Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 3.djvu/14

 1893; in no part of Australia was that crisis worse than in Queensland. Thus the task before the new premier was no light one; but his broad grasp of finance, coupled with extensive knowledge of the circumstances and requirements of the people, enabled him to render excellent service to Queensland during a most critical period of its history (Queensland Hansard, 1906, vol. xcvi. pp. 1-16).

In 1896 Nelson was created K.C.M.G., and in 1897 came to England to represent his colony at the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria. On this occasion he was made a privy councillor and received the honorary degree of D.C.L. at Oxford. After his return he continued his dual office till 13 April 1898, when he sought a less arduous position as president of the legislative council. On 4 Jan. 1904 he received a dormant commission as lieutenant-governor of Queensland.

In 1905 he visited New Guinea, in which he was much interested: there he contracted fever, from which he never really recovered (see Queensland Parly. Deb., 1906, xcvi. 15), and he died at his residence, Gabbinbar, near Toowoomba, on 1 Jan. 1906. His death was the signal for general mourning, and he was accorded a public funeral. He was buried at Toowoomba cemetery.

Nelson was a strong man, and the greatest authority on constitutional questions that the colony had had up to that time, although he was opposed to the federation of the Australian states (Daily Record, Rockhampton, 1 Jan. 1906). He founded the Royal Agricultural Society of Toowoomba and the Austral Association. He was president of the Royal Geographical Society of Queensland.

Nelson married in 1870 Janet, daughter of Duncan Mclntyre, who survived him. They had issue two sons and three daughters.



NERUDA, WILMA. [See (1839–1911), violinist.]

NETTLESHIP, JOHN TRIVETT (1841–1902), animal painter and author, born at Kettering, Northamptonshire, on 11 Feb. 1841, was second son of Henry John Nettleship, solicitor there, and brother of [q. v.], of [q. v.], and of Edward, the ophthalmic surgeon. His mother was Isabella Ann, daughter of James Hogg, vicar of Geddington and master of Kettering grammar school. Music was hereditary in the family, and Nettleship was for some time a chorister at New College, Oxford. Afterwards he was sent to the cathedral school at Durham, where his brother Henry had preceded him. Having won the English verse prize on 'Venice' in 1856, he was taken away comparatively young, in order to enter his father's office. There he remained for two or three years, finishing his articles in London. Though admitted a solicitor and in practice for a brief period, he now resolved to devote himself to art, in which he had shown proficiency from childhood. Accordingly he entered himself as a student at Heatherley's and at the Slade School in London, but to the last he was largely independent and self-taught. His first work was in black and white, not for publication, but to satisfy his natural temperament, which always led him to the imaginative and the grandiose. It is to be regretted that none of the designs conceived during this early period was ever properly finished. They include biblical scenes, such as 'Jacob wrestling with the Angel' and 'A Sower went forth to sow,' which have been deservedly compared with the work of William Blake. Nothing was published under his own name, except a poor reproduction of a 'Head of Minos,' in the 'Yellow Book' (April 1904). But the illustrations to 'An Epic of Women' (1870), by his friend, [q. v.], are his; and his handiwork may likewise be traced in a little volume of 'Emblems' by Mrs. A. Cholmondeley (1875), where his name erroneously appears on the title-page as 'J. J. Nettleship.'

These designs reveal one aspect of his character, a delight in the manifestations of physical vigour. He was himself in his youth a model of virility. As a boy he was a bold rider in the hunting field. When he came to London he took lessons in boxing from a famous prize-fighter, and more than once walked to Brighton in a day. He accompanied a friend, (Sir) Henry Cotton, on a mountaineering expedition to the Alps, for which they trained together bare-footed in the early morning round Regent's Park. It was this delight in physical prowess and in wild life that now induced him to become a painter of animals. His studies were made almost daily in the Zoological Gardens; and for twenty-seven years (1874-1901) he exhibited spacious oil pictures of lions, tigers, etc., at the Royal Academy and for most of the period at the Grosvenor Gallery. Though always noble 