entered the same department under the Government of Fiji. Two years later he was appointed Acting Surveyor-General, and in 1882 Commissioner of Crown Lands and Works and Crown Surveyor. He has been a member of the Executive and Legislative Councils of Fiji since 1883.
Best, Robert Wallace, M.L.A., was born in Fitzroy, Melbourne, in 1856, and practises as a solicitor in Melbourne. He stood for Fitzroy at the General Election of March 1890, and was returned at the head of the poll, displacing Mr. R. D. Reid. He was again elected in April 1892, and was formerly Mayor of Fitzroy. He married a daughter of the late Hon. G. D. Langridge. In April 1892, when the Shiels' Ministry was reconstructed, after the General Election had resulted in their favour, he was offered a seat in the Cabinet without portfolio.
Beveridge, Peter, was born at Dunfermline, Scotland, and went to Victoria ten years later with his father, who engaged in pastoral pursuits near the township of Beveridge, to which the family gave their name. In 1845 Mr. Peter Beveridge took up country on the lower Murray, settling at Tyntyndyer, some ten miles below what is now Swan Hill. Here for twenty-three years he made a careful study of the habits and customs of the then numerous aborigines of the Lower Murray and Riverine districts. The result of his observations was embodied in a work entitled "The Aborigines of Victoria and Riverine," published posthumously in 1889. Mr. Beveridge, who latterly resided at French Island, died at Woodburn, near Kilmore, on Oct. 4th, 1885.
Bews, Hon. David, M.P., sometime Minister of Education for South Australia, was born near Kirkwall, in the Orkney Islands, in 1850, and went to South Australia with his parents the following year. In 1853, during the gold rush in Victoria, his family removed to that colony, but only to return one year later. Mr. Bews' father then engaged in farming operations near Port Elliot, and afterwards near Adelaide. Mr. Bews continued as a farmer till he attained his majority, when he secured a position as clerk with the Kadina & Wallaroo Railway Company. He subsequently became goods manager; but seven years later (in 1879), when the Government took over the line, he left the service, and entered the ranks of journalism by taking charge of the Wallaroo Times. He was three times mayor of the Wallaroo Corporation, besides which he was a member of the late Yorke's Peninsula Local Road Board, and the School Board of Advice. In 1885 Mr. Bews first entered the House of Assembly as member for Wallaroo, and was re-elected on March 19th, 1887, and at the General Election in 1890. In August of that year he accepted the office of Minister of Education in Mr. Playford's Government. Mr. Bews, who had been appointed one of the South Australian delegates at the Postal Convention, died in Melbourne whilst en route to Sydney on Feb. 24th, 1891.
Bickerton, Alexander William, F.C.S., was born at Alton, Hants, in 1842, and educated at the Grammar School of the town. After a preliminary engineering course, he gained an exhibition at the Royal School of Mines, London, where he distinguished himself in physical science, gaining a Senior Queen's Scholarship. After leaving the School of Mines, he joined the staff of the Hartley Institution, Southampton, and was subsequently appointed Lecturer on Science at Winchester College, and was Public Analyst in Hampshire. In 1873 Mr. Bickerton accepted the post of Professor of Chemistry and Physics at Canterbury College, N.Z. He has held this position ever since, has written many papers on scientific subjects, and is the author of an astronomical theory which he terms "Partial Impact."
Bindon, Hon. Samuel Henry, was born in Ireland in 1812, and educated at Trinity College, Dublin, where he graduated in 1835. He was called to the Irish bar, and after practising for some years in Dublin, went out to Victoria in 1855; in May of which year he was admitted to the bar of that colony. He sat in the Legislative Assembly from 1864 to 1869, and was Minister of Justice in the Sir James MᶜCulloch Government from July 1866 to May 1868. In 1869 he was appointed a County Court Judge, and held that position, with the exception of a short interval in 1878, when he was one of the victims of the Black Wednesday dismissals, till his death on August 1st, 1879.
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