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.

[2] That seems to coincide with a report of a post office, with a courteous postmaster, reopening to serve Aotea.

[3] Much of the trade exchanged goods for pigs, which he shipped to Auckland, at one stage owning a schooner,[4] which was wrecked in 1877.

[5] In 1880 he was described as, "acquiring a reputation for honour and probity, alike from European and Maori, which a prince might envy; and his sleek teams of ten or more bullocks drawing his heavily laded American waggon (an innovation which caused much needless speculation as to its usefulness), as seen winding along the ill-formed roads of the unkempt wilderness".

John burnt most copies of his mother's 1882 feminist novel, believing his father to be an occasional drinker,[10] rather than the drunkard portrayed in the novel.

[9] John's first venture into timber milling seems to have started at Ōrākau, near Kihikihi in 1884,[15] though other sources say it wasn't until 1886.

[19] J T Hetet & Co[20] built the first building in Te Kūiti,[21] then joining with John,[22] also just before the arrival of the railway construction gangs, though still there when a raid at the store resulted in a police invasion in 1890.

[25] Valder sold his interest in the stores in 1900 and returned to England, but was soon to reappear in John's business life.

[14] In 1888,[8][26] or 1889[9] (though his obituary said he was 33)[1] John married his second wife, Manawa Hinewai (her obituary said she was born in Tauranga, daughter of Major F Francis[26]), of Kihikihi (a close relative of Ngāti Maniapoto chief, Rewi)[1] and they had 4 children, Stanley, Percy, Marjorie[9] (Mrs Rickets)[27] and Sidney.

[31] Stanley became an engineer, Percy a farmer at Puketarata, near Ōtorohanga,[32] and Sidney, who was back by 1919,[33] stayed in sawmilling.

[51] Becoming the confidential adviser of King Tāwhiao, helped John acquire timber rights over large areas of bush at Manunui, Ōtorohanga and Mangapehi,[1] which influenced him to focus on the timber trade and sell his Te Kuiti and Ōtorohanga stores about 1897[52] (he was still described as a store owner in 1894).

[49] In 1898, John secured timber rights over 30,163 acres (12,207 ha) at Rangitoto Tuhua, also known as Te Tiroa.

[61] The family moved to Hamilton in 1905,[1] where John and Manawa lived in a large villa, Muriaroha, on the corner of Lake Rd and Tainui St, in Frankton borough.

[4] During the war Mr Ellis gave generously to patriotic movements, including a Returned Soldiers' Club, resulting in his Order of the British Empire award.