Page:The Dictionary of Australasian Biography.djvu/366

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DICTIONARY OF AUSTRALASIAN BIOGRAPHY.
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his present position as Parliamentary Librarian, Mr. O'Donovan filled various positions in Victoria. He is the author of numerous works, including "Memories of Rome," and part author of "Ami de la Religion." During his stay in Melbourne he wrote on literary and artistic subjects, lectured on art and architecture at the Public Library, and advocated the establishment of schools of design in Victoria. Mr. O'Donovan's latest work is an Analytical Catalogue of the Queensland Parliamentary Library.

Officer, Charles Myles, M.L.A., J.P., the third son of the late Sir Robert Officer, was born at New Norfolk, Tasmania, in 1827, and in 1848 went to Port Phillip, where he engaged in pastoral pursuits at Mount Talbot, in the Wimmera district. He was returned to the Assembly for Dundas in 1880, and has ever since represented the constituency in the moderate Conservative interest. He married first, in 1854, Christina Susannah, daughter of the late Daniel Robertson, of Launceston, Tasmania; and secondly, in 1876, Ellen Agnes, second daughter of the late Thomas Pope Besnard, of Inverell, N.S.W.

Officer, Sir Robert, M.A., son of Robert Officer, was born in Scotland in 1800, and graduated B.A., and subsequently M.A., at St. Andrews University. Having obtained his diploma as a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, England, he emigrated to Tasmania, where he was appointed Government medical officer for New Norfolk, and also acquired considerable private practice in partnership with Dr. Agnew, who has since been Premier of the colony. Sir Robert paid a brief visit to Victoria whilst the gold fever was at its height; but ultimately returned to Tasmania, where, after filling the post of Assistant Colonial Surgeon, he retired from the medical profession, resigning his practice to Dr. Agnew. In 1853 he was returned to the old Legislative Council, then the only Chamber, for Buckingham. In the following year the new Constitution Act was passed, and when the first election under the bi-cameral system took place, in Sept. 1856, Sir Robert Officer was returned to the House of Assembly for the district of Glenorchy. He was at once chosen Chairman of Committees, and on the retirement of Mr. Fenton in August 1861 became Speaker of the House. This position he held uninterruptedly until April 1877, having been four times re-elected in the interval, and having throughout the whole term of his Speakership been returned unopposed for Glenorchy. Sir Robert was knighted in 1869; and after his resignation of the Speakership, on which occasion he received the thanks of the House for his long and valuable services, he retired to live at Hall Green, his residence near New Norfolk, where to the last he occupied himself in hop cultivation and salmon acclimatisation, industries in which he was greatly interested, and of which he was one of the leading pioneers. He died on July 8th, 1879.

O'Grady, Hon. Michael, K.S.G., M.L.A., was born in Roscommon, Ireland, in 1821, and went to London as a boy to push his fortune. In 1855 he was sent out to Sydney to establish a branch of the "People's Provident Society." The next year he removed to Melbourne and was connected with insurance business. In 1861 he entered the Lower House of the Victorian Parliament as member for Villiers and Heytesbury, and was Commissioner of Public Works in the Sladen Ministry from May to July 1868. He held the same post in the Duffy Ministry from June 1871 to May 1872. Mr. O'Grady, who was created a Knight of St. Gregory by the Pope in 1871, died in 1875.

O'Halloran, Joseph Sylvester, Secretary of the Royal Colonial Institute, is the son of the late Captain William Littlejohn and Eliza Minton O'Halloran. and was born at Adelaide, South Australia, on March 28th, 1842. He was educated at private schools, and entered the South Australian Civil Service, receiving his first appointment from Sir Richard Graves MacDonnell, the then Governor. After passing ten years in the Audit Office, and rising to the third position in that department, he was promoted to the clerkship of the Executive Council, being at the same time gazetted Clerk to the Court of Appeals. These offices he retained until 1871, and, in addition, acted for awhile as private secretary to the Right Hon. Sir James Fergusson, Bart., Governor of the colony. In consequence of certain reductions in the estimates, which involved several departmental changes, Mr. O'Halloran retired from the Government service in 1871,

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