James Pye (1801 – 30 December 1884) was an Australian

orchardist An orchard is an intentional plantation of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit- or nut-producing trees which are generally grown for commercial production. Orchards are also sometimes a feature of larg ...

and politician. He was a member of the

New South Wales Legislative Assembly The New South Wales Legislative Assembly is the lower of the two houses of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The upper house is the New South Wales Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament Ho ...

for one term between 1856 and 1858.

Early life

Pye was the son of a pioneer Australian orchardist. After an elementary education he joined his father's business and eventually had large orchards in the Field of Mars and Seven Hills district. He founded the Cumberland Agricultural Society in 1857 and was active in the

Royal Agricultural Society of New South Wales The Royal Agricultural Society of New South Wales was founded on 5 July 1822, when a group of Sydney's leading citizens formed the Agricultural Society of NSW, and is "a not-for-profit organisation committed to supporting agricultural developmen ...

. Pye was the patron of numerous organisations in the

Parramatta Parramatta () is a suburb and major Central business district, commercial centre in Greater Western Sydney, located in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located approximately west of the Sydney central business district on the ban ...

region including the National School Board. He was an alderman on Parramatta Municipality between 1861 and 1884 and Mayor in 1866–7. In the 1850s, Pye offered the land surrounding Hunts Creek at nominal cost to the Government to enable the construction of dam and reservoir, known as

Lake Parramatta Lake Parramatta is a heritage-listed man-made reservoir and a recreational area located in North Parramatta, City of Parramatta, in the Western Sydney region of New South Wales, Australia. The masonry arch-walled dam across Hunts Creek was ...

, that operated as a permanent water supply to the City of Parramatta between 1856 and 1909.

Colonial Parliament

1856 Events January–March * January 8 – Borax deposits are discovered in large quantities by John Veatch in California. * January 23 – American paddle steamer SS ''Pacific'' leaves Liverpool (England) for a transatlantic voyag ...

, Pye was elected as one of the two members for Cumberland (North Riding) in the first New South Wales Legislative Assembly under responsible government. In parliament he was noted for his attacks on the luxurious living of the working class, noting that "not one in twenty was worth employing and the native born were particularly idle". At the 1858 election, he was a candidate for

where he was comprehensively beaten.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pye, James 1801 births 1884 deaths Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Australian orchardists 19th-century Australian politicians Mayors and Lord Mayors of Parramatta 19th-century Australian businesspeople