Page:The Dictionary of Australasian Biography.djvu/323

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DICTIONARY OF AUSTRALASIAN BIOGRAPHY.
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named the Nicholson, Mitchell, Macalister, Thomson, Glengarry, Tangil, and Avon rivers and Mount Wellington. In the meantime Strzelecki and James Macarthur and James Riley were making their venturesome overland journey from Sydney to Westernport in Victoria. They left Sydney on Jan. 20th, and arrived at Westernport on May 11th, 1840, calling en route, on March 7th, at McMillan's camp on the Tambo river, and were supplied with provisions, a camp kettle, and a guide, who went a day's journey with them over the tracks into what McMillan, who was absent at the time, had called Caledonia Australis, but which, at the suggestion of Strzelecki, was named after Sir George Gipps, the governor of New South Wales. Mr. McMillan occupied a station on the Avon river, near to Macalister, in Oct. 1840, and in Feb. 1841 penetrated to Corner Inlet. Without detracting from the eminent services of Strzelecki, there can be no doubt that the honour of the first exploration of Gippsland and the marking of a road to a seaport belongs to McMillan, who died in May 1865.

McMillan, William, M.L.A., ex-Colonial Treasurer, New South Wales, is a partner in the well-known firm of McArthur & Co., Sydney, and has represented East Sydney in the Legislative Assembly since Feb. 1887. On the formation of the late Ministry by Sir Henry Parkes, in March 1889, he accepted the post of Colonial Treasurer, and was re-elected unopposed for East Sydney on taking office. Mr. McMillan, who is a staunch free trader, resigned his seat in the cabinet in 1890, owing to some comments made by Sir Henry Parkes on language used by him in reference to the repression of disorders during the great strike in the shipping trade. Ultimately, however, explanations were tendered, and he withdrew his resignation, which, if persisted in, would have seriously injured the Government. Mr. McMillan was one of the delegates of New South Wales to the Federation Conference held in Melbourne in Feb. 1890, and was appointed one of the representatives of the colony at the Convention held in Sydney in March 1891. In August 1891 he resigned the office of Treasurer, with the view of paying more exclusive attention to his private affairs. Mr. McMillan was appointed President of the New South Wales Commission for the Chicago Exhibition in Sept. 1891. He is the second son of the Rev. Gibson McMillan, of Melbourne, Vict. (formerly Wesleyan minister at Londonderry, Ireland), by his marriage with the daughter of Rev. John McArthur, of Londonderry, and sister of the late Sir William McArthur and of Mr. A. McArthur (q.v.). He was born on Nov. 14th, 1850, and arrived in Sydney in Nov. 1869.

Macnab, Henry Black, acting manager of the Bank of New Zealand in London, commenced his banking career in the National Bank of Scotland at Edinburgh. After about five years in their service he joined the staff of the Bank of British North America, and spent three years in that institution in various parts of Canada. He then returned to England, and was shortly afterwards appointed to a clerkship in the Oriental Bank Corporation. After six months' service in their head office in London he was sent out to join their Australian staff as an assistant accountant, arriving in Melbourne in March 1858; and fifteen months later was appointed to the accountantship at Auckland, N.Z., which post he continued to fill until the establishment of the Bank of New Zealand, in Oct. 1861, when he accepted the secretaryship of that institution. He was married in Auckland in 1863; and having for family reasons found it necessary to return to England, he was transferred to the London branch in 1866, and is now acting manager of the head office there.

McNeill, Major-General Sir John Carstairs, K.C.B., K.C.M.G., V.C., Equerry-in-Ordinary to the Queen, eldest son of the late Captain Alexander M'Neill, of Colonsay, by Elizabeth his wife, daughter and co-heiress of John Carstairs, and nephew of the late Lord Colonsay, was born on March 29th, 1831, and entered the army in 1850. He retired on half-pay as major in 1867, became colonel in 1872, and major-general in 1882. Sir John M'Neill has had a long and varied experience in active service. He served as A.D.C. to Sir Edward Lugard in the Indian Mutiny in 1858, being present at the siege and capture of Lucknow, and at the operations of the Azimghur field force, and was mentioned in despatches and received a medal with a clasp. In 1861 he went to

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