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THE DICTIONARY OF AUSTRALASIAN BIOGRAPHY. THE DICTIONARY OF AUSTRALASIAN BIOGRAPHY. COMPRISING NOTICES OF EMINENT COLONISTS FROM THE INAUGURATION OF RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT DOWN TO THE PRESENT TIME. [1855-1892] BY PHILIP MENNELL, F.R.G.S. LONDON: H U T C H I N S ON & CO., 25, PATERNOSTER SQUARE. 1892. Printed by Hazell, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury. P R E F A C E. I T is unnecessary to enter into any lengthened exposition of the objects and utility of a work such as the present, either from an English or an Australasian point of view. The public appetite for such publications is evidenced by the issue of innumerable "Biographical Dictionaries" and the success of such a work as the " National Dictionary of Biography," and there seems no valid reason why what Sir Thomas Mcllwraith calls "the future Australasian empire " should not have the careers of its publicists in various walks of distinction recorded in permanent and concise form. Owing to the increase of federal feeling in the various colonies, the present moment seems an opportune one for the presentation of a wor kwhich " federalises," so to speak, the mass of what previous writers have produced in a similar direction in regard to the separate colonies. I have often had occasion to remark on the limited knowledge which the public men of one colony possess of the public men of another, and in a period which has produced the " Commonwealth of Australasia Bill" I may perhaps be excused for endeavouring to contribute my mite towards the extension of that intercommunity of knowledge which is to a large extent the necessary condition precedent to intercommunity of sympathy and action. Not only has the federal feeling in Australasia witnessed a wonderful growth of recent years, but the interest in and desire for knowledge about the Australasian colonies has been quickened to at least an equal extent at the centre of the empire. It is hoped therefore that the "Dictionary of Australasian Biography" may at the present juncture equally meet the acceptance of large classes both in England and at the Antipodes. It has been one of the most difficult parts of an arduous task to combine that particularity which local biography for local circulation demands with that more comprehensive, if at the same time more condensed, treatment which is likely to suit the taste of readers twelve thousand miles away from the stage on which the actors whose achievements are set forth have played their parts. In the attempt to furnish a book which will be equally satis- factory to English and colonial readers, I cannot hope to have entirely succeeded ; but I have at least kept this object in view, and am sanguine iv PREFACE. enough to believe that I have fulfilled my aim in so far as the contrarieties of the case will permit. As to the scope of the work, it records the careers of the majority of the eminent Australasian colonists who survived to see the inauguration of responsible government in 1855, and who have died in the interval of thirty-seven years which has elapsed since that epoch-making era. It also includes the biographies of living persons, and thus contains the class of information which is to be found in the usual run of biographical dictionaries regarding deceased worthies, in addition to the more recent data respecting living persons which are afforded by such publications as the English " Men of the Time." The extent of the information presented will be best gathered when I state that the "Dictionary" comprises nearly two thousand biographies, including those of the governors of the several colonies, the prelates of the Anglican and Roman Catholic communions, the heads of the principal religious denominations and of the several universities, as well as notices of all politicians, with a few unavoidable exceptions, who have held Ministerial office in the Australian colonies, New Zealand, and Tasmania since the year 1855. The principal members of the Civil Service and the explorers, authors, scientists, musicians, and actors who have won distinction in the colonial arena have been dealt with as adequately as circumstances permitted; and the work also includes lives of a number of the pastoral, mercantile, and industrial pioneers of the various colonies, as well as of those who have distinguished themselves in the domain of sport and athleticism. There are one or two special points to which I should like to draw atten- tion. In the first place, the titles of honour and office given to the several subjects of biography are those which they are entitled to bear in their respective colonies, though, by a strange anomaly in the constitutional formu- laries of a country which will mainly go down to history in connection with the glories of its colonial empire, the most commonly borne title in the last-mentioned portion of her Majesty's dominions—that of "Honourable" —is not conceded recognition outside of the colony in which the public services of which it is the reward have been rendered. If therefore the present work should do anything to " imperialise "—if I may use the word—a title to which there is really no valid democratic objection, and to promote its recognition and that of the good service which it typifies in every part of the empire, I shall take pride in having contributed even in this humble way to the disappearance of the last vestige of that hateful doctrine of colonial inferiority which comes to us from the dark, but unfor- tunately not yet very distant, ages of Colonial Office ineptitude and insular presumption. With regard to the incidence of this title of "Honourable," some confusion may arise in the minds of English, and even Australasian readers. Broadly speaking, the Australasian public man is entitled to bear the title of " Honourable " within his own colony during his actual tenure of office as a member of the Upper House or as a member of the Ministry of the day