William Henry Cutten (10 April 1822 – 30 June 1883) was a New Zealand politician from the Otago region.
Biography
Cutten was born in London in 1822. He received a good education and then studied law, which earned him a job at the department of the commissioner
of bankruptcy.[1] At age 26, Cutten emigrated to New Zealand in 1848, arriving in Dunedin with the first settlers, including William Cargill on the John Wickliffe. Two years later, in 1850, he married Cargill's eldest daughter, Christina Dorothea Cargill, and the couple had 11 children.[2]
Initially in the new settlement he was an auctioneer and storekeeper, but then became an immigration agent before being appointed a lands claim commissioner and, later, chief commissioner of Crown lands.[2]
Cutten served in the 1st New Zealand Parliament as representative for the Dunedin Country electorate 1853–1855, but resigned before the end of his term, as he found it unsustainable to spend that much time at parliament in Auckland away from his business.[1]
He served on the Otago Provincial Council representing the Town of Dunedin electorate. He was a member of the first, second, third and sixth council, from 1853 to 1863, and from 1871 to 1873.[7] He was on the Council's Executive for four periods between 1854 and 1872.[8]
Greif, Stuart W.; Knight, Hardwicke, eds. (1979). Cutten, Letters revealing the life and times of William Henry Cutten, the forgotten pioneer. Dunedin: Greif.