg 41, pg 101, pg 111, pg 121, pp 231-232.
44

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