The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Prendergast, Hon. Sir James
Prendergast, Hon. Sir James, B.A., Chief Justice of New Zealand, second son of the late Michael Prendergast, Q.C., by his marriage with Caroline, sister of the late George Dance, R.A., was born in 1828, and educated at St. Paul's School and at Queen's College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1849. He entered as a student of the Middle Temple in May 1849, and was called to the bar in April 1856. Having practised in England for a time as a special pleader, he emigrated to Otago, N.Z., and was admitted to the New Zealand bar in 1862. In 1865 he was appointed to the office of non-political Attorney-General, which he held till 1875. In that year he became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New Zealand. Sir James, during the absence of the Governor, has several times administered the government of the colony. He was created Knight Bachelor in Nov. 1881.