taking their rise in the Dividing Range and flowing through broad tablelands. Mitchell's chief discovery was the Barcoo river, which he named the Victoria. In 1851 he was sent to report on the Bathurst goldfields in New South Wales. On his first visit to England he had taken with him a large collection of specimens, amongst which were the first gold given him by the shepherd Macgregor and the first diamond discovered in the country, presented to him by Thomas Hale. On a second visit he patented the boomerang propeller for steamers. He published "Battlefields of the Peninsula," "Three Expeditions into the Interior of Australia" (1838), "Journal of an Expedition into the Interior of Australia," "Australian Geography" (for the use of schools), besides numerous maps of his surveys in Australia. He also translated "The Lusiad," by Camoens. It may be added that in 1843 Sir Thomas Mitchell unsuccessfully contested Port Phillip for a seat in the New South Wales Legislature. The next year, however, he was elected. The distance from Sydney made the attendance of Port Phillip residents in Parliament so difficult that three out of six members allotted to the district and to Melbourne resigned, and two who took their seats in 1844 were Government officers, vis., the Surveyor-General and the Sheriff. The former was now warned by the Governor, Sir George Gipps, that, though in his private capacity he was welcome to his opinions, as Surveyor-General he must support the Government. Sir Thomas thereupon immediately resigned his seat. Subsequently the Governor appointed a board to inquire into the working of his department, a step which pained him greatly. He died at Darling Point, Sydney, on Feb. 5th, 1855.
Mitchell, Hon. Sir William Henry Fancourt, M.L.C., who was for fourteen years President of the Legislative Council of Victoria, was the son of the Rev. George Barkley Mitchell, vicar of St. Mary's and All Saints', Leicester, and chaplain to the late Duke of York. He arrived in Tasmania at a very early age, and for a time filled the office of acting Colonial Secretary. He went to Port Phillip about 1840. and engaged in squatting pursuits, taking up country in the neighbourhood of Kyneton. At the time of the first gold discoveries, when the police were in a very disorganised state, the Lieutenant-Governor, Mr. La Trobe, appointed him Chief Commissioner of Police, with almost unlimited powers, and the result was that after a time a tolerably efficient force was created. He introduced the cadet system by promising a number of young fellows commissions and outfits as police cadets on their passing through a successful probation in chasing bushrangers and doing escort duty. Bushranging was by this means to a great extent stamped out Captain (afterwards Sir) Charles Macmahon was appointed by the Chief Commissioner as head of the city police, and Mitchell going home on leave of absence, Macmahon succeeded him as acting Chief Commissioner. On his return in Sept. 1856 he entered political life, and was elected to the Legislative Council as one of the five original members for the north-western province, for which he was re-elected whilst he remained in public life. Mr. Mitchell was Postmaster-General of Victoria in the Haines Government from April 1857 to March 1858, during which time he effected an almost total reorganisation of the department. He was Commissioner for Railways from Dec. 1861 until June 1863 in the third O'Shanassy administration. In March 1869 he was elected Chairman of Committees of the Legislative Council, and retained that office until Oct. 1870, when, on the retirement of Sir James F. Palmer, he was elected President. In 1875 he received the honour of knighthood, and was five times re-elected President of the Upper House of the Victorian Legislature prior to his final retirement in Nov. 1884. He died on Nov. 4th, 1884.
Mitchelson, Hon. Edwin, M.H.R., is a native of Auckland, N.Z., where he is extensively engaged in the kauri gum trade and general mercantile business. He entered the New Zealand Parliament in 1881, and became a member of the third Atkinson Ministry in 1883, with the portfolio of Public Works, which he held from Nov. 1883 to August 1884, accepting the same post in the fourth Atkinson administration on August 28th, 1884. It only, however, lasted six days. In the last Atkinson Cabinet Mr. Mitchelson was Minister for Public Works from Oct.
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