Page:The Dictionary of Australasian Biography.djvu/110

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
Cla]
DICTIONARY OF AUSTRALASIAN BIOGRAPHY.
[Cla

1892. Sir Andrew, who was made C.B. in 1869, K.C.M.G. in 1873, C.I.E. in 1878, and G.C.M.G. in 1885, may be regarded as the founder of municipal institutions in Victoria, the official bill which he brought in for their establishment in 1855 having laid the foundation of the system, which has since been so widely and successfully extended. Through his exertions the public reserves and the National Museum were established on a permanent basis, and the first Melbourne Industrial Exhibition was initiated by him. Sir Andrew Clarke, who became captain in 1854, major and lieut.-colonel in 1867, colonel in 1872, major-general in 1884, and who was placed on the retired list with the honorary rank of lieut.-general in 1886, was employed in various important official positions after leaving Victoria, from which colony he draws a pension of £800 per annum, under the 50th clause of the Imperial Act establishing the constitution of the colony. He was Commanding Royal Engineer of the Eastern and Midlands districts till 1863, when he went to inspect the establishments on the west coast of Africa, and was engaged in operations against the Ashantees when they invaded the Gold Coast Colony. Sir Andrew was Director of Works of the Navy from 1864 to 1873, and in this capacity designed and executed the great extension of National dockyards. From 1873 to 1875 he was Governor of the Straits Settlements, and initiated and conducted the operations which stamped out piracy and established the permanent authority of the Crown. In 1875 Sir Andrew was employed on a special mission to Siam, and from that year till 1880, was director of Indian Public Works, and a member of the Council of the Viceroy. From 1881 to 1882 he was Commandant of the School of Military Engineering at Chatham, and from the latter year until 1886 Inspector General of Fortifications. Sir Andrew, who was a member of the Royal Commission for the Colonial and Indian Exhibition, and a member of the Commissions in London for the Melbourne Exhibitions of 1880 and 1888, unsuccessfully contested Chatham against Sir John Gorst, in 1886, as a Gladstonian Liberal. As acting Agent-General and otherwise he has warmly vindicated the right of Australia to dominate the Western Pacific, and to prevent the intrusion of France and Germany. He married, in 1867, Mary Margaret Ellen, eldest daughter of Charles W. Mackillop, formerly of the Indian Civil Service.

Clarke, Hon. Fielding, LL.B., fourth son of the late Henry Booth Clarke, of London, was educated at London University, where he graduated LL.B. in 1877. He entered at the Middle Temple in Nov. 1872, was called to the bar in May 1876, and went the North-eastern Circuit. Mr. Clarke was Attorney-General of Fiji from 1881 to 1882; Acting Chief Justice and Chief Judicial Commissioner for the Western Pacific, from 1882 to 1883, and from 1884 to 1885, when he was permanently confirmed in the office. Mr. Clarke was appointed to his present position as Chief Justice, at Hong Kong, in 1892.

Clarke, Rev. George, son of George Clarke, of Wyndham, Norfolk, England, and Martha his wife (née Blomfield), was born at Parramatta, N.S.W., in the year 1823. His father was one of the first missionaries sent out to New Zealand by the Church Missionary Society; and in 1824 the family proceeded to the Bay of Islands and took up their residence at Waimate, the principal missionary station. At an early age Mr. Clarke was sent to Tasmania for his education, which he received at the school of Mr. R. W. Giblin at New Town, near Hobart. In 1838 he returned to New Zealand. His proficiency as a Maori scholar, his intimate knowledge of Maori customs, and his great influence with the natives procured him an appointment as one of the protectors of the aborigines. He was one of the witnesses to the celebrated Treaty of Waitangi, whereby the Maori chiefs ceded the North Island of New Zealand to the Queen. He was prominent in native matters during the administrations of Governors Hobson, Fitzroy, and Grey. He accompanied the surveying party of the New Zealand Company to the South Island, and he drew up the document whereby the Otago block, on which the city of Dunedin now stands, was conveyed to the Company by the Maori chiefs. On the outbreak of the Honi Heki war in 1844, he was employed by the Governor to negotiate with the friendly natives,

94