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 chief secretary, and, though less than a year in office, gave a completely new turn to events, and left a mark upon administration in New Zealand. His first efforts were directed to concluding the Maori war with colonial troops and by guerilla methods rather than with the expensive imperial troops, and, although he was embarrassed by a dispute with the military commander, Lieutenant-general Sir Duncan Alexander Cameron, he laid the basis for the successful termination of the war; at the same time he carried out the confiscation of Waikato, instituted native land courts, and carried a native rights bill. He also initiated proposals for the representation of the Maoris in the House of Representatives. His administration restored the credit of the colony, and brought back stability to its finances. A telegraph cable for connecting the two islands was begun, and the capital of the colony removed to Wellington, in accordance with the recommendation of commissions made in 1863. In July 1865 the crisis caused by the differences with General Cameron had blown over, and Weld met his parliament again; but on the Otago reserves bill he was shaken, and on a question of imposing stamp duties he was all but defeated. His health was already giving way, and on 16 Oct. 1865 he resigned, and, as the house was dissolved, returned to England for change and rest.

His administration made a considerable impression in Downing Street, and in 1869 he was appointed governor of Western Australia. In his new sphere Weld continued to do well. He obtained the introduction of an elective element into the Legislative Council, and encouraged the establishment of municipal institutions; an education act passed in 1871 provided for the equality of all religious denominations. His administration coincided with a period of distinct development in the colony; it was marked by the completion of a system of internal telegraphs, the establishment of a steam service round the coasts, and the commencement of the first railway. In January 1875 he was transferred, on the completion of his term of office, to Tasmania. He came at a difficult time, when the personal antagonism of factions in the legislature occupied attention to the exclusion of public business. His conflict with the judges over the release of the woman Hunt created a storm. His term of office is chiefly marked by the discovery of tin. He was at Sydney for the opening of the International Exhibition of 1879, and was transferred in April 1880 to the government of the Straits Settlements, where he arrived on 6 May.

Again Weld's lot fell on a time of much expansion in the colony to which he was appointed. In the regulation of the rapid Chinese immigration he had a difficult task. His name is connected with general improvement of the public buildings and the Raffles Museum, but he particularly devoted himself to the consolidation of relations with the native states. In March 1883 he went to Malacca to settle the Rembau disturbances, and laid the foundation of the arrangements which led to the existence of the protected state of Negri Sembilan; in May 1885 he arranged a new treaty with the sultan of Johore; in May 1887 he proceeded to Borneo as a commissioner to report on the claims of certain chieftains against the British North Borneo Company. In November 1887 he went to Pahang, and left there a British agency, which was soon followed by a regular protectorate.

Weld retired on a pension in 1887, and, returning to England, died at Chideock Manor, Bridport, on 20 July 1891. He was made C.M.G. in 1875, K.C.M.G. in 1880, and G.C.M.G. in 1885. He married, on 2 March 1858, Filomena Mary Anne, daughter of Ambrose Lisle March Phillipps de Lisle of Garendon Park, Leicester. By her he had six sons and seven daughters.

Weld was a man of ability and culture; straightforward and chivalrous, both as minister and governor, but apparently wanting in tact and discretion. Port Weld in the Straits Settlements is named after him. He wrote two or three pamphlets on affairs in New Zealand, the chief of which are ‘Hints to intending Sheep Farmers in New Zealand,’ London, 1851, and ‘Notes on New Zealand Affairs,’ London, 1869; the latter contains a good sketch of his own policy.

[Burke's Landed Gentry; Mennell's Dict. of Australasian Biography; Gisborne's Rulers and Statesmen of New Zealand; Rusden's Hist. of New Zealand, vol. ii. chaps. xii. and xiii. pp. 267 seq.; Colonial Office List, 1886; Weld's Notes on New Zealand Affairs, Parl. Papers of 1865; Fenton's Tasmania, ch. xviii.; information furnished by Sir James Swettenham of the Straits Settlements.] 

WELD, ISAAC (1774–1856), topographical writer, born in Fleet Street, Dublin, on 15 March 1774, was the eldest son by his first wife, Elizabeth Kerr, of Isaac Weld (d. 1824), and half-brother of Charles Richard Weld [q. v.] His great-great-grandfather, the Rev. Edmund Weld, of Blarney Castle, co. Cork, in the time of Cromwell [see under ], was the descendant of Sir Richard Weld of Eaton. His grandfather was named Isaac after Newton, the