Page:The Dictionary of Australasian Biography.djvu/220

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DICTIONARY OF AUSTRALASIAN BIOGRAPHY.
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strict enforcement of the more stringent regulations now enacted for the prevention of the evils which were prevalent prior to the revision of the system in 1884.

Griffiths, George Samuel, F.G.S., F.R.G.S., is the son of Samuel Griffiths, the first white settler in the Elwood or Port Ormond district of Port Phillip. He was born on August 16th, 1847, in Demerara, and arrived in Victoria with his parents in 1851. Mr. Griffiths, who has been a member of the managing committee of the Melbourne Stock Exchange, and of the Council of the Royal Society of Victoria, has taken a very active interest in the proposal to explore the Antarctic, and when the Royal Society of Victoria and the Geographical Society of Australasia decided to appoint a joint committee to promote the project, he was, with Professor Kernot and Mr. Ellery, chosen to represent the former Society. In 1878 Mr. Griffiths was married to the daughter of the late Mr. Atkinson, of the Western district.

Grimes, Right Rev. John Joseph, D.D., first Roman Catholic Bishop of Christchurch, N.Z., is the son of Richard Grimes and Elizabeth his wife, and was born at Bromley, Kent, on Feb. 11th, 1842. Having been ordained to the priesthood, Bishop Grimes was Professor of Belles Lettres and Rhetoric in St. Mary's College, Ireland, till 1873, and from that year till 1880 was Professor, Director, and President of Jefferson College, Louisiana, U.S. A., where he narrowly escaped death in the great yellow fever epidemic of 1878. From 1880 to 1887 Dr. Grimes was Rector of St. Mary's, Paignton, Devonshire, and President of the missionary training college there. At Paignton Dr. Grimes built the first Catholic church erected there since the Reformation. In May 1887 he was appointed by Pope Leo XIII. the first Catholic Bishop of Christchurch, being consecrated on July 26th of the same year. Bishop Grimes, whose diocese comprises the whole of the provinces of Canterbury and Westland, a portion of the province of Nelson, and the Chatham Islands, arrived in New Zealand to assume his episcopal functions at the end of 1887.

Groom, William Henry, M.L.A., was born on March 9th, 1833, at Plymouth, and received his education at St. Andrew's schools. In 1857 he emigrated to Queensland, and settled at Toowoomba, where he became a storekeeper in 1858, and in 1860 first mayor of the newly made municipality, an office he held for three consecutive years. Mr. Groom was elected to represent Toowoomba in the Assembly in 1862, being re-elected the following year. In 1866, in consequence of the Bank of Queensland failure, he assigned his estate and retired from the Assembly, but was re-elected without opposition, banquetted, and presented with a purse of sovereigns, and has ever since continued to represent the constituency, being what is popularly known as "Father of the House." On Nov. 7th, 1883, Mr. Groom, who had previously refused the chairmanship of committees offered him by Sir T. McIlwraith, was elected Speaker of the Assembly, and held the position till the dissolution on April 4th, 1888.

Gudgeon, Lieutenant Thomas Wayth, was for seven years employed in the Income and Property Tax Department of Somerset House. Having resigned his appointment, he came to New Zealand on Jan. 10th, 1850, settling in Taranaki, and afterwards in Wanganui. At the outbreak of the Wanganui war he entered the Wanganui militia, and subsequently became lieutenant Mr. Gudgeon is the author of "Reminiscences of the War in New Zealand"; "The History and Doings of the Maoris from 1820 to the Signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840" (Brett, Auckland); "The Defenders of New Zealand" (Brett, Auckland, 1887). He died in Melbourne, Vict., in 1890.

Guenett, Thomas Harbottle, is the son of Rev. John F. Guenett by his marriage with Elizabeth Harbottle, and was born at Fleetwood, Lancashire, on June 22nd, 1850. Mr. Guenett was a pupil of Sir Charles Halle and Mr. Ebenezer Prout, and went to Australia for his health in 1872, settling in Melbourne, where he was for several years President of the Musical Association of Victoria and one of the examiners for diplomas and certificates. He was also the founder of the Melbourne popular concerts (string quartette music), and, in addition to acting as musical critic of the Melbourne Argus and Australasian, is one of the examiners for licences and certificates to teach music in the State schools of Victoria. Mr. Guenett married

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