James Mills (ship owner)

Sir James Mills KCMG (30 July 1847 – 23 January 1936) was a New Zealand businessman and politician.

He floated the Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand in 1875 with backing from Scottish shipbuilder Peter Denny in return for orders for his Dumbarton shipyard.

It was the biggest shipping line in the southern hemisphere and New Zealand's largest private-sector employer.

[2] Later, he represented the Port Chalmers electorate in Parliament from a by-election in 1887 to 1893, when he retired.

[5] It was said in a tribute to Mills that these distinctions made him the first native-born, non-indigenous New Zealander to be so honoured.