died on Oct. 30th, 1891. Just about the time of his death other claimants to the honour of having found the first gold sprang up, and the New South Wales Assembly appointed a select committee to inquire into the claims of William and James Toms and J. H. A. Lister as the first discoverers of gold in Australia. The report stated that although E. H. Hargraves was entitled to the credit of having taught the claimants, the Tomses and Lister, the use of the dish and cradle and other proper methods of searching for gold, the committee were satisfied that the Tomses and Lister were undoubtedly the first discoverers of payable gold. These men, after persistent search under great difficulties, unearthed four ounces of the precious metal in April, 1851. This was handed to Hargraves, who thus obtained a reward of £10,000 from the New South Wales Government, upwards of £2,300 from the Victorian Government, and a pension of £250 a year as the first discoverer. Hargraves, it is stated, had abandoned the search for gold when the four ounces was handed to him. Considering the great impulse the discovery gave to the progress of the colony, the claims of the Tomses and Lister were, it was urged, worthy of favourable consideration. Lister died subsequently to the appointment of the committee, but left a written statement of facts.
Harker, Hon. George, a well-known Victorian politician, was born at Pateley Bridge, Nidderdale, Yorkshire, in 1816. After education at local schools, he was at the age of thirteen apprenticed to a chemist at Harrogate. On the termination of his apprenticeship he was for some time dispensing assistant to a surgeon at Leeds, and subsequently carried on business as a chemist at Prescot, near Liverpool, where he was treasurer of the local Anti-Corn Law League. He married early in 1845, and left England for Victoria at the end of that year, arriving in Feb. 1846. He bought property on the Yarra which he farmed until 1850, when he started as a grain and produce merchant in Melbourne. In 1856 Mr. Harker retired from business, and was returned to the Victorian Legislative Assembly for Collingwood. He was Treasurer in the second O'Shanassy Ministry from March 1858 to Oct. 1859, when he resigned with his colleagues. At the general election which took place just previously, he was defeated at Collingwood, but was returned for Maldon. Quickly resigning his seat for the latter constituency, he revisited England, where he remained for two years. On his return he was re-elected for Collingwood, which he represented intermittently during the rest of his public career. Mr. Harker held many important public positions and died on April 5th, 1879.
Harper, Andrew, Professor of Hebrew, Ormond College, Melbourne, Victoria, was educated at the Scotch College, Melbourne, from which he proceeded to the Melbourne University. He graduated B.A. in 1867, and M.A. in 1878. He proceeded to Edinburgh, where he qualified himself as a Presbyterian clergyman. Conscientious scruples preventing him from being ordained, he entered the Presbyterian Ladies' College in Melbourne as a master, and rose to the position of head master. Meantime, devoting himself specially to the study of Oriental languages, he became the recognised authority in the colony of Victoria in that department, and in 1889 was appointed Professor of Hebrew at Ormond College. He is a brother of Mr. Robert Harper, member of the Legislative Assembly of Victoria.
Harper, Right Rev. Henry John Chitty, D.D., formerly Bishop of Christchurch and Primate of New Zealand, is the son of the late Tristram Harper, of Gosport, where he was born in 1807. He was educated at Hyde Abbey School, Winchester, and Queen's College, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. in 1826, M.A. in 1840, and was Michel Fellow, being made D.D. in 1856. He was ordained deacon by the Bishop of Rochester in 1831, and priest by the Bishop of Lincoln in 1832. From 1828 to 1836 he was private tutor at Eton, and from 1832 to 1840 was "conduct," or chaplain, of that college. In 1840 he became vicar of Stratfield-Mortimer, Berks, and remained there until 1856, in the August of which year he was consecrated first Bishop of Christchurch, N.Z., by Archbishop Sumner, of Canterbury, and Bishops Wilberforce, of Oxford, and Gilbert, of Gloucester, arriving in New Zealand in December. In 1869, upon the resignation of Bishop Selwyn, Bishop Harper was elected by the General Synod Primate of New
217
