New Zealand, and was A.D.C. to Sir Duncan Cameron during the Maori war till 1865. He took part in the actions at the Gate Pah, Rangiriri, Rangiaohia, and Nukumaru, receiving a medal and the Victoria Cross for his gallantry. In 1866-7 he was in command of the Tipperary Flying Column during the Fenian disturbance. From 1869 to 1872 he was military secretary to Lord Lisgar, Governor-General of Canada, and in 1870 was attached to the staff of the Red River Expedition. He was colonel on the staff, and second in command of the Ashantee Expedition in 1873-4; was present at the destruction of Essaman, where he was very severely wounded, and at Amquana, Akimfoo and Ampenee. Sir John MᶜNeill served through the Egyptian campaign of 1882, receiving a medal, a bronze star, and the second class Medjidie, as well as a K.C.B. He was brigadier-general in the Suakim Expedition in 1885, and commanded the force at Tofrik. In 1874 he was A.D.C. to H.R.H. the Commander-in-Chief, and has been equerry to Her Majesty since 1874. In 1880 he accompanied Prince Leopold to Canada, and in 1882 the Duke of Connaught to Egypt. He is a J.P. and a D.L. for Argyleshire. Sir John was created C.M.G. in 1870, C.B. in 1878, K.C.M.G. in 1880, and K.C.B. in 1882.
Macpherson, Hon. John Alexander, a native of Victoria, and a successful squatter, was admitted to the Victorian bar, but never practised. Having unsuccessfully contested Dundas at the general election in 1864, he was returned to the Assembly in November of that year for Portland. In 1865, however, he was elected for Dundas, and represented the constituency till his retirement from public life in 1877. On the fall of the second MᶜCulloch Ministry, in Sept. 1869, Mr. Macpherson became Premier of Victoria, with the office of Chief Secretary, which he held till April 1870, when Sir James MᶜCulloch returned to power, and Mr. Macpherson accepted office under him as Minister of Lands. In June 1871 he resigned with his colleagues, but returned to office with Sir James MᶜCulloch in Oct. 1875 with his old post of Chief Secretary, which he held till May 1877, when the Government experienced a crushing defeat at the elections, and resigned. Mr. Macpherson shortly afterwards resigned his seat in the Assembly, and retired from public life.
Macrossan, Hon. John Murtagh, M.L.A., was born in 1832, in co. Donegal. He was educated at local schools, and after spending two years in Scotland went to Victoria in 1853 to pursue his fortunes as a miner. After working on the diggings in that colony and in New Zealand and New South Wales for twelve years, with varying luck, but very little substantial success, he was attracted to Northern Queensland by the reported richness of the Peak Down diggings. His ready eloquence and knowledge of miners' wants soon made him a public character, and he was returned to the Lower House by the miners of Charters Towers for the Kennedy district in the year 1873. He was at first a very advanced Liberal; but his convictions became modified, and he joined the first McIlwraith Ministry as Secretary for Public Works and Mines on Jan. 21st, 1879, retiring from the Government on March 13th, 1883, six months before its fall. He occupied a congenial seat as member for the great mining district of Townsville, and on the formation of Sir Thomas McIlwraith's second Cabinet on Jane 13th, 1888, he rejoined his old chief in his former capacity. On Nov. 30th of the same year, when Mr. Morehead reconstructed the cabinet under his own premiership, Mr. Macrossan remained in the ministry, taking the additional office of Colonial Secretary in Jan. 1890. In August of that year he retired with his colleagues. He was a prominent advocate of the subdivision of Queensland, and the constitution of the northern portion into a separate colony. Mr. Macrossan was one of the representatives of Queensland at the session of the Federal Council of Australasia held in Hobart in Jan. to Feb. 1889. He was one of the delegates to the Federation Convention in Sydney, and died in that city on March 30th, 1891. The Queensland Parliament voted £2000 to his widow.
Madden, Hon. John, LL.D., is the son of the late John Madden, solicitor, of Cork, Ireland, and was born there on May 16th, 1844. He went to England in Sept. 1852, and was at a private school there until 1854, when he proceeded to a college at Beauchamp, in France, where he remained until Sept.
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