Page:The Dictionary of Australasian Biography.djvu/201

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DICTIONARY OF AUSTRALASIAN BIOGRAPHY.
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Dr. Gill by the British and Foreign Bible Society. This work took three years of incessant labour in Sydney. To print it he was, with Mrs. Gill, invited to visit England by the society. The printing and stereotyping of the Rarotongan Bible occupied fifteen months. The correction the press was a matter of great anxiety, as there was no second proof-reader in Europe. The book contains twelve hundred and fifty-one pages, is beautifully printed, and along with the text are given references and maps. The original translation was made by Williams, Pitman, and Buzacott. Dr. and Mrs. Gill returned to Sydney in July 1888, and soon after Great Britain assumed the protectorate of the Hervey group, so that there could be no hindrance to the circulation of the Scriptures which had just been printed in the Rarotongan language. The article on the Rarotongan Bible in "The Bible in the Pacific," by the Rev. A. W. Murray (published in 1888), is from Dr. Gill's pen. To the Melbourne volume of the Australasian Society for the Advancement of Science for 1890 he contributed three papers, and still writes occasionally for the press. He was created an honorary LL.D. by the university of St. Andrews.

Gillen, Hon. Peter Paul, M.P., Commissioner of Crown Lands and Immigration, South Australia, was returned to the Legislative Assembly of that colony for Stanley in 1887. In June 1892 he accepted a portfolio in the Holder Ministry.

Gilles, Lewis W., commenced life as a naval officer, but after seeing considerable service embraced commercial pursuits. Subsequently he emigrated to Tasmania, and, as a pastoralist, was prominent as a breeder of first-class sheep. He established the Tamar Bank, which was merged into the Union Bank of Australia, and was afterwards Assistant Colonial Secretary of Victoria, going ultimately to South Australia, where he opened up the Glen Osmond silver mines, near Adelaide, on the property of his relative, the late Mr. Osmond Gilles (q.v.). He died at Glen Osmond on Jan. 2nd, 1884, at the age of eighty-eight.

Gilles, Osmond, was born in England in 1797, and was engaged in mercantile pursuits at Hamburg for fourteen years. He took a great Interest in the preliminary arrangements for the formation of the colony of South Australia, to which he emigrated in 1836, being amongst those who were present on Dec. 28th, when Captain Hindmarsh read the official document proclaiming the colony. He was the first Colonial Treasurer of South Australia, but only held office for two years. He was a large purchaser of town and country lands; and the Glen Osmond silver lead mines, worked by an English Company, were situated on his property. He introduced Saxony and Merino sheep into South Australia, and was a considerable benefactor to the Church of England and to German charities. He died at Glen Osmond on Sept. 24th, 1876.

Gillies, Hon. Duncan, M.L.A., sometime Premier of Victoria, the son of the late Duncan Gillies and Margaret his wife, was born at Glasgow in Jan. 1834, and went to Victoria in Dec. 1852, when he proceeded to the Ballarat goldfields, where he engaged as a working miner, and where he first took part in public affairs as a member of the local mining court, which granted the first mining lease, and thus paved the way for the introduction of company, as opposed to individual, working in mining ventures. He was a working partner in the Great Republic Company, and was elected, as the miners' candidate, to the Legislative Assembly for Ballarat West in 1859, being four times re-elected prior to his acceptance of office in the unpopular Sladen Ministry in May 1868, when he was rejected. In June 1872 Mr. Gillies was included in the Francis Ministry as Commissioner of Railways and Roads, and held office till July 1874, when he accepted the same post under the late Mr. Kerferd, retiring with his colleagues in August 1875. Mr. Gillies, who had meantime been returned for Maryborough, was Minister of Lands in the last MᶜCulloch Government, from Oct. 1875 to May 1877. At the general election in the latter year he was returned for Rodney, but was unseated on petition, on the ground of undue influence having been used by the Lands Department, by the issue of leases to selectors and electors during the contest, the committee finding that such influence had been used without Mr. Gillies' knowledge. Later on he once more took his

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