Page:The Dictionary of Australasian Biography.djvu/363

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DICTIONARY OF AUSTRALASIAN BIOGRAPHY.
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of Captain Robert Russell, R.N. In 1847 he was elected M.P. for Scarborough, but gave up his seat in 1851 on accepting the office of Comptroller of the Queen's Household. In 1853 he became Treasurer of the Household, and in 1858 Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia, a post which he filled till 1863, when he succeeded to the peerage on the death of his father. In 1866 he delivered his maiden speech in the House of Lords as mover of the address in reply to the speech from the throne. The Marquess was captain of her Majesty's Honourable Corps of Gentlemen of Arms from 1869 to 1871, when he succeeded Colonel Blackall as Governor of Queensland, which colony he left in 1874 on his appointment as Governor of New Zealand, where he remained till 1878, when he was transferred to Victoria, of which colony he remained Governor till 1884, when he retired from the service and resided in England. The Marchioness died on Jan. 26th, 1885. Lord Normanby, who in early life was a supporter of the Whig party, was opposed to Mr. Gladstone's Home Rule policy. He died on April 3rd, 1890.

Norton, Hon. Albert, M.L.A., Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, Queensland, was born at Elswick, near Sydney, on Jan. 1st, 1836, and educated at Wilkinson's School, near that city. In 1860 he removed to Queensland, and settled at Rodd's Bay Station, near Gladstone, in 1861. Five years later he unsuccessfully contested Port Curtis with Sir A. H. Palmer, and the next year (1887) was summoned to the Legislative Council. He only, however, sat in the Upper House for one session, being returned to the Assembly without opposition for Port Curtis (which he still represents) in 1868. In March 1883, on the resignation of Mr. Macrossan, he accepted office as Minister for Works and Mines in the first McIlwraith Ministry, retiring with his colleagues in the following November. On the meeting of Parliament after the general election of 1888 Mr. Norton was unanimously elected Speaker of the House of Assembly.

Norton, Hon James, M.L.C., was nominated to the Legislative Council of New South Wales in Oct. 1879, and was Postmaster-General in the Stuart Ministry from May 1883 to May 1884. Mr. Norton is the eldest son of the late Hon. James Norton, M.L.C., formerly a solicitor in large practice in Sydney, by his first wife, Jane, daughter of Alexander Kenneth Mackenzie. He was born in Dec. 1824, and practises as a solicitor in Sydney, being a Fellow of St. Paul's College within the university of Sydney and a trustee of the Free Public Library and Australian Museum in that city. He married first, at Longford, Tasmania, in June 1854, Harriott Mary, eldest daughter of Thomas Walker, Deputy Assistant Commissary-General of New South Wales (who died in 1860); and, secondly, at Sydney, in Dec. 1862, Isabella, eldest daughter of Rev. William Stephens, of Levens, Westmoreland.

Nowell, Edwin Cradock, was born at Hobart, Tasmania, in 1831. He was appointed clerk to the Commissariat Department, Tasmania, 1852; clerk to the Governor 1857; acting clerk to the Executive and Legislative Councils 1862; clerk to the Executive and Legislative Councils 1864, which office he has held continuously down to the present time. He has also held the following offices: — Government Statistician 1867 to 1882; Superintendent of Census 1881; Clerk of Federal Council of Australasia first session 1886, second session 1888, third session 1889, and fourth session 1891. He is author of a "Parliamentary Handbook" (Hobart, 1887), "History of the Relations between the two Houses of Parliament in Tasmania and South Australia" (Hobart, 1890), papers on political economy and meteorology read before the Royal Society of Tasmania, and occasional literary works. Mr. Nowell is an honorary member of the Statistical Society.

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