Page:History of Adelaide and vicinity.djvu/330

 304 ADELAIDE AND VICINITY Mr. w. r Boothby 1853, entering the South Austrah'an Civil Service in December, 1854, as Deputy Sheriff, and ap^H)inted Sheriff in March, 1856. He was a member of the Court of Disputed Returns for the Legislative Council in 1854, and became Returning Officer for the Province in 1856. He has been called upon from time to time to advise the Government as to alterations in the Electoral Acts, the first occasion being after the election in 1857, when Mr. Boothby devised the present system of conducting the ballot. He was next engaged to report on the South Australian system of voting ; and these reports were printed and laid on the table of the House of Commons in 1872, at the time the Ballot Bill was under consideration in the British Legislature. The South Australian plan of voting ultimately became law in England and in most of the United States of America. Mr. Boothby's valuable opinion has been sought on several occasions by Select Committees appointed by the Legislature to take evidence and report on electoral matters and the subdivision of the Province into electoral districts. In May, 1888, he wrote a report on the Constitution granted to South Australia. F"or over a quarter of a century Mr. Boothby acted as Returning Officer for the Legislative Council, the whole Province forming the district, and, with one exception, he i)resided at every scrutiny of votes. During this lengthened period no case of bribery or undue influence was ever brought before a Court of Di.sputed Returns relative to the elections for the Upper House. He is still Returning Officer for the Province and for the Central District of the Legislative Council. As Sheriff, he has had the charge and control of the prisons of South Australia since 1854, and, for nearly 30 years, of the Convict Department. Mr. Boothby drafted the Prisons Act, 1869-70, and framed the regulations connected with its administration, receiving for this work the s])ecial commendation of the Government. Mr. Boothby, in 1862, designed the present system of forming Jurors' Rolls, and drafted the Jury Act, No. i, 1862, in which year he was ajjpointed Marshal of the Vice- Admiralty Court. He was Captain in the V^olunteer Artillery, B Battery, in the " fifties." He acted for many years as Chairman of the Annual Board of Tenders for Government Supplies, and he has acted on several important Royal Commissions. He is now a member of the Supply and Tender Board On the foundation of the University of Adelaide in 1874, Mr. Boothby was appointed a member of the first Council ; and he has continued a member of that governing body ever since, having been periodically re-elected by the Senate. In 1876, when on leave, he visited most of th(prisons and convict establishments of the United Kingdom, his visit of inspection proving of great benefit to the Province in the erection — largely by prison labor — of buildings of a more suitable character as prisons. In addition to enquiring into the workings of penal establishments in Great Britain, Mr. Boothby toured the south of France and Italy to study and report on olive cultivation. He published a highly instructive brochure as a result of his investigations, and, on his return, utilised prison labor in planting many acres with olives round the Adelaide Gaol. In July, 1893, Mr. Boothby was the recipient of a handsome presentation at the hands of the various Returning Officers of the Province; and in January, 1893, Her Majesty conferred on him the dignity of C.M.G.