Peter Wing Ho Chin, CNZM () (born 1941) is a lawyer and was the 56th

Mayor of Dunedin The Mayor of Dunedin is the head of the local government, the city council of Dunedin, New Zealand. The Mayor's role is "to provide leadership to the other elected members of the territorial authority, be a leader in the community and perform c ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. He served two terms as Mayor from 2004 to 2010.

Early life and career

Peter Chin is a descendant of the earliest Chinese immigrants to New Zealand, and his family owned a fish and chips

take-away A take-out or takeout (U.S., Canada, and the Philippines); carry-out or to-go (Scotland and some dialects in the U.S. and Canada); takeaway (England, Wales, Australia, Lebanon, South Africa, Northern Ireland, Ireland, and occasionally in Nort ...

establishment in

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

. In the 1950s Chin was a student at

Otago Boys' High School , motto_translation = "The ‘right’ learning builds a heart of oak" , type = State secondary, day and boarding , established = ; years ago , streetaddress= 2 Arthur Street , region = Dunedin , state = Otago , zipcod ...

and then the

University of Otago , image_name = University of Otago Registry Building2.jpg , image_size = , caption = University clock tower , motto = la, Sapere aude , mottoeng = Dare to be wise , established = 1869; 152 years ago , type = Public research collegiate ...

, graduating with an LLB in 1965. He started working as a lawyer in Dunedin in 1968 and became a founding partner at the Otago law firm Webb Farry. He also took up a position in the Otago District Law Society.

Mayoral career

Chin was first elected in 1995 as a councillor in the

Dunedin City Council The Dunedin City Council ( mi, Kaunihera ā-Rohe o Ōtepoti) is the local government authority for Dunedin in New Zealand. It is a territorial authority elected to represent the people of Dunedin. Since October 2022, the Mayor of Dunedin is Jul ...

, representing the Hills Ward. He served three terms before being elected as

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well ...

during the 2004 Dunedin mayoral election, replacing

Sukhi Turner Dame Sukhinder Kaur Gill Turner (born Sukhinder Kaur Gill, 13 April 1952), commonly known as Sukhi Turner, is an Indian-born-New Zealand politician who served as the Mayor of Dunedin, New Zealand, from 1995 until her retirement from the positio ...

who was retiring as mayor. He was re-elected during the 2007 Dunedin mayoral election with an absolute majority. As Mayor, Chin supported the

Forsyth Barr Stadium The Forsyth Barr Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Dunedin, New Zealand. At various stages of development it was also known as Dunedin Stadium or Awatea Street Stadium, or its non-commercial official name during the 2011 Rugby World Cup an ...

, which drew controversy over its cost and source of funding. This support almost certainly cost him the 2007 mayoral election. In the course of examining funding options he sent a confidential letter to the Government asking for money without full Council approval, and was on a committee of three that later censured Councillor Teresa Stevenson for leaking the letter to the '' Otago Daily Times''.

Post-mayoral career

During the

2010 Dunedin mayoral election The 2010 Dunedin mayoral election occurred on Saturday, 9 October 2010 and was conducted under the Single Transferable Voting system. The candidates for mayor included Peter Chin, the incumbent who contested for a third consecutive term. He fa ...

, Peter Chin was defeated by Greater Dunedin candidate and

councillor

Dave Cull David Charles Cull (1 April 1950 – 27 April 2021) was the mayor of the city of Dunedin in New Zealand. He became the 57th Mayor of Dunedin in October 2010 and was re-elected in both the 2013 mayoralty race and 2016 mayoral election. Before ...

. He was one of the twelve members of the Constitutional Advisory Panel, which sought public input on a written constitution for New Zealand, since 2011.

Community involvement

In addition to his professional and mayoral career, Chin served as the chair of the Otago Community Trust, the Chinese Garden Trust, the Otago District Law Society and head of the

Gambling Commission The Gambling Commission is an executive non-departmental public body of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for regulating gambling and supervising gaming law in Great Britain. Its remit covers arcades, betting, bingo, casinos, ...

, the government-appointed panel that regulates

casino A casino is a facility for certain types of gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos are also known for hosting live entertai ...

s. In the

2003 New Year Honours The 2003 New Year's Honours List is one of the annual New Year Honours, a part of the British monarch's honours system, where 1 January is marked by naming new members of orders of chivalry and recipients of other official honours. A number of ot ...

, he was appointed a

Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit The New Zealand Order of Merit is an order of merit in the New Zealand royal honours system. It was established by royal warrant on 30 May 1996 by Elizabeth II, Queen of New Zealand, "for those persons who in any field of endeavour, have ren ...

, for services to local-body and community affairs. As chair of the Chinese Gardens Trust, Chin presided over the building of the Dunedin Chinese Garden, which receive NZ$3.75 million in public funding and NZ$1 million in ratepayer funding. The Chinese Garden opened in May 2008. The Garden was constructed in an authentic manner, using almost a thousand tonnes of rocks imported from

Lake Tai Taihu (), also known as Lake Tai or Lake Taihu, is a lake in the Yangtze Delta and one of the largest freshwater lakes in China. The lake is in Jiangsu province and a significant part of its southern shore forms its border with Zhejiang. Wi ...

, China. He also served the chair of the national Chinese Poll Tax Heritage Trust, which was set up with government funding in 2004. The trust aims to raise awareness of the early Chinese community in New Zealand and its history, language and culture.

Personal life

Chin has been married to Noleen since 1964 with whom he had 4 children. he lives in Roslyn and is a prominent

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...

tic singer. Chin suffered a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...

on New Year's eve, 2014 whilst on a plane from Dunedin to Wellington to visit his son. He had a

triple bypass Coronary artery bypass surgery, also known as coronary artery bypass graft (CABG, pronounced "cabbage") is a surgical procedure to treat coronary artery disease (CAD), the buildup of plaques in the arteries of the heart. It can relieve chest pai ...

and later recovered.

Filmography

Chin played a minor part in the 1987 film '' Illustrious Energy'', a historic drama based on the experiences of Chinese gold miners in Central Otago.

References

External links

Profile and contact information at the Dunedin City Council

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chin, Peter 1941 births Companions of the New Zealand Order of Merit Living people Mayors of Dunedin Lawyers from Dunedin New Zealand people of Chinese descent University of Otago alumni