Page:The Dictionary of Australasian Biography.djvu/436

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DICTIONARY OF AUSTRALASIAN BIOGRAPHY.
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mercantile career, which he followed until the year 1872. He then retired from commercial pursuits with a view to qualifying himself for the bar, and entered the Melbourne University, for which he had matriculated in the previous year. He remained at that university one year, after which he proceeded to London and entered as a student at the Inner Temple in Dec. 1873. being called to the bar in Jan. 1877. He returned to Victoria in 1878 where he practised at the bar for two years. In 1880 he was admitted to the New South Wales bar, and commenced practice in Sydney. Having turned his attention to politics, he was in 1884 elected to the Legislative Assembly as member for Gundagai, which constituency he represented till 1886. In 1889 he was elected for the Glebe, which he still represents in the Legislative Assembly. On Sir Henry Parkes' accession to power, in March 1889, he accepted the portfolio of Public Works, which office he retained till August 1891, when, on the retirement of Mr. MᶜMillan, he accepted the position of Colonial Treasurer, which he retained till the defeat of the Ministry in Oct. of that year. He is the author of a political treatise on the limit of State functions, entitled "Liberty and Liberalism."

Smith, Sir Edwin Thomas, K.C.M.G., M.P. is the son of the late Edwin Smith, of Walsall, England, where he was born in 1831,and educated at Queen Mary's Grammar School. Having emigrated to South Australia in 1853, he became a brewer in a large way of business, and was Mayor of Kensington and Norwood in 1868, 1869, 1870, 1872 and 1873, and of Adelaide in 1880, 1881, 1882, 1887 and 1888. He has been member for East Torrens in the Legislative Assembly since 1871, and was Minister of Education in Mr. (now Sir) John Bray's second Government, from March to June 1884. He was a Commissioner for South Australia to the various international and intercolonial exhibitions in which that colony took part between 1876 and 1888; and in 1887 was the principal promoter of the Adelaide Jubilee Exhibition, of which he was Vice-President. In recognition of his services in connection with the latter he was created K.C.M.G. in 1888. Sir Edwin married, first, in 1857, Florence, daughter of Robert Stock, of Clifton, who died in 1862; and, secondly, in 1869, Elizabeth, daughter of Edward Spicer, of Adelaide.

Smith, Hon. Sir Francis Villeneuve, B.A., late Chief Justice of Tasmania, eldest son of the late Francis Smith, formerly of Lindfield, Sussex, and a London merchant, and latterly of Campania, Tasmania, by his wife, a daughter of M. Jean Villeneuve, was born on Oct. 3rd, 1819. He was educated at London University where he took a first prize in International Law and a second prize in English Equity, and graduated B.A. in 1840. In Nov. 1838 he entered at the Middle Temple, and was called to the Bar in May 1842, being admitted to that of Tasmania in Oct. 1844. He was appointed Solicitor-General for the colony of Tasmania in 1848, and Attorney-General in 1854, only taking office on condition of being at liberty to oppose the influx of convicts into the colony. In 1851 he was nominated to the Legislative Council and became a member of the Executive Council in 1855. Sir Francis, who had opposed the introduction of responsible government on the ground that the colony did not possess a leisured class from whom suitable ministers could be drawn, and that the system would involve constant changes of administration, was nevertheless a member of the first House of Assembly and Attorney-General in the first responsible ministry formed under Colonel Champ in Nov. 1856, and which held office till Feb. 1857. From April to May 1857 he was Attorney-General in the first Weston Ministry, and then formed a Government of his own, in which he was Premier and Attorney-General, till Nov. 1860, when he went on to the bench as a Puisne Judge, being appointed Chief Justice in 1870. This post he held till 1885, when he was succeeded by Sir W. L. Dobson. Sir Francis, who was knighted in 1862, and who now resides is England, administered the government of the colony on three occasions during interregnums in the governorship. He married, on May 4th, 1851, Sarah, daughter of the late Rev. George Giles, LL.D.

Smith, Hon. George Paton, M.L.A., sometime Attorney-General of Victoria, was born at Berwick-on-Tweed in 1829. In 1855 he emigrated to Victoria and started as a draper in Sandhurst. In 1858 he relinquished business, and took

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