House of Representatives from 1863 to 1878, when he resigned, and was nominated to the Legislative Council in the same year. Mr. Reynolds, who was married at Caversham, Dunedin, on Oct. 7th, 1856, to Miss Rachel Selena Pinkerton, was Commissioner of Customs in the Waterhouse and Fox Ministries from Oct. 1872 to April 1873, and Colonial Secretary under Sir Julius Vogel from the latter date until July 1875, when he became Commissioner of Customs in the Pollen Ministry, holding office till Feb. 1876. He was a member without portfolio of the Stout-Vogel Ministry of 1884-7.
Richardson, Hon. Edward, C.M.G., was born in London in 1831, and was educated at the City of London School. He served his apprenticeship as a civil engineer on the London and South-Western Railway, and as a mechanical engineer on the Great Southern and Western Railway of Ireland. He went out to Melbourne in 1852, and was at once employed in the service of the Victorian Government as engineer in the roads and bridges department. In 1855 he retired from the Government service, and commenced the business of contractor, and carried out several large railway and other works. He joined the first volunteer corps that was raised in the colony, and rose from the ranks to the position of captain in the Volunteer Horse Artillery. He left Victoria in 1861 to carry out an important railway contract in New Zealand, and, in partnership with Mr. George Holmes, constructed the Lyttelton and Christchurch Railway, including the celebrated Moorhouse tunnel. He was elected a member of the Canterbury Provincial Council, representing Lyttelton in 1870, and in 1871 was returned to the House of Representatives for the city of Christchurch. He remained a member of the Provincial Council till the provinces were abolished in 1876. Mr. Richardson was appointed Minister for Public Works in Oct. 1872, and held that office in the Waterhouse, Fox, Vogel, Pollen, and Atkinson administrations till Jan. 1877, when he was compelled, through ill-health produced by overwork, to resign. He was created C.M.G. in 1879 in recognition of his services to the colony in connection with the carrying out of the public works policy inaugurated by Sir Julius Vogel. He was again Minister for Public Works in the Stout-Vogel Government from Sept. 1884 till the Ministry resigned in Oct. 1887. Mr. Richardson remained member of the House of Representatives till 1890, but did not seek re-election at the general election in that year. He has been a member of the Mechanical Engineers' Institution of England since 1862.
Richardson, Hon. Sir John Larkins Cheese, M.L.C., was born in Bengal on August 4th, 1810, and educated at Addiscombe College. Returning to India as an artillery cadet, he remained in the military service of the East India Company till 1851. In the following year he visited New Zealand and published an account of his trip in a volume entitled "A Summer's Excursion." He also published a poem in blank verse entitled "The First Christian Martyr in New Zealand." He then went back to England, but returned to settle in the Molyneux district of Otago in 1856. Subsequently he accepted a seat in the Provincial Council of Otago, and was chosen Speaker, being elected Superintendent of the province in 1861. In 1863 he was defeated on seeking re-election to the latter post by Mr. Harris. He was, however, again elected to the Provincial Council, and was once more chosen Speaker. This office he resigned in Nov. 1864, on becoming Postmaster-General in the Weld Government. In Nov. 1865 he became Commissioner of Customs in addition, but resigned with his colleagues in Oct. 1865. Sir John was a member of the Stafford Government without portfolio from August 1866 to May 1868. He was M.H.R. for Dunedin from 1861 to 1863, when he resigned, but was returned for a Taranaki constituency in 1866. Having been nominated to the Legislative Council, he was appointed Speaker of that body. Sir John, who was Chancellor of Otago University, died in Dunedin on Dec. 16th, 1878. He was knighted in 1875.
Richardson, Major-General John Soame, C.B., Commander of the Forces, New South Wales, was born in 1836, and entered the army in 1854. In the next year he served with the 72nd Highlanders in the Crimean war, and was present at the siege and fall of Sebastopol for which he received a medal with clasp, and the Turkish war
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