Page:The Dictionary of Australasian Biography.djvu/203

This page has been validated.
Gil]
DICTIONARY OF AUSTRALASIAN BIOGRAPHY.
[Gla

unanimously chosen as Chairman of the Council. At the time of the abolition of the provinces he was one of the city representatives in the Provincial Council of Wellington. Some years ago one of the prizes offered by the New Zealand Parliament for the best essays on the settlement of the people on the land was awarded to Mr. Gillon. He is a Justice of the Peace for the colony, and occupies a prominent position in the Masonic body. As chairman of the central executive committee, he was the leading spirit in the movement which recently resulted successfully in the establishment of an independent Grand Lodge of New Zealand. As he declined to accept active office, the rank of Past Deputy Grand Master was conferred upon him, in recognition of his services to the craft.

Gilmore, George, went to New South Wales in 1839, in command of the barque Uretta. He took a prominent part in the establishment of the intercolonial coasting trade, starting a line between Sydney and the Hunter River, and later on between Melbourne, Tasmania, and Sydney. He was one of the founders of the Hunter River Steam Navigation Company, which was formed in Sept. 1841, and became merged in the Australian Steam Navigation Company, the latter in its turn having recently become absorbed in the Australasian United Steam Navigation Company. In the year 1842 Captain Gilmore ran the first steamer into Moreton Bay, now known as Brisbane, and brought away the first cargo of wool from that now prominent emporium. He subsequently resided in Launceston, Tasmania, and was Colonial Secretary in the Kennerley Ministry from April 10th to July 20th, 1876. He died at Launceston on Jan. 2nd, 1884.

Gisborne, Hon. William, who comes of an old Derbyshire family, and emigrated to New Zealand, was Commissioner of Crown Lands in that colony from 1848 to 1853, and from 1853 to 1869 Under-Secretary. On July 5th in the latter year, while holding a seat in the Legislative Council, he became Colonial Secretary, which office he retained till Sept. 10th, 1872, and acted also till Dec. 6th, 1871, as Minister of Public Works. During his term of office he resigned from the Legislative Council and was elected to the House of Representatives. From 1870 to 1875 he was New Zealand Government Insurance Commissioner; in 1877 he once more entered the House of Representatives, and in July 1879 joined the Grey Cabinet in which he held office till October of the same year: from July 5th to 19th as Minister of Lands and from July 5th to Oct. 8th as Minister of Mines and Immigration. Mr. Gisborne, who has lived in England of late, was a member of the New Zealand Commission in London for the Colonial and Indian Exhibition of 1886, and is the author of "New Zealand Rulers and Statesmen" (Sampson Low, 1886), and, more recently, of "The Colony of New Zealand" (E. A. Petherick & Co., 1888).

Glasgow, His Excellency the Right Hon. David (Boyle), Earl of, G.C.M.G., Governor of New Zealand, is the eldest son of the late Patrick Boyle, of Shewalton, Ayrshire, by his marriage with Mary Frances, daughter of Sir Robert Dalrymple Horn Elphinstone, Bart. He was born on May 31st, 1833; and entering the royal navy, served through the Crimean war, during which he was wounded. Later on he retired with the rank of captain. He married on July 23rd, 1873, Dorothea Elizabeth Thomasina, eldest daughter of Sir Edward Hunter Blair, Bart., and Elizabeth his wife, daughter of George Wauchope. In 1892 Lord Onslow, the late Governor of New Zealand, having decided to retire, the appointment was offered to Lord Glasgow and accepted by him. The Ballance Government immediately on the occurrence of the vacancy conveyed to the Colonial Office the wish that they should be consulted prior to a final appointment being made. As this was disregarded, something in the nature of a protest was made against Lord Glasgow s appointment, but it was in no way dictated by personal disapproval, and merely related to the principles regulating the method of such appointments. Lord Glasgow left for New Zealand, viâ Sydney, in April 1892, and was received with much effusion on his landing in June. His family had already formed a connection with the colony, his cousin, Alexander Boyle, having married in 1883 Fannie, daughter of Michael Studholme, of the Waimate, Canterbury, N.Z. His aunt having become the wife of the late Sir Charles Dalrymple Fergusson,

187