Page:The Dictionary of Australasian Biography.djvu/162

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DICTIONARY OF AUSTRALASIAN BIOGRAPHY.
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for the full term of five years, but declined to offer himself for re-election in 1848, on the ground that the representation of Port Phillip at Sydney was a farce. Mr. Ebden was an active worker for separation from New South Wales, and having been in the meantime re-elected to the Legislative Council of New South Wales, he seconded the address in reply to the Governor's speech when, in March 1851, the Council was convened to arrange the preliminaries for conferring a distinct constitution on Victoria. After that was achieved later in the year, he was appointed Auditor-General of Victoria by Governor Latrobe in July. This post he held, together with a seat in the Legislative and Executive Councils, till Oct. 1852, when he resigned, and was succeeded by Mr. Childers, afterward Chancellor of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom. Mr. Ebden then revisited England, but returned to Victoria in 1855; and entering the Assembly, was Treasurer in the second Haines Ministry from April 1857 to March 1858. Mr. Ebden was chairman of the St. Kilda and Brighton Railway, but went back to England in 1860. There he resided for six years, when he again visited Victoria, and died at the Melbourne Club in Oct 1867.

Edwards, Major-General Sir James Bevan, R.E., K.C.M.G., C.B., is the son of Samuel Price Edwards and Jane his wife, and was born on Nov. 5th, 1834, at Wimburn, Staffordshire. He married, in 1868, Alice Anne, only daughter of Ralph Brocklebank, of Childwall Hall, Lancashire. Sir Bevan, who entered the army in Dec. 1852, as second lieutenant in the Royal Engineers, and became lieutenant in Feb. 1854, was ordered to the Crimea in the following year, and for his services in the demolition of Sebastopol docks received the British and Turkish medals. He served in India during the Mutiny, becoming captain in April 1859. For services at the siege and capture of Chandairee and Jhansi, the capture of Calpee, and actions at Betwa Koouch, Gowlowlee, and before Gwalior, he was mentioned in despatches, received the medal with clasp, and was appointed brevet-major in 1860. He served in China in 1864-5 with the late General Gordon, and received a gold medal from the Imperial Chinese Government. Sir Bevan became major in the Royal Engineers in 1872 brevet lieut.-colonel in 1871, lieut.-colonel in the Royal Engineers, brevet colonel and C.B. in 1877. He was employed in 1877, when war was imminent with Russia, on a confidential mission to the east end of the Mediterranean, on behalf of the War Office and Admiralty. In 1882 he was placed on half-pay, but was employed as colonel on the staff commanding the Royal Engineers in the Northern district from 1884 to 1885 in February of which year he went in the same capacity with the expeditionary force to the Soudan, where, for services at the actions at Hasheen and Tamai he was mentioned in despatches and received a medal with clasp. From 1885 to 1888 he was commandant of the School of Military Engineering; and having been promoted to major-general in 1887, commanded the troops in China from 1889 to 1890. It was whilst stationed at Hong Kong that General Edwards received instructions to proceed to Australia and inspect the military forces of the several Australian colonies. Arriving in July 1889, he visited each colony, and recommended a general federation of the local forces for defence purposes, his suggestions forming the basis of Sir Henry Parkes' subsequent action in favour of the political federation of the Australasian group. In addition General Edwards furnished separate reports on the defences of each colony and received the special thanks of the Secretary of State for the Colonies for his valuable services. General Edward returned to England in 1890, and was created K.C.M.G. on New Year's Day 1891.

Edwards, Worley Basset, son of Charles Scatcherd Wilson Edwards and Cornelia Allen (Waller), his wife, was born in London on Sept 5th, 1850, and went to Otago, N.Z., with his parents in 1856. Having embraced the practice of the law he gained a leading position in the profession, and was appointed a judge of the native land court, with the position of a puisne judge of the Supreme Court of New Zealand, in 1890 by the Atkinson Government. When the Ballance Cabinet came into power in 1891, they disputed the appointment as ultra vires, but the New Zealand Court of Appeal decided

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