Wellington's runaway ex-mayor

Arthur Winton Brown had served two terms as Wellington’s mayor. His second had ended in 1891.
A proud, self made man, he took his reputation seriously
But within weeks of his final act as mayor - laying the foundation stone of one of his pride and joy’s - the Wellington Free Public Library - Brown suddenly vanished from New Zealand, never to set foot here again.
Brown was born in Port Chalmers on December 27, 1856, to carpenter, cabinet maker and shipwright Arthur Brown and his wife Jane and within a few years they had moved to Wellington.
HIs first job was stacking shelves at a grocer’s and he could see how well the business could do.
By the age of 20 he bought his first store in Tory Street, quickly earning success and opening another on Lambton Quay.
But he wanted more than just business success. So he ran for various public offices, first the Mount Cook school committee, then the Wellington City Council, sitting as a councillor from 1881 to 1885.
In 1886 he won the mayoralty and served his first term. He went back to being a councillor for a few years but stood as mayor again in 1891.
His term finished in December that year.
A few weeks later he told friends he was going to Mokau in Taranaki to visit a coal mine he was director of. He never showed up and shortly after his friends, and his wife Mary Eliza Linnell began to worry about him.
In fact, Brown sailed to Auckland and then to Sydney and there he wrote letters to some friends explaining he had left because of debts.
"It may be cowardly, but after having occupied the positions in which I have been placed by the people of Wellington, I have not the moral courage to face the inevitable crash," he wrote.
Initially that made no sense, he was considered well off. But with the collapse of the Mokau Coal Company only a few months after his departure, it became clear. As director he would be liable for the debt.
A warrant was issued for his arrest in New Zealand and he was listed as an absconding debtor in Australia but by then he had already moved on - with people claiming he was in Japan, then London.
Then in 1894 he was in New Orleans, apparently doing well for himself, where he worked as a journalist. He went on to be part owner of a newspaper.
Brown died on July 27, 1916, at his home. He had been sick for some time and suffered a stroke.
Brown is buried at the Masonic Cemetery No 1, New Orleans.​