Page:The Dictionary of Australasian Biography.djvu/441

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DICTIONARY Of AUSTRALASIAN BIOGRAPHY.
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—the Spectator and Touchstone. For some years preceding his death Mr. Smith was one of the principal political leader-writers of the Melbourne Argus. He died in Melbourne on Jan. 13th, 1884, aged forty-nine years.

Smith, Right Rev. William Saumarez, D.D., Bishop of Sydney and Primate of Australia, is the son of the Rev. William Snowden Smith, Prebendary of Chichester, and Mary Anne, his wife, daughter or J. Robin, of Jersey. He was born at St. Heliers in 1836, and married in 1870 Florence, daughter of Rev. Lewis Deedes, rector of Bramfield, who died in 1890, on the eve of her departure for New South Wales. He was educated at Marlborough College and at Trinity College, Cambridge, of which he was scholar and became Fellow in 1860. He graduated B.A. in 1858, taking a first class in classics and theology, M.A. in 1862, B.D. in 1871, and received the degree of D.D. in 1889. He was a most successful prizeman during his university career. The Bishop was ordained deacon in 1859, priest in 1860, and was chaplain to the Bishop of Madras from 1861 to 1865, curate of Holy Trinity, Cambridge, in 1866, vicar of Trumpington from 1867 to 1869, and was appointed examining chaplain to the Bishop of Norwich in the latter year and Honorary Canon of Chester in 1880. He was Principal of St. Aidan's College from 1869 to 1889, when he was elected to the see of Sydney . Difficulties, however, arose owing to the fact that he received a less number of votes than another candidate, who declined the appointment, whereupon Dr. Saumarez Smith was declared duly elected without a fresh election. Several of the principal Australian bishops protested that the nomination was invalid, the Archbishop of Canterbury declining to issue the necessary authority for his consecration. In the result he voluntarily withdrew his claim to the see, and was then duly elected and consecrated in 1890 as Metropolitan of the province and Primate of Australia. He is the author of a number of theological works, of which the principal are "Obstacles to Missionary Success" (Maitland prize essay for 1867) (1878); "Christian Faith" (five sermons preached before the university of Cambridge) (1869); "Lessons on the Book of Genesis" (1879).

Smyth, Robert Brough, A.M.I.C.E., F.L.S., F.G.S., geologist and mineralogist, was born at Carville, near Newcastle, Northumberland, in 1830. His father, the late Edward Smith, was a mining engineer of repute and grandson on the maternal side of the late Barnabas Brough, who, with his brother, William Brough, were eminent engineers in their day. He received his early education at Whickham, in the county of Durham, and subsequently turned his attention to the study of natural science, chemistry, and geology. Mr. Smyth commenced his working life as an assistant at the Derwent Iron Works, where he remained over five years, emigrating to Victoria in 1852. After some experience on the goldfields, he entered the Survey Department as draughtsman, under Captain (now Sir Andrew) Clarke, R.E. Subsequently Mr. Smyth acted for a brief period as chief draughtsman, and in 1854 was appointed to take charge of the meteorological observations. Whilst acting as Director of Observatories, Mr. Smyth was appointed in 1858 secretary to the Board of Science, a position which required him to take charge of the mining surveys of the colony. He was in 1860 appointed Secretary for Mines, and held office until the beginning of 1876, when, owing to the result of an inquiry into his treatment of his official subordinates, he resigned the several offices he held under Government. Whilst in the public service, Mr. Brough Smyth acted for some time as Chief Inspector of Mines, and reorganised the Geological Survey, of which he was Director until his retirement from official life. Mr. Smyth was the author of "The Prospector's Handbook," "Goldfields and Mineral Districts of Victoria," and "The Manners and Customs of the Aboriginal Natives of Australia," published at the expense of the Government of Victoria. Mr. Brough Smyth had a good deal to do with the disastrous "boom" in Indian gold mines. He died on Oct. 10th, 1889.

Smythe, Robert Sparrow, was born in London, and arrived in Melbourne in 1855. For seven years he was connected with the press in Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia, occupying himself as a musical and dramatic critic, editor of a squatting newspaper, and of the first illustrated journal published in Australia—the Illustrated Post, which

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