was adopted, pledging the latter never to employ convicts as servants, and to resist their importation by all constitutional means. He again represented Tasmania as delegate at the Anti-Transportation Conference of the United Colonies held in Sydney in April 1851. In 1856 Mr. Weston was returned to the first House of Assembly for the Kingwood district. Having been the mover of the vote of want of confidence carried against the Gregson Ministry in April 1857, Mr. Weston was called upon to form an Administration, in which he acted as Premier without office for about three weeks, when he resigned the leadership of the Government to Mr. (now Sir) Francis Smith, but still held office without portfolio as a member of the Executive Council. Sir Francis having accepted the office of Chief Justice, Mr. Weston again resumed the premiership in Nov. 1860, but resigned in July 1861. He died on Feb. 21st, 1888, at St. Kilda, Vict., where he had resided for a number of years prior to his death.
Wheeler, Hon. James Henry, M.L.A., Minister of Railways, Victoria, who was born in Derbyshire, and went to Victoria in 1854, is an extensive sawmill owner in the Wombat State Forest. He was elected to the Assembly for the Creswick district in 1864 as a moderate constitutionalist, but retired from Parliament in 1867. In 1880, however, he was re-elected, and represented the constituency till 1889, when he was returned for the Daylesford subdivision. In Nov. 1890, on the formation of the Munro Ministry, he accepted the post of Minister of Railways, which he continued to hold when in Feb. 1892 the Ministry was reconstructed under Mr. Shiels.
Whitaker, Hon. Sir Frederick, K.C.M.G., M.L.C., sometime Premier of New Zealand, was the eldest son of Frederick Whitaker, J.P. and D.L., and was born in 1812, at Bampton, Oxfordshire, England. Early in 1889 he was admitted to practise as a solicitor and attorney in England, and towards the close of the same year he left for Australia, landing in Sydney in 1840. Staying but a short time in New South Wales, he went to New Zealand, settling at Kororarika, then the seat of government, where he entered on the practice of his profession, which he continued till the removal of the seat of government to Auckland in 1841, when he removed to that city. In the year 1842 he was appointed county court judge, the court having civil and criminal jurisdiction, like the present district courts. In 1844 the county court was abolished, and a Court of Requests substituted. In the following year Mr. Whitaker was appointed senior non-official member of the Legislative Council, and sat in the last council held by Governor Fitzroy, and also in the first council held by his successor, Governor Grey. The Northern insurrection breaking out, Mr. Whitaker served in the New Zealand Militia, in which force he held a major's commission; and he was engaged in garrison duty in Auckland when the rebellious Northern natives threatened destruction to the infant settlement. In the year 1851 the Provincial Legislative Council was established, one-third of whose members were nominated, and the remaining two-thirds elected. Mr. Whitaker was one of the representatives elected for Auckland city, but the Council was never called together. The passing of the New Zealand Constitution Act in 1852 by the English Parliament and the inauguration of popular representative institutions in the colony in 1853 again brought him to the front in political life. He was elected a member of the Provincial Council, and sat in several sessions. During the superintendency of General Wynyard he acted as Provincial Law Adviser, and as a member of the Provincial Executive. In 1853 he was called to the Legislative Council of New Zealand, and in the following year attended the first session of the General Assembly. In 1855 he succeeded Mr. Swainson as Attorney-General, under the lieutenant-governorship of General Wynyard. In the same year he was Speaker of the Legislative Council; but in May 1856 he resigned the post of Speaker to accept the portfolio of Attorney-General in the Bell-Sewell Ministry, which was ejected from office within a fortnight. Mr. Fox, who formed the succeeding administration, was in turn supplanted within a like period by Mr. Stafford; and Mr. Whitaker again resumed his portfolio, with the leadership of the Legislative Council. On July 12th, 1861, the Stafford Ministry was defeated on the question of native affairs, and more especially on the
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