Page:The Dictionary of Australasian Biography.djvu/433

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DICTIONARY OF AUSTRALASIAN BIOGRAPHY.
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Zealand till the arrival of Captain Fitzroy in Dec. 1843. This was an eventful period in the history of the colony, the massacre at Wairan occurring during his temporary régime. In his despatches home he condemned the course taken in the interest of the white claimants which led to the catastrophe, and he issued a proclamation locally warning all claimants to lands to avoid exercising acts of ownership until the rights in dispute had been adjudicated on. Lieutenant Shortland was very unpopular, and a petition was sent from Auckland in 1843 praying that he might not be appointed Governor of New Zealand, of which there seemed some fear. On Dec. 31st, 1843, immediately after the arrival of Captain Fitzroy, Captain Hobson's successor, Lieutenant Shortland, resigned the Colonial Secretaryship, and was subsequently appointed Governor of Nevis, and later on Lieutenant-Governor of Tobago, where he held office from 1854 to 1856. Lieutenant Shortland, who married in 1842 Isabella Kate Johnston, daughter of Robert A. Fitzgerald, of Geraldine, county Limerick, and Isabella (Johnston) his wife, retired to live on his property at Courtlands, Kingsbridge, Devon, where he died in 1869. His brother, Dr. Edward Shortland, who also resided in New Zealand, was the author of "The Southern Districts of New Zealand" (1851, Longmans); "Maori Traditions and Superstitions" (1854, Longmans); "Maori Religion and Mythology" (1882, Longmans).

Sillitoe, Right Rev. Acton Windeyer, D.D., Bishop of New Westminster, British Columbia, is the son of Acton Sillitoe, of Sydney, N.S.W., where he was born in 1840. He married first, in 1870, Charlotte, second daughter of Thomas Sillitoe, of Buenos Ayres (who died in 1878), and secondly, in 1878, Violet Emily, second daughter of Justinian Pelly, of Yoxford, Suffolk. He was educated at King's College School, London, and at Pembroke College, Cambridge, and was ordained in 1869. After holding various preferments, he was consecrated Bishop of New Westminster in 1879.

Simpson, Hon. George Bowen, M.L.C., Q.C., is the son of the late George Simpson, and practises at the New South Wales bar, to which he was admitted in Nov. 1858. He was nominated to the Legislative Council in Dec. 1885, and acted as Attorney-General in the last Robertson Ministry from that date till Feb. 1886. He held the same office in the fourth Parkes Government, from Feb. 1888 to Jan. 1889, when he retired with his colleagues, but was reappointed in March 1889, when Sir Henry Parkes returned to power. On the previous occasion he acted as the mouthpiece of the Ministry in the Upper House. He resigned with his colleagues in Oct. 1891.

Sinclair, Andrew, M.D., sometime Colonial Secretary of New Zealand, paid a visit to that colony in the first instance for scientific purposes, landing at Wellington in 1840. He was appointed Colonial Secretary, in succession to Lieutenant Shortland, on Jan. 6th, 1844, by Captain Fitzroy. This important office he continued to hold until the complete introduction into the colony of responsible government in May 1856. He had in early life served as a surgeon in the royal navy. He is remembered as the first collector of specimens of New Zealand natural history, botany, conchology, and entomology. Subsequently he accompanied Dr. (afterwards Sir Julius) von Haast in his first expedition to explore the sources of the rivers Rangitata and Ashburton. He attached himself to this party, mainly with the intention of assisting in the proposed botanical researches in the mountain ranges; and whilst so engaged he met with his death in an attempt to wade across one of the main branches of the Rangitata. His companions buried him in a lonely grave at the foot of the glaciers, amongst the native, shrubs and other natural objects which had formed the subject of his ill-fated researches.

Singleton, Francis Corbet, was clerk of the Legislative Council and Government Resident of the Murray district, Western Australia, from 1840 to 1847; a member of the Legislative Council of that colony nominated by the Crown, from 1844 to 1847; Auditor-General of South Australia from May 8th, 1847, to Jan. 1851; clerk of the Executive Council of South Australia from Dec. 1850 to Dec. 1851; clerk of the wholly nominated Legislative Council of South Australia from Dec. 1850 to August 1851; clerk of the partly elected Council from August 1851 to Feb. 1857; and clerk of the wholly elected Legis-

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