[Supplement Speaker of the Legislative Council of New Zealand, was nominated to the Upper House in July 1865, and was a member without portfolio of the third Fox Ministry from July to Sept. 1872. In July 1892 he was elected Speaker of the Legislative Council, in succession to the late Sir Harry Albert Atkinson. O’Connor, Right Rev. Michael, D.D., first Roman Catholic Bishop of Ballarat, Vict., was born in Dublin in 1827 and educated at Maynooth and Dunboyne Colleges, where he won numerous honours. Taking holy orders, he was appointed parish priest of Rathfarnham, Dublin. In 1875 he was appointed first Roman Catholic Bishop of Ballarat in Victoria, being installed in the cathedral of that city by Archbishop Goold on Nov. 20th of that year. The Bishop died on Feb. 14th, 1883. Paton, Rev. John Gibson, D.D., the well-known missionary, was the son of James Paton, a stocking manufacturer at Kirk-mahoe, Dumfries, Scotland, and Janet Jardine (Rogerson) his wife. He was bora at Braehead, Kirkmahoe, on May 24th, 1824, and as a boy worked at his father’s trade and as a field labourer. Subsequently he obtained an appointment in connection with the West Campbell Street Reformed Presbyterian Congrega-tion in Glasgow as district visitor and tract distributer at £25 per annum, with the right of receiving a year’s training at the Free Church Normal Seminary. At the latter he studied so hard that his health broke down, and he had to return home. Later on he entered as a student at Glasgow College, but had to leave after one session through lack of funds, and was then for some time a school-teacher at Maryhill. For ten years he worked in connection with the Glasgow City Mission, studying meantime at the university of Glasgow and the Reformed Presbyterian Divinity Hall and attend-ing medical classes at the Andersonian College. In Dec. 1857 Mr. Paton was licensed as a preacher with the view of taking up missionary work in the New Hebrides, and in March 1858 was or-dained a minister in Dr. Symington’s church, Glasgow. On April 16th of the same year Mr. Paton sailed from Greenock for Melbourne in the Clutha, and pro-ceeded thence in an American ship, land-ing at Aneityum, New Hebrides, on August 30th. In Nov. Mr. Paton settled on the island of Tanna, one of the group, and in the following March his wife, Mary Anne, daughter of Peter Robert Robson died. He struggled on under great difficulties until Jan. 1862, when, owing to the mur-derous attitude of the hostile natives, he had to abandon the mission, quit Tanna, and return to Aneityum, without any of his possessions save the clothes on his back and a single Bible. Mr. Paton now proceeded to Australia to raise funds for the purchase of a mission ship, and was so successful that he obtained enough to build the Dayspring and also to justify a journey to Scotland to bring out more missionaries. Leaving Australia in May 1863, he reached London in August, and proceeded to Scotland, where success again crowned his efforts. In 1864 he was married in Edinburgh to Miss Mar-garet Whitecross. The same year Mr. Paton returned to Australia, landing in Sydney in Jan. 1865. In the following year the General Assembly of the Presby-terian Church of Victoria accepted his transference from the Church of Scotland and adopted him as the first missionary from the Presbyterian Churches of Aus-tralia to the New Hebrides. Mr. Paton now (Nov. 1866) took up his location on the island of Aniwa, not far distant from Tanna, and here for many years conducted a most successful mission. In 1884 he was commissioned to proceed to the United Kingdom to raise further funds for the New Hebrides mission with special reference to the purchase of a second mission ship, and was again suc-cessful. Mr. Paton returned to Australia at the end of 1885. This account of his career would be incomplete without some reference to his action in regard to the Polynesian labour traffic, which he has always strenuously opposed. In 1892, when Sir Samuel Griffith proposed to renew the importation of Kanakas into Queensland, he led the opposition to the project, and though unsuccessful in pre-venting its adoption, probably his action had much to do in procuring the adoption of stringent regulations to prevent abuses. In 1890 his autobiography, edited by his brother, was published in two parts by Messrs. Hodder & Stoughton. Pillinger, Hon. Alfred Thomas, M.H.A. (p. 373). In August 1892 Mr. Pillinger 537
[Supplement resigned with his colleagues in the Fysh Ministry. Richmond, Hon. James Crowe, M.L.C. (p. 389). On July 7th, 1892, Mr. Richmond resigned his seat in the Legislative Council of New Zealand. Robertson, William, B.A., was the second son of the late William Robert-son, who went to Victoria from Tasmania in 1812, and purchased the Colac estate from the late Captain Foster Fyans. Mr. Robertson, sen., was for many years engaged in pastoral pursuits at Camp-belltown, between Hobart and Laun-ceston, and he afterwards entered into business as a merchant in Hobart, where his son William was born in the year 1839. The latter received his education at the High School in Hobart and at Wadham College, Oxford, where he gradu-ated B.A. in 1861. He was called to the Bar at the Middle Temple in Jan. 1863. While at Oxford he rowed in the Oxford and Cambridge annual boat race on the Thames in 1861, and was one of the winning crew, being the first of several young Australians who have taken part in the great inter-university race. The oar used on that occasion, converted into a trophy of the victory and appropriately mounted and inscribed, was always in after-life one of Mr. Robertson’s proud-est possessions. In 1863 he returned to Victoria, where he was admitted to the Bar in the following year. For several years Mr. Robertson practised as a barrister in Melbourne, but he never exerted himself to any great extent in that direction. At the General Election of 1871 he became a candidate for the electorate of Polwarth and South Gren-ville, and was returned by a large majority, but when the Parliament expired in 1872 he did not offer himself for re-election. He, however, again stood in 1881, and sat till 1886. In Jan. 1874 occurred the death of Mr. William Robert-son, sen., and the Colac estate was by his will divided among his four surviving sons. John, the eldest, received that portion of the estate since known as Cororoke; George Pringle had Coragulac; James took Glen Alvie; while to William fell Kerangemorrah, better known as The Hill, a stretch of very rich agricultural and grazing land about four miles from Colac. John Robertson died within two or three years of his father, and the death of James occurred in July 1890, and the estate of each was sold. Mr. G. P. Robertson is therefore now the only surviving son of the old Colac pioneer, and for many years his Coragulac estate has been leased to others. Mr. William Robertson also disposed of a large portion of his estate, but retained the ownership of a magnificent stretch of land sur-rounding The Hill. In 1886 the resigna-tion of the late Mr. C. J. Jenner caused a vacancy in the representation of the South-western Province in the Legis-lative Council, and Mr. Robertson was returned without opposition. In 1888 he obtained leave of absence for the pur-pose of making another trip to the old country, and upon his term of office ex-piring in the same year he retired finally from Parliamentary work. For some years after the death of Mr. William Robertson, sen., the combined property was worked by the brothers in partner-ship, and the firm of Robertson Brothers became famous throughout Australia for the great annual sales of shorthorn cattle which were initiated. The herd had been commenced by Mr. Robertson, sen., at least a quarter of a century before, and he spared neither time nor money to procure some of the best strains of blood then extant. The stock had been kept perfectly pure, and in 1875 the brothers began a series of annual drafts from their herd, which were submitted at auction year by year and realised almost fabulous prices. On each occasion stock-breeders flocked to Colac from all the Australian colonies, New Zealand, and Tasmania. At one sale the prices paid aggregated upwards of £30,000, and at another the total receipts were £25,800. On one occasion the firm purchased from the estate of the late Mr. Richard Morton thirty-seven prime shorthorns, known pre-viously as the Mount Derrimut herd, for £27,000, the sum of £2,500 being paid for one of the bulls: Oxford Cherry Duke. The last sale of the regular series took place in 1884, and in 1885 the famous ’F.F." herd was dispersed, owing to the dissolution of the partnership which had till then subsisted between Messrs. Robertson Brothers and the executors of the late Mr. John Robertson, the surviving brothers having decided to confine their 538
[Supplement attention almost exclusively to sheep-breeding. Mr. William Robertson in 1862 married Martha Mary, second daughter of the late Mr. J. R. Murphy, of Melbourne. Mr. Robertson’s eldest son, William St. Leger, was educated at Oxford, and during his stay there had the same pleasant experience as his father of being one of the winning crew in the annual boat race against Cambridge. He afterwards settled at Broome, W.A., as resident partner with the Messrs. Streeter, of London, in the pearl fishing industry and in squatting pursuits in the Kimberley district. Mr. Robertson died at Colac on June 24th, 1892. Romilly, Hugh Hastings, C.M.G., was the third son of the late Colonel Frederick Romilly, by his marriage with Elizabeth Amelia Jane, daughter of the second Earl of Minto. He was born in 1856, and was private secretary to Sir Arthur Gordon when Governor of Fiji in 1879, and when Governor of New Zealand in 1880-1. In the latter year he was appointed Deputy Commissioner of the Western Pacific, and visited and lived in all the principal groups of islands. He was in charge of New Guinea after its annexation until Sir Peter Scratchley’s arrival, and after his death in 1885 and 1886. In the latter year Mr. Romilly was assistant commissioner in charge of New Guinea exhibits at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition at South Kensington. For his services in this capacity he was created C.M.G., and in 1888 he was appointed deputy Commis-sioner of the Western Pacific and consul for the New Hebrides and Solomon Is-lands. He quitted the colonial service in 1890, and returned to England. In 1891 he accompanied Lord Randolph Churchill in his visit to Mashonaland. Mr. Romilly died in London in July 1892. He was the author of “ A True Story of the Western Pacific in 1879-80” (London, 1882), “The Western Pacific and New Guinea” (London, Murray, 1886), and “ From My Verandah in New Guinea” (London, Nutt, 1889). Ryan, Charles Snodgrass, M.B., C.M., was born on Sept. 20th, 1853, in Mel-bourne, Vict., and educated at the Church of England Grammar School, and subse-quently at the Melbourne University, as a student of medicine ; afterwards he proceeded to Edinburgh, where he gradu-ated in medicine and surgery, and took the degrees of M.B. and C.M. He then travelled on the Continent and studied medicine in France, Austria, and Italy. In Sept. 1876 he entered the Turkish service, and was forthwith sent to Nisch, where he was placed in charge of a large hospital during the Servian war. He was afterwards sent to the Orchanie Balkans in charge of 3000 Turkish soldiers, and from there was ordered to march to Widdin, although still suffering from a severe attack of dysentery. He reached that place in ten days, having nearly died from exhaustion on the road. Whilst in Widdin he was present during nine bombardments. From Widdin he proceeded with Osman Pacha to Plevna, which he gained after marching for three successive days and nights, and was present at the first battle of that memorable conflict, being the only doctor on the field. He was in the Turkish ranks at the great action of July 31st. On Sept. 8th his horse was shot under him, and his attendant killed by his side, whilst riding into one of the Turkish redoubts, which was about to be attacked by Skobeleff. At the battle of Gravitza he entered one of the redoubts captured by the Turks from the Russians, and on the Turks, in their turn, being expelled from this redoubt, Dr. Ryan was the last to leave it, which he did leading his horse, on which he had placed two Turkish soldiers whose legs were broken. In this plight he returned to Plevna, a distance of six miles, for the first two miles of which he was exposed to a very heavy fire. He next accom-panied the expedition to Loftcha. On Oct. 18th he left Plevna for Constanti-nople, and was sent to Erzeroum as head of an ambulance. Here he re-mained four months in charge of a hospital. During this period the city was besieged by the Russians for six weeks, and for four weeks Dr. Ryan was suffering from a severe attack of typhus, which disease carried off twenty-two out of thirty-six surgeons in Erzeroum, more than sixteen thousand Turkish soldiers dying from it and from dysentery. For his services during the war he received the order of the Medjidie of the fourth class, the order of the Osmanieh of the third class, and the war medal. Dr. Ryan married on July 5th, 1883, Alice Elfrida, daughter of the Hon. Theophilus 539
[Supplement J. Sumner, M.L.C., of Stony Park, Bruns-wick, Vict. Scott, Rear - Admiral Lord Charles Thomas Douglas Montagu, C.B., late admiral commanding on the Australian station, is the fourth son of the fifth Duke of Buccleuch, K.G., by his marriage with the youngest daughter of the second Marquis of Bath. He was born on Oct. 20th, 1839 ; and, having entered the royal navy, commanded H.M.S. Bacchante from 1879 to 1882, Princes Albert Victor and George of Wales being entrusted to his care during their voyage round the world and visit to Australia. On Feb. 23rd, 1883, he married Ada Mary, second daughter of Charles Ryan, of Derriweit Heights, Upper Macedon, Vict., and Marian his wife, daughter of John Cotton. From 1886 to 1888 Lord Charles Scott was naval aide-de-camp to the Queen, and in the latter year was appointed admiral commanding on the Australian station, a post which he held till the autumn of 1892. Sherbrooke, Viscount. The career of this nobleman will be found in the body of the work under “ Lowe, Right Hon. Robert” (p. 280). Stock, Hon. William Frederick, M.P. (p. 439). Mr. Stock is a native of Clifton, England, where he was born in 1847. He has been thrice Mayor of Glenelg, and was President of the Railway Employés’ Association until he took office. Thakombau, the first and last King of Fiji, was originally only chief of Mbau, in that island. He was born about 1817. In 1832 his father, Tanoa, was driven from his chieftainship of Mbau, and most of his family murdered. Thakombau was thought harmless on account of his youth, and was allowed to live, but plotted revenge in secret. When his time came he acted with great vigour, restoring his father after about five years’ exile and punishing the enemies of his family with horrible barbarities. Up to this time he was known as Thikinoru, the “ Centipede,” but he was thenceforth known as Tha-kombau (“ Evil to Mbau ”). His father died in 1852, and in July of the following year Thakombau was formally installed Vunivalu, or War King, of Mbau. He was now involved in internal and external troubles of a most trying character, on one occasion being only saved by the intervention of the King of the Friendly Islands and on another having to hand over 200,000 acres of land to the Poly-nesian Company, to enable him to pay a fine of £9000 levied on him by the Government of the United States as compensation for losses incurred by American citizens. Cannibalism was rife in Fiji till 1854, but at length on April 30th of that year the Wesleyan missionaries induced Thakombau to em-brace Christianity and to proclaim the abolition of cannibalism. What his former ferocity had been may be gathered from the fact that, after defeating his father’s enemies, he had one of the prisoners brought before him, ordered his tongue to be cut out, and ate it before the victim’s face, ''cracking jokes the while,“ as Mr. Julian Thomas records in his ” Cannibals and Convicts." In 1857 Thakombau abandoned polygamy and was married according to the Wesleyan formula, he and his wife being publicly baptised on Jan. 11th, 1858, under the names of Ebenezer and Lydia. In 1859 Thakombau, as the most powerful chief of Fiji, offered the sovereignty of the islands to Great Britain. The offer was declined by the Duke of Newcastle in 1862. About that time the demand for cotton, owing to the American civil war, led to an influx of Europeans into Fiji for the purpose of cotton cultivation. In June 1871 certain Englishmen set up a Fijian Government, with Thakombau as king. A constitution was agreed upon, and a Parliament elected. The Parlia-ment and the Government before long drifted into mutual hostility, and the Ministry latterly governed without the aid of the Parliament. The question of annexing Fiji had in the meantime been agitated both in Australia and England on many grounds, and in August 1873 the Earl of Kimberley commissioned Commodore Goodenough, commanding the squadron on the station, and Mr. E. L. Layard, her Majesty’s consul in Fiji, to investigate and report on the matter. These commissioners on March 21st, 1874, reported an offer of the cession of the sovereignty of the islands from the chiefs, with the assent of the Europeans, but on certain terms which 540
[Supplement were not acceptable, and Sir Hercules Robinson, the Governor of New South Wales, was despatched to Fiji in Sept. 1874 to negotiate. This mission was completely successful, and the sovereignty of the islands was ceded to her Majesty by Thakombau, Maafu, and the other principal chiefs, in a deed of cession dated Oct. 10th, 1874. A charter was shortly afterwards issued by her Majesty erecting the islands into a separate colony and providing for their govern-ment. Thakombau, who had been gua-ranteed a pension in return for trans-ferring the sovereignty, visited Sydney, N.S.W., at the end of 1874, accompanied by his two sons. When the old chief returned to his native land he was ill with the measles. The disease spread rapidly, and during the six months it ravaged the islands 40,000 Fijians died of it. The natives, as Mr. Thomas narrates, naturally regarded this fearful visitation as an indication that the gods were displeased at the surrender of their country to foreigners. Thakombau died on Feb. 1st, 1883. Thomas, Robert (p. 464). In regard to the Register newspaper, the policy of the paper did not please the Govern-ment, whose representative about 1840 deprived Mr. Robert Thomas and his partner of the position and emoluments of Government printers. This deposi-tion was strongly protested against by the sufferers, and Mr. Thomas visited England to take his grievance to Down-ing Street. He failed, however, to obtain redress, and his firm sank under an accumulation of embarrassments. Ulti-mately, however, the family connection with the Register was renewed under brighter auspices, and still continues. Whitehead, Charles, was born in London in 1804. His first volume, “ The Solitary,” a poem in three parts, was published in 1831 by Effingham Wilson, then Tenny-son’s publisher. This was followed by a work of a totally different kind, whose title, “ Lives and Exploits of English Highwaymen, Pirates, and Robbers,” suffi-ciently indicates its scope and character. Mr. Whitehead next published a romance called “Jack Ketch.” More notable in the history of literature than any of his own achievements, however, was his recom-mendation of Dickens to Chapman & Hall, who wanted a ready writer of comic “ copy ” for the artist Seymour’s sketches. The commission was indeed offered to Whitehead, who passed it on to his friend Boz; hence the existence of “ Pickwick.” In 1836 Whitehead produced a play entitled The Cavalier at the Hay-market Theatre, which had some measure of success. His best work, “ Richard Savage: a Romance,” appeared in Bentley’s Miscellany (1841-2), and was most favourably received by the critics. In 1843 he published “ The Earl of Essex,” a historical romance, and in 1847 “ Smiles and Tears; or, The Romance of Life,” a novel in three volumes, In 1857 he and his wife emigrated to Victoria, and in 1862 he died in great penury in the Melbourne hospital. Al-though a casual worker on the local press, Mr. Whitehead no good work in the colony; and his literary career may be said to have ended some years before he left England. Mr. Whitehead was an intimate friend of Charles Dickens, Douglas Jerrold, and other leading writers of the time. His Life has been written by Mr. Mackenzie Bell, who, how-ever, does not record the fact that he was the uncle of the well-known English actress Mrs. Bernard Beere, who has recently been on a professional tour, and has been most warmly welcomed in the city where her father’s brother died so miserably. Williams, Sir Edward Eyre (p. 509). This distinguished jurist was the son of Burton Williams, a planter in Trinidad, West Indies, by his marriage with the daughter of Major Hartley. He married Jessie, daughter of Rev. Charles Gibbon, of Loumay, Mintlaw, Aberdeenshire, by his marriage with Miss Duff, a cousin of the Earl of Fife’s. Williams, His Honour Hartley (p. 509). Judge Williams married first, in Dec. 1870, Edith Ellen, daughter of Com-missary-General Horne; and secondly, in Jan. 1887, Jessie Bruce, eldest daughter of the late Thomas Acland Lawford, of Kinellan, Wimbledon Common, Surrey. Williams, His Honour Joshua Strange, M.A., LL.M., judge of the Supreme Court of New Zealand, is the eldest son of the late Joshua Williams, Q.C., author of treatises on the law relating to real 541
[Supplement and personal property and other works, by his marriage with Lucy, daughter of William Strange, of Upton. He was born in 1837, and was educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. (Chancellor’s Medallist for legal studies, first class law tripos, third class mathematical tripos) in 1859. M.A. in 1862, and LL.M. in 1870. Mr. Justice Williams entered at Lincoln’s Inn in Jan. 1857, and was called to the English Bar in Nov. 1859. He arrived in New Zealand in 1861, and in the following year went into partnership with Mr. T. S. Duncan, then provincial solicitor, an office which he himself sub-sequently held for several years. In Jan. 1871 he gave up practice, and was land registrar of the Canterbury district till 1872 and Registrar-General of Land for the whole of New Zealand from the latter year till 1875, in which year he was appointed Puisne Judge for Otago— a position he still holds. Judge Williams was never a member of the General Assembly; but he sat in the Provincial Council of Canterbury for the Heathcote district in 1862 and 1863 and from 1866 to 1875, when he was raised to the Bench. He married first, in 1864, Catherine Helen, daughter of the late Thomas Sanctuary, of Horsham, Sussex; and secondly, in 1877, Amelia Durant, daughter of John Wesley Jago, of Dunedin, N.Z. 542 Printed by Hazell, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury.
