Sir James Belich was the Mayor of Wellington

Mayor of Wellington

The Mayor of Wellington is the head of the municipal government of Wellington, New Zealand, and presides over the Wellington City Council. The Mayor of Wellington administers only Wellington City itself — other municipalities in adjacent areas of the Wellington Region such as Lower Hutt, Upper...

 from 1986 to 1992. He was born in Awanui

Awanui

Awanui is a river port located 7 km north of Kaitaia, New Zealand. It lies at the south of the Aupouri Peninsula of the Northland Region. The Awanui River flows north to Rangaunu Bay. In the 1920s, kauri timber and gum from Kaitaia moved to the coast through Awanui.State Highway 1 and 10...

, Northland to parents of Croatian descent, and educated at Auckland University and Victoria University of Wellington

Victoria University of Wellington

Victoria University of Wellington was established in 1897 by Act of Parliament, and was a former constituent college of the University of New Zealand. It is particularly well known for its programmes in law, the humanities, and some scientific disciplines, but offers a broad range of other courses...

.

He had been on the Wellington Regional Council and Wellington Harbour Board from 1986 to 1989. He was with J. Inglis Wright Advertising from 1956 to 1986.

He is the father of historian Professor James Belich

James Belich (historian)

James Christopher Belich, ONZM is a New Zealand revisionist historian, known for his work on the New Zealand Wars.Of Croatian descent, he was born in Wellington in 1956, the son of Sir James Belich, who later became Mayor of Wellington. He attended Onslow College.He gained an M.A...

. He was knighted in 1990. He has been made an honorary citizen of the town Korčula

Korcula (town)

Korčula is a historic fortified town on the protected east coast of the island of Korčula in the Adriatic. It is geographically located at 42°57′N, 17°07′E.-Population:...

 in Dalmatia

Dalmatia

Dalmatia is a historical region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. It stretches from the island of Rab in the northwest to the Bay of Kotor in the southeast. The hinterland, the Dalmatian Zagora, ranges from fifty kilometers in width in the north to just a few kilometers in the south....

, Croatia

Croatia

Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...

that his family came from