Page:The Dictionary of Australasian Biography.djvu/269

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DICTIONARY OF AUSTRALASIAN BIOGRAPHY.
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in Scotland. He received the greater part of his scientific education in the Andersonian University, Glasgow, where he studied botany, geology, and chemistry, under Professors Kennedy, Crosskey, and Penny. In 1870 Mr. Johnston emigrated to Australia, and in the same year was engaged by the Tasmanian Government Railway Commissioners to initiate a system of accounts and audit for the Launceston and Western Railway. He was head of the account and audit department of Government railways from 1872 to 1881, when he was transferred to the Auditor-General's department as chief clerk. In the same year he was selected by the Government to organise a new statistical department, and received the appointment of Government Statistician and Registrar-General for Tasmania. Mr. Johnston is the author of the "Tasmanian Official Record," published annually since 1890 by the Government. This work, which is a cyclopedia of information relating to the colony, has received high praise from competent authorities for its completeness and scientific method. He has also contributed to the Royal Society of Tasmania various papers on statistical and economic questions. In addition to his work as a statistician, Mr. Johnston has made important additions to the knowledge of the geology and natural history of Tasmania. He has published the result of his painstaking original observations, extending over twenty years, in a series of contributions to the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania (1881 to 1891), dealing chiefly with palaeontology, stratigraphical geology, and the sister sciences of zoology and botany. He is also the author of "Field Memoranda for Tasmanian Botanists" (Launceston, 1874), and "Descriptive Catalogue of Tasmanian Fishes" (Hobart, 1882). It is, however, by his "Systematic Account of the Geology of Tasmania" (Hobart, 1888), that Mr. Johnston is most widely known. This elaborate work was published at the cost of the Tasmanian Government, at whose request it was prepared. Mr. Johnston is a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London, of the Royal and Linnean Societies of New South Wales, and of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia. He is a member of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, and was chosen President of the Economic Section at the meeting of the last-named society held in Melbourne in 1890.

Johnston, Hon. Walter Woods, is the eldest son of the late Hon. John Johnston, M.L.C., of Wellington, N.Z., by his marriage with Charlotte Henrietta Hatton. He was born in London on August 10th, 1839, and arrived at Wellington, with his parents, in Jan. 1842. He is a member of the firm of Johnston & Co., of Wellington, and sat in the House of Representatives for Manawatu from 1871 to 1884. He was a member of the Atkinson Government from March 1881 to June 1884, holding the office of Postmaster-General from the former date till April 1882, when he became Minister of Public Works in addition. In Oct. 1882 he resigned the position of Postmaster-General, and in Nov. 1883 that of Minister of Public Works. He was a member of the Cabinet without portfolio from that date till the Ministry resigned in June 1884. Mr. Johnston married at Wellington on Feb. 24th, 1868, Cecilia Augusta, second daughter of Forster Goring (fourth son of Sir Charles Forster Goring, Bart., by his marriage with the Hon. Sidney Eloisa Yelverton, daughter of the third Viscount Avonmore).

Jollie, Francis, was an early settler in Nelson, New Zealand. In the Stafford Ministry he was a member of the Executive Council from May 14th to August 24th, 1866, and Colonial Treasurer from June 12th to August 24th.

Jones, Charles Edwin, was M.L.A. for Ballarat West, Commissioner of Railways and Roads, and Vice-President of the Board of Land and Works in the second MᶜCulloch Administration from July 1868 to March 1869, when he resigned office, and was subsequently expelled from the Legislative Assembly for "receiving money from a corrupt association for bribing members of Parliament" in order to pass measures for their benefit. Mr. Jones at once presented himself for re-election at Ballarat West, and was returned in opposition to Mr. W. M. K. Vale, who contested the seat with him. Ultimately Mr. Jones left Australia, but returned in 1882, and at the general election in 1883 stood for Ballarat and was elected. In 1886 he was defeated, and was an unsuccessful candidate for

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