Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol II (1901).djvu/418

 HAY, JOHN (1816–1892), Australian statesman, born at Little Ythsie, Aberdeenshire, on 23 June 1816, was the elder son of John Hay of Little Ythsie, by his wife Jean Moir. He was educated at the University and King's College of Aberdeen, graduating M.A. in 1834. In the same year he went to Edinburgh, and studied for several years for the Scottish bar. In 1838 he emigrated to New South Wales as a squatter, settling at Welaregang on the upper Murray.

He first took part in colonial politics in 1856, when he was returned to the legislature on 2 April for the Murrumbidgee district. On 24 Sept. he carried a motion of want of confidence in the ministry of (Sir) [q. v.], and after declining to form an administration became secretary of lands and public works in the government formed by (Sir) [q. v.] This office he resigned in September 1857 on the defeat of the Parker government on a question of electoral reform. In 1858 the electoral district of the Murrumbidgee was subdivided, and Hay was returned for the Murray, one of the new divisions. He represented this constituency until 1864, when he was returned for Central Cumberland. In 1860, when (Sir) [q. v.] brought forward the famous Crown Lands Alienation Act, Hay moved an amendment which was carried against the government, but, on an appeal to the country, Robertson was supported by a large majority of the electors.

On 14 Oct. 1862 Hay was elected speaker of the legislative assembly, a post which he resigned on 21 Oct. 1865 on the ground of ill-health. After his resignation he continued a member of the assembly until 26 June 1867, when he was summoned to the legislative council, of which, on the recommendation of Sir [q. v. Suppl.], he became president on 8 July 1873, succeeding Sir [q. v.] This position he filled with remarkable ability until his death. On 25 May 1878 he was nominated K.C.M.G. He was vice-president of the New South Wales Agricultural Society.

Hay died, without issue, at his residence at Rose Bay on 20 Jan. 1892, and was buried in the Waverley cemetery on 22 Jan. A marble bust of Hay, executed in September 1889, is in the hall of the legislative council. He married, on 28 Feb. 1838, Mary (d. 1 Feb. 1892), daughter of James Chalmers.



HAY, JOHN HAY DRUMMOND- (1816–1893), diplomatist, [See .]

HAYTER, HENRY HEYLYN (1821–1895), statistician, the son of Henry Hayter of Eden Vale, Wiltshire, the brother of Sir [q. v.], and of Eliza Jane, daughter and coheiress of John Heylyn of Islington, was born at Eden Yale on 28 Oct. 1821, and educated first at Paris and afterwards at the Charterhouse. On leaving school he became a midshipman in the merchant service, and made several voyages, first on Wigram's ships, later on the West India mail packets. In 1852 he emigrated to Victoria. In 1857 he was appointed to the department of the registrar-general, and soon rose to be the head of the statistical branch, where he began steadily to make a well-deserved reputation. In 1870 he was appointed secretary to the royal commission to inquire into the working of the public service of Victoria. He super-intended all the arrangements for the census of 1871. In 1872, when on leave of absence in New Zealand, he was requested by the government of that colony to report upon the working of their registrar-general's department.

In May 1874 Hayter's department was constituted a separate office, and he became government statist. In this position he did the work for which his name will be remembered: he brought the annual returns of statistics of the colony of Victoria into an elaborate and perfect shape, which formed a model for the whole of the Australian colonies. At a conference held in Tasmania in 1875, at which he represented Victoria, his model was adopted as the basis of a uniform system of official statistics. Consequently there is probably no country in the world that can produce an annual series of statistics of cultivation, production, industry, and exchange so perfect as those of the Australian colonies. In 1879, when Hayter came to England as secretary to Sir Graham Berry's 'embassy' to the imperial government for the reform of the constitution of Victoria, he was invited to give evidence before the House of Commons' committee on statistics. His census of 1881 for Victoria was considered a masterly effort of improvement on previous returns, and when, in 1890, he had decided to retire from his office, he was