valid, for regulating the sale of liquors, for licensing auctioneers, for regulating harbours, and various other enactments. Mr. Swainson occupied his difficult position from August 1841 till 1856, and was also a member of the Executive Council. In 1854 the first General Assembly was convened in New Zealand, and Mr. Swainson became Speaker of the Legislative Council, holding meanwhile the office of Attorney-General. But the new Parliament demanded responsible government for itself, and in May 1856 Mr. Swainson and his colleagues resigned, and the Ministerial offices were henceforth controlled by the General Assembly. Mr. Swainson continued, however, to be a member of the Legislative Council, as also of the Executive Council. During his life in New Zealand, he took a great interest in the establishment of the Anglican Church there, and was associated with Bishop Selwyn in his efforts to found a constitution for it. In 1855 he went to England on leave, and devoted much time to the delivery of lectures on the advantages of New Zealand as a field for colonisation. He was a member of the Grey Ministry without portfolio from April to July 1879. He died in 1884, having been Chancellor of the diocese of Auckland from 1866. Mr. Swainson was the author of "Auckland, the Capital of New Zealand"; "New Zealand and its Colonisation" (1857); and "New Zealand and the War" (1862).
Swainson, William, F.R.S., F.L.S., was born at Liverpool, England, in 1788, and early displayed a taste for botanical and natural history researches. Quitting a position in the Liverpool Custom House, he entered the commissariat department of the Treasury, and in 1807 was stationed in Sicily with the English army garrisoning that island. Here he studied the local botany and zoology, and subsequently made researches in Greece and Italy, returning to England at the peace. He then retired on half -pay as Assistant Commissary-General, and visited various then scarcely explored parts of South America, where he formed a large collection of birds. Returning to England, he was elected F.R.S., and undertook to edit the department of natural history for Lardner's "Cabinet Cyclopædia," to which he contributed a number of volumes on various subjects. In 1837 he emigrated to New Zealand, and was employed to make a survey of the forests and trees of Van Diemen's Land and to report thereon. Mr. Swainson died at the Hutt Valley, Wellington, N.Z., on Dec. 6th, 1855.
Swan, Nathaniel Walter, a well-known Victorian writer, was born in 1843[1] at Monaghan, Ireland, and was educated at Glasgow University. At an early age he emigrated to Australia, attracted by the fascinations of gold-digging life. He tried mining in various parts of Victoria, and then speculated in fruit and fish in Melbourne, ultimately going to Sandhurst, where he worked a "claim" with small success. Disheartened, he decided to return to Melbourne, and on his way thither on foot fell in with Henry Kingsley, with whom he spent the last few days prior to the final departure of the latter for England. Swan now took to journalism, and edited the Ararat and Pleasant Creek Advertiser, ultimately conducting the Pleasant Creek News at Stawell. In the meantime he wrote a number of stories, several of which appeared in serial form in the Sydney Mail, the Melbourne Australasian, and other leading journals. One of his best-known tales is "Luke Myver's Harvest," which won the £100 prize offered by the Sydney Mail against seventy competitors, one of whom (the second on the list) was "Ada Cambridge." In 1875 "Tales of Australian Life" appeared in London, and in 1885 were published "A Couple of Cups Ago" and other stories (Cameron, Lang & Co., Melbourne). He died on July 31st, 1884.
Sword, Thomas Stevenson, J. P., is a native of Glasgow, and was educated at the High School and University of his native city, and afterwards at the University of Edinburgh, where he was a law student. While attending at the Glasgow University he was articled to a solicitor, and afterwards admitted a member of the Faculty of Procurators of Glasgow. He emigrated to Queensland in 1863, and took up Zamia station, on the Dawson River, where he remained for seven years. Mr. Sword entered the service of the Queensland Government as Recording Clerk and Clerk of Petty Sessions at Blackall in 1870, and was appointed Police Magistrate at Aramac in 1877, being transferred to Charleville in a similar capacity in 1881. In Jan.
- ↑ Probably typographical error for the year 1834, as cited by alternate sources. (Wikisource contributor note)
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