Page:The Dictionary of Australasian Biography.djvu/222

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DICTIONARY OF AUSTRALASIAN BIOGRAPHY.
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Glen Leith, near New Norfolk, Tasmania, Margaret Legrand, only daughter of David Jamieson, of Glen Leith.

Günst, Johannes Werner, M.D., was born at Amsterdam, Holland, May 31st, 1825, and landed in Sydney, N.S.W., in May 1852. Shortly afterwards he commenced practice as an allopathic physician, and was appointed analytical chemist to the Government of New South Wales. In 1854 he visited New Caledonia, and claims to have been the first European who set foot there. His companions, nine in number were killed and eaten by the natives; and Dr. Günst only saved himself by hiding in the mountains till he was taken off by a passing vessel, after several, months of exposure, danger, and suffering. After practising his profession, combined with sugar growing on the Clarence and Richmond rivers in New South Wales, he went with an exploration party to Madagascar, and on his return through Paris was decorated with the cross of the Legion of Honour. Having abandoned allopathy, he has practised as a homoeopathic physician in Melbourne for upwards of twenty years.

Gurner, Henry Field, sometime Crown solicitor of Victoria, was the second son of John Gurner, of Sydney, N.S.W., solicitor, who arrived in that colony in Feb. 1817 as chief clerk of the Supreme Court, with Judge (Barron) Field, the friend of Charles Lamb. He was born in Sydney on March 31st, 1819, and at the latter end of 1834 became a clerk in the Supreme Court Office at Sydney. Having resigned that appointment, he was in March 1841 admitted to practise as a solicitor in New South Wales. In 1841 he was appointed deputy registrar of the Supreme Court of New South Wales for the Port Phillip district, and accompanied Judge Willis to what is now Victoria. Mr. Gurner was the first person admitted as a solicitor in Melbourne; this was on May 9th, 1841, and in October of the same year he resigned his appointment as deputy registrar, entering upon the active practice of his profession as an attorney in Melbourne. In Jan. 1842 he was appointed to the office of Crown solicitor and clerk of the peace at Port Phillip, and in Sept. 1842 was made first town clerk of Melbourne, under the Act incorporating the town. In July 1851, upon the separation of Port Phillip from New South Wales, Mr. Gurner became Crown solicitor of the colony of Victoria, a post which he held for some twenty years. In 1841 he published the "Rules and Orders of the Supreme Court of New South Wales for the District of Port Phillip," in 1871 the "Practice of the Criminal Law of the Colony of Victoria," and in 1876 "Chronicles of Port Phillip." He died on April 17th, 1883.

Gwynne, Edward Castres, was born at Lewes, in Sussex, in 1811, and having been called to the bar, practised his profession in England. He emigrated to South Australia in 1839, and was a nominee member of the mixed Legislative Council from 1851 to 1856. When responsible government was conceded he was elected to the new Legislative Council, in which he sat from 1856 to 1859. He held office as Attorney-General in the Baker Ministry from August to September 1857. In March 1859 he was appointed third judge of the Supreme Court of South Australia, and in 1867 second judge of the Supreme Court and primary judge in Equity, and was for some time Acting Chief Justice in 1869-70, retiring from the Bench on Feb. 28th, 1881. He took a great interest in viticulture, and had one of the largest and best orangeries in the colonies at the Glynde, near Adelaide. He died on June 10th, 1888.




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Haast, Sir John Francis Julius von, K.C.M.G., Ph.D., F.R.S., F.L.S., F.G.S., C.M.Z.S., son of Mathias Haas, in Bonn, Germany, was born on May 1st, 1824, and educated at the schools of Bonn and Cologne, and at the University of Bonn. At college he devoted himself to geological studies, and for some years resided in France. In 1858 he arrived in Auckland, N.Z., and accompanied Dr. Hochstetter in his tour through the colony. Being employed by the authorities of Nelson to explore the western and southern parts of the province, he made

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