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Nairn, Hon. William Edward, son of William Nairn, major 46th Regiment, and formerly Inspector of Public Works in Van Diemen's Land, was born at Lynecombe, Somersetshire, in 1812, and graduated B.A. at Oxford in 1833. He emigrated to Tasmania in 1837 with Sir John Franklin, and received a Government appointment. He was made Secretary to the Board of Education in 1839, Clerk to the Executive and Legislative Councils in 1841, Assistant Colonial Secretary in 1842, and shortly afterwards Deputy Controller-General of Convicts. He was appointed Controller-General of Convicts in 1855 in succession to Dr. Hampton, and Sheriff of Tasmania. He was returned to the Tasmanian Legislative Council in 1856 as member for Meander. When the first responsible ministry was formed in November under Colonel Champ, he accepted a seat in it without portfolio, and was sworn of the Executive Council. He retired with his colleagues in Feb. 1857. Mr. Nairn was President of the Legislative Council from Sept. 1859 to August 1868. He resigned his seat in Parliament in April 1869, and died at Hobart on July 9th following.
Neales, Hon. John Bentham, M.L.C., emigrated to South Australia in June 1838, and successfully established himself as an auctioneer in Adelaide. In 1851 he was returned to the partially elective Legislative Council for North Adelaide, and took a prominent part in opposition to the scheme for the State endowment of the religious bodies. Having been re-elected he sat in the Council until responsible government was conceded, when he was returned to the first Legislative Assembly, in 1857, as one of the members for Adelaide. He was member for The Burra from 1865 to 1868, and in 1871 was elected to the new Legislative Council. He was Minister of Lands in the Hanson Government from June to July 1859, and in that of Mr. Hart from Nov. 1865 to March 1866. He died at Glenelg on July 31st, 1873, at the age of sixty-seven.
Neild, James Edward, L.S.A.(Lond.), M.D., Ch.M. (Melb.), the well-known dramatic critic, was born at Doncaster, in Yorkshire, in 1824, and is descended from an Irish family who emigrated into England in 1642. He received his early education in Leeds, and in 1843 he went to Sheffield to his uncle, a surgeon in extensive practice there, to whom he was apprenticed for five years. Subsequently he completed his medical studies at University College, London. He passed his examination in 1848, and for two years was in practice at Oulton, near Leeds. He was then for three years house surgeon of the Rochdale General Dispensary. In 1853 he went to Victoria on a visit, but ultimately decided to stay in Melbourne, where he abandoned his profession and started business as a chemist and druggist. In 1855, having always had a desire for newspaper work, he became a reporter on the Melbourne Age, then only just started. After ceasing regular connection with the Age, he contributed a good many occasional theatrical notices to that paper. In 1856 the late Mr. T. L. Bright started "My Notebook," and engaged Dr. Neild to write the theatrical notices. This having dropped, the proprietors of the Argus issued the Examiner in 1857, with Mr. T. L. Bright as its first editor, and for upwards of two years Dr. Neild wrote the theatrical criticisms under the signature of "Christopher Sly." Ultimately the Examiner, the Yeoman, and the Weekly Argus were blended into one, under the title of the Australasian, in which Dr. Neild continued to do the theatrical criticism under the signature of "Jaques," and in more recent times under the nom de plume of "Tahite." His connection with the Argus, which belongs to the same proprietary as the Australasian, commenced in 1858, and he also contributed to Melbourne Punch and other papers. In 1864 he retired from the business as a chemist which he had carried on meanwhile, and resumed the practice of his profession. Almost coincidently he accepted the editorship of the Australian Medical Journal, and began to take an active part as a member of the Medical Society of Victoria, of which in 1868 he was elected president, and of which he was subsequently hono-
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