Chewton Atchley

“ TENNANT, Sir DAVID (1829–1905) , speaker of the House of Assembly of the Cape of Good Hope, born at Cape Town on 10 Jan. 1829, was the eldest son of Hercules Tennant, sometime civil commissioner and resident magistrate of Uitenhage and author of 'Tennant's Notary's Manual for the Cape of Good Hope,' by his first wife Aletta Jacoba, daughter of Johannes Hendricus Brand, member of the court of justice at the Cape, and sister of Sir Christoffel Brand, first speaker of the Cape House of Assembly. ”

“ On Garran's arrival at Adelaide in Jan, 1851 the controversy repecting state aid to religion was at its height, and of a paper called the 'Austral Examiner,' which was started to oppose the grant of state aid, Garran acted as editor for two years. The discovery of gold in Victoria, however, nearly depopulated Adelaide for the time, and brought the career of the paper to an abrupt conclusion. ”

“ Gregory took an active interest in municipal affairs. He was one of the first members of the Toowong shire council, and when the shire was gazetted a town in 1902 he was chosen first mayor. He was a trustee of the Queensland Museum from 1876 to 1899, and from 1876 to 1883 sat on the commission to inquire into the condition of the aborigines.
He took a keen interest in scientific work of all kinds, and in 1895 was president at Brisbane of the Australian Association for the Advancement of Science, devoting his opening address to a sketch of the geological and geographical history of Australia. ”

“ Dissatisfied with his prospects, he soon went to Sydney and entered the produce trade, and by strenuous application and unremitting toil built up the flourishing concern of John See & Company, of which he was the head. ”

“ His grandfather, Alexander Tennant, who belonged to an Ayrshire family, landed on his way to India at the Cape, where he eventually decided to settle. After being educated at a private school in Cape Town young Tennant was admitted on 12 April 1849 attorney at law of the supreme court, and practised also as a notary public and conveyancer and in the vice-admiralty court of the colony, with much success. For many years he was registrar of the diocese of Cape Town and legal adviser to the bishop ”

“ COLTON, Sir JOHN (1822–1902) , Australian statesman and premier of South Australia, son of William Colton, a Devonshire farmer, afterwards of McLaren Vale, South Australia, and Elizabeth his wife, was born in Devonshire on 23 Sept. 1823, and went to Australia with his father when sixteen years of age. Left early to his own resources, he began business in a humble way in Adelaide, but soon won a leading position in commercial life there. For many years senior partner in the mercantile firm of Colton & Co., he retired in 1883. ”

“ But it is with the introduction of salmon and trout into the rivers of Tasmania and New Zealand that Youl's name is mainly associated. After patient and prolonged experiments and many failures he at length discovered the proper method of packing the ova for transmission on a long sea voyage, by placing them on charcoal and living moss with the roots attached, in perforated wooden boxes under blocks of ice, thus preserving the ova in a state of healthy vitality for more than 100 days. ”

“ He was acting administrator of Lagos from December 1872 to October 1873, when he was appointed governor in chief of the West Africa settlements (Sierra Leone, Gambia, Gold Coast, and Lagos) . The Gold Coast and Lagos were soon erected into a separate colony (24 July 1874) , and Berkeley was recalled, so as to allow of a new governor (of Sierra Leone and Gambia) being appointed at a reduced salary. ”

“ In 1867, when the administration of the Straits Settlements was transferred from the Indian to the colonial department, he returned to Singapore as colonial engineer and controller of convicts and member of the legislative council of the colony (14 Feb.) . He was colonial secretary during 1868, a member of the executive council from 1869, and colonial engineer and surveyor-general from 1873. In Feb. 1881 he was transferred to Penang as acting lieutenant-governor and resident councillor of that province. He retired on a pension on 10 Aug. ”

“ SEE, Sir JOHN (1844–1907) , premier of New South Wales, born at Yelling, Huntingdonshire, on 14 Nov. 1844, was son of Joseph See, formerly of that place. In 1853 he accompanied his parents to New South Wales. The family settled first at Hinton on the Hunter river, where See obtained his education and was employed upon a farm until he was sixteen. Accompanied by a brother, he then settled on the Clarence river and engaged in farming. ”

“ Thomas Playford's first ministry (11 June 1887-27 June 1889) . On the fall of Playford's government he became a prominent member in opposition to the Cockburn ministry. On 16 Jan. 1892 he joined the second Playford administration as chief secretary, and acted as premier during Playford's absence in India from January to May 1892. On 16 June 1893, on the appointment of Playford as agent-general in London, he became premier and attorney-general, and his government remained in power until 1 Dec. ”

“ Kingston had few equals in Australia as a parliamentary draftsman. While a member of the Colton government he drafted the bill for the imposition of land and income taxes. He also prepared and carried the employers' liability bill and a measure to amend the laws of inheritance. Whilst a member of the Playford government he rendered valuable assistance in securing the adoption of a protective tariff and the payment of members. ”

“ SMITH, Sir FRANCIS, afterwards Sir Francis Villeneuve (1819–1909) , chief Justice of Tasmania, born at Lindfield, Sussex, on 13 Feb. 1819, was elder son of Francis Smith, then of that place, and a merchant of London, by his wife Marie Josephine, daughter of Jean Villeneuve. ”

“ Acting with Sir George Turner, he also drafted the federal enabling bill, which was adopted at the conference of Australian premiers at Hobart in 1895, and when the second federal convention assembled at Adelaide in March 1897, Kingston was elected president and presided also over the adjourned meetings at Sydney and Melbourne in 1897-8. He was a member of the premiers' conference at Melbourne in 1899, which finally settled the federal constitution bill which was ultimately approved by the referendum. ”

“ From 5 March to 3 Aug. 1880 he was commissioner of railways in the Service government, and although a strong conservative and free-trader he took office as commissioner of railways and minister of public instruction in the Service-Berry coalition which ruled the colony from 8 March 1883 to 18 Feb. 1886. When Service and Berry retired on the last date, and the ministry was reconstructed, again on a coalition basis, Gillies became premier and treasurer and Deakin chief secretary, each representing his own party in the cabinet and the Assembly. ”

“ Holder was a member of the South Australian School of Mines and Industries, and served in the military forces of his state from 1858 to 1899. He actively helped to found a national library, and he was a prominent office-bearer and preacher in the methodist church. ”

“ He emigrated to Victoria in 1858 and worked as a printer until 1865, when he founded the Victorian Permanent Property Investment and Building Society, of which for seventeen years he acted as secretary. He was also instrumental in starting the Melbourne woollen mills and the Victorian Permanent Fire Insurance Co. Taking advantage of the steady appreciation in land values, Munro founded in 1882 the Federal Banking Company and for three years conducted its operations as managing director. ”

“ After eight years in Van Diemen's Land, he removed to Adelaide in 1849 and started a school at North Adelaide. From Adelaide he joined in the rush to the Victorian goldfields in February 1852, and returning to Melbourne published the 'Life of Gold Digger,' and started in October 1852 the 'Gold Diggers' Magazine,' which proved a failure. ”

“ Tennant was closely identified with the educational life of the colony, and for some years was a member of the council of the university of the Cape and chairman of the South African College Council. He was justice of the peace for Cape Town, Wynberg, and Simon's Town, and served on several government commissions. ”

“ In 1824 he was sent to Grahamstown as a clerk in the mercantile house of Heugh and Fleming; but the life being distasteful to him he went in his twenty-first year on a trading and hunting expedition, which was not financially a success. On his return he married and settled down to farming and cattle dealing. ”

“ After being privately educated in England and in his new home, young Gregory in 1841 obtained employment in the survey department of Western Australia, and in August 1842 he was appointed assistant surveyor, holding the office till November 1854. ”

“ Although opposed to the introduction of responsible government on the ground that the colony did not possess a leisured class from which suitable ministers could be drawn, and that the system would involve constant changes of administration, yet Smith was returned as one of the representatives of Hobart in the first House of Assembly, and accepted the portfolio of attorney-general in the first responsible ministry, which was formed by W. T. Champ on 1 Nov. ”

“ Garran took much interest in the University of Sydney, where in earlier years he attended the law lectures and took the degree of LL.D. in 1870. He was twice president of the Australian Economic Association. He edited in 1886 the 'Picturesque Atlas of Australasia,' the most comprehensive descriptive work on Australia hitherto published.
He died on 6 June 1901 at his residence, Elizabeth Bay, Sydney, and was buried in Rookwood cemetery. He married at Adelaide in 1854 Mary Isham, daughter of John Sabine, formerly of Bury St. ”

“ The Norfolk arrived at Melbourne after a favourable voyage of 84 days. Some 4000 salmon ova were retained there, the remainder being transhipped to the government sloop Victoria and taken to Hobart. They were placed in the breeding ponds in the river Plenty on the ninety-first day after embarkation, and a fair proportion hatched out satisfactorily.
For several years afterwards Youl was engaged with others in sending out successful shipments of ova to Tasmania. He was also responsible for the first shipment of ova to Otago, New Zealand, in Jan. ”

“ Sir George's mother was Elizabeth Pilgrim, daughter of William Murray of Bruce Vale Estate, Barbados. Educated at Trinity College, Dublin, which he entered on 3 July 1837, he graduated B.A. in 1842, and soon returned to the West Indies, where his active life was almost wholly passed. ”

“ He was a keen lover of sport and a prominent cricketer in his younger days. In later life he took a strong interest in racing, and was chairman of the Western Australia Turf Club. Leake married in 1881 Louisa, eldest daughter of Sir Archibald Paull Burt, sometime chief justice of Western Australia, and had issue. ”

“ In May 1901 Holder was returned as one of the representatives of South Australia to the federal parliament of the Commonwealth, and was unanimously elected speaker of the lower house. He was re-elected in 1904 and 1907. He died in office in tragic circumstances. ”

“ He acted as agent-general for the colony in London from 25 March 1899 to 13 May 1900, and on his return to Australia he retired from public and professional life, but was appointed in 1903 standing counsel to the commonwealth government in New South Wales. ”

“ Bonwick was a voluminous writer on many subjects, but his contributions to early Australian history are alone of permanent value. The most noteworthy of these are 'The Last of the Tasmanians' (1870) ; 'Daily Life of the Tasmanians' (1870) ”

“ There he chiefly resided in the country near London, actively occupied as a magistrate, as chairman of the Liverpool and London and Globe Insurance Co., and as director of other undertakings, at the same time interesting himself in Egyptian and classical and Hebrew scholarship. ”

“ He led the opposition to the Gillies-Deakin government, and in 1890, on his return from a visit to England, he attacked the financial policy of that cabinet and carried a vote of want of confidence. As a result he took office as treasurer and premier on 5 Nov. 1890. ”

“ Francis accompanied his brother Augustus in his first exploring expedition in 1846, and led two expeditions himself in 1858 and 1861, being awarded the gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society in 1863 ”

“ Holder married on 29 March 1877 Julia Maria, daughter of John Ricardo Stephens, M.D., and left issue. Lady Holder has been president of the Women's Christian Temperance Union in South Australia, and is a vice-president of the National Council of Women. ”

“ He proved himself a powerful leader of the house, and in that capacity displayed tact and resource.
A portrait of Gillies in oils, three-quarter length, by Tennyson Cole, is in the National Gallery of Victoria at Melbourne.
[The Times, 14 Sept. 1903; Melbourne Age, 14, 15, 16 Sept. 1903; Melbourne Argus, 14 Sept. 1903; Australasian, 19 Sept. 1903; Johns's Notable Australians, 1908; Turner's History of the Colony of Victoria, vol. ii. 1904; Australian Year Book, 1904; Mennell's Dict. of Australas. Biog. 1902; Colonial Office Records.] ”

“ Promptly rejected on seeking re-election, he sought a constituency where his growing antipathy to democracy might find favour. At the next general election, in March 1870, he was returned unopposed for Maryborough. ”