Page:The Dictionary of Australasian Biography.djvu/172

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DICTIONARY OF AUSTRALASIAN BIOGRAPHY.
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contents during the riots regarding the diggers' licences in 1854. In Nov. of that year the Governor, Sir Charles Hotham, nominated him as one of the members of a special commission which he appointed to inquire into the grievances or the goldfields; and he was a party to the voluminous report which they sent in. He died on Sept. 4th, 1869.

Featherston, Isaac Earl, M.D., sometime Agent-General, New Zealand, fourth son of Thomas Featherston, of Cotfield House, Durham, was born in Durham on March 21st, 1813, and took his M.D. degree at Edinburgh in 1836. He was one of the earliest settlers in Wellington, N.Z., under the New Zealand Company. He took a prominent part in the agitation for self-government in and about 1850. In 1852, when the province of Wellington was constituted, he was elected first superintendent, and represented Wanganui in Parliament from 1853 to 1871, when he resigned the superintendency. From July 12th to August 2nd, 1861, he was Colonial Secretary under Mr. Fox, and held office without portfolio under the same gentleman from Nov. 16th, 1869, to March 31st, 1871. In Jan. 1866 he persuaded the friendly Maoris about Wanganui to join General Chute in his campaign on the west coast, and his march toward Mount Egmont; and he himself accompanied and led the Maori contingent in the various actions at Otapawa and elsewhere. For his gallantry on these occasions he received the New Zealand Cross, on the recommendation of General Chute. In 1869 Dr. Featherston was sent home to England, in company with Mr. Dillon Bell, as commissioner to treat with the Imperial Government for a force to put down rebellion and to raise another force for colonial service. When the Vogel Government started the Public Works policy, the Commissioners were instructed to arrange with the Home Government to guarantee a loan for £1,000,000 for public works and immigration, to be spent at a rate not exceeding £200,000 a year. This they succeeded in doing. By the Public Works and Immigration Act of 1870, the office of Agent-General in London was created, and Dr. Featherston became first Agent-General. This post he held from the year 1871 till his death at Brighton on June 19th, 1876. Dr. Featherston married, in 1839, a daughter of Mr. A. Scott, of Edinburgh.

Fehon, William Meeke, Commissioner of Railways, New South Wales, was born on March 5th, 1834, in London. He was employed on some of the leading railway companies in England and Canada, prior to emigrating to Victoria, where he arrived in April 1858, and was appointed traffic manager of the Victoria railways. Mr. Fehon subsequently engaged in pastoral and commercial pursuits, but in 1888 accepted a position as one of the Commissioners of Railways in New South Wales.

Feilberg, Carl H., a Queensland journalist, displayed great literary powers in his contributions to the Queenslander and other Australian newspapers and periodicals. He was for a time on the staff of the Melbourne Argus, but returned to Queensland, where he held the position of editor of the Brisbane Courier till his death, on Oct. 25th, 1887. His father was the son of a Danish naval officer, and his mother, who was born at Santa Cruz, was of Danish descent and the daughter of a West Indian planter. He was educated in England and at St. Omers, France, and was for some time in the office of a London insurance broker. He emigrated to Rockhampton, Queensland, when twenty-two years of age, and was clerk and storekeeper on a station on the Barcoo for two years. He was subsequently engaged in farming at Wide Bay, and then went into journalism at Maryborough, in connection with the Wide Bay News. After further press experience at Cooktown, he went to Brisbane and contributed first to the Patriot and then to the Courier, In June 1882 he accepted the post of sub-editor of the Melbourne Argus. In July 1883 he returned to Queensland, and became a regular writer on the Courier, succeeding the late Mr. W. O'Carroll as editor three months later. This position Mr. Feilberg, who married a daughter of William Smith, the owner of the Kilkivan cobalt mines, held till his death.

Fellows, Hon. Thomas Howard, formerly Puisne Judge, Victoria, son of Thomas Fellows, of Moneyhill, Herts, solicitor, was born in England in 1823, and, after being educated at Eton and studying under Chitty in London, was

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