Page:The Dictionary of Australasian Biography.djvu/413

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DICTIONARY OF AUSTRALASIAN BIOGRAPHY.
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Popular Handbook on Forestry ," and other works.

Rosewarne, David Davey, F.G.S., son of David Davey Rosewarne, was born at Redruth, Cornwall, on April 7th, 1854. He was taken at an early age to California, and in 1877 to New Zealand, where he engaged in mining pursuits, which he has ever since followed. He married, at Thames, N.Z., Rebecca, daughter of William Huntley, a settler of fifty years in that colony. In Feb. 1889 he was appointed by the Government of South Australia, Inspector of Mines, Warden of Goldfields, and Inspector under the Mining on Private Property Act of 1888. In the following year he was sent to London as Executive Commissioner for South Australia at the International Exhibition of Mining and Metallurgy, held at the Crystal Palace in 1890, in which year he resigned his official employment under the Government of South Australia, and accepted the management of the Aclare Silver Mine in that colony.

Ross, Hon. Sir Robert Dalrymple, sometime Speaker Legislative Assembly, South Australia, was the son of John Pemberton Ross, a West Indian planter, by his marriage with a daughter of Dr. Alexander Anderson. In 1858 Mr. Ross was appointed acting Colonial Secretary of the Gold Coast, but retired in August 1859, after displaying great bravery and discretion in dealing with the disaffected tribes. When at Cape Coast Castle he initiated negotiations which led to the ultimate acquisition by England of the Dutch settlements on the Gold Coast. On his return home Mr. Ross was appointed to the commissariat control of districts A and B, but in 1860 was ordered to China and served at Tientsin with the expeditionary force under General Sir Hope Grant. He was then military accountant in China, stationed at Hong Kong until 1862, when he was appointed head of the Commissariat Department in South Australia, and subsequently provincial aide-de-camp and private secretary to Sir D. Daly, the then Governor. Mr. Ross served in the Maori war of 1864-5, and received the New Zealand medal. At the close of the war he returned to Australia, and in 1869, on promotion, to England. He visited India at the request of Sir James Fergusson, then Governor of South Australia, with a view to inducing the Government to start a central remount station at Port Darwin, so as to secure a steady supply of Australian horses for army purposes. Though this mission was in the end resultless, Mr. Ross was officially thanked by the Governor-General for the information afforded. In a letter to the Times written about this time Mr. Ross advocated the then novel idea that the Port Darwin line of cable communication between England and Australia should be constructed without subsidies on a business basis, as was ultimately done. In Dec. 1869 Mr. Ross was ordered to Ireland to take charge of the flying columns then being organised at Limerick, Tipperary, etc., to operate against the Fenians. In May 1870 he was stationed at Manchester on duty in the Control Department, but in the following year finally left the Government service and settled in South Australia. Here he was elected to the Legislative Assembly for Wallaroo in 1875, and for Gumeracha later on. On the death of Mr. Dutton in 1877, he was offered the post of Agent-General for the colony in London, but declined it, and Sir Arthur Blyth was appointed. He was Treasurer in the Colton Government from June 1876 to Oct. 1877, and in Jan. 1881 he was elected Speaker of the Legislative Assembly in succession to the late Sir G. S. Kingston. He was three times successively re-elected, and filled the chair of the house till his death on Dec. 27th, 1887. He was knighted in 1886.

Rounsevell, Hon. William Benjamin, M.P., late Treasurer of South Australia, is the second son of the late William Rounsevell, coach proprietor, and received his education at St. Peter's College, Adelaide. On the death of his father he, in common with his brother, Mr. J. Rounsevell, inherited a large fortune; and he has since been engaged in pastoral and commercial pursuits. He was elected member for the Burra in 1875, which district he represented continuously till the general election in 1890, when he sought the suffrages of the electors of Port Adelaide, and was returned at the head of the poll. In Dec. 1881 he was elected mayor of Glenelg. When Mr. G. S. Fowler resigned his position in Parliament through ill-health, Mr.

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