Page:The Dictionary of Australasian Biography.djvu/102

 enterprises with success in Southern California, forming settlements, of which the best known are those at Riverside, Etiwanda, and at Ontario in the San Bernardino County, where they established an agricultural college, endowing it with land valued at £20,000. In 1886 the brothers came to Australia, and secured from the governments of Victoria and South Australia the sites for two irrigation colonies on the banks of the Murray, the combined area totalling 500,000 acres. These settlements are situate at Mildura, in Victoria, and Renmark, 140 miles lower down the river, in South Australia, the former, being the first transferred to them, having made the most headway. The Mildura settlement consists of 250,000 acres, of which 50,000 acres are, in the first instance, being practically dealt with, this area including the site of a town and surrounding residential or suburban villa blocks. A company has been floated to provide the needful capital, and a most satisfactory and superior class of settlers has been attracted. The cultivation intended to be carried on is that of the grape, orange, olive, prune, and any other fruits or vegetables found suitable. The establishment of an agricultural college, similar to that at Ontario, is also provided for in the contracts with the governments, the stipulation having been inserted at the suggestion of the firm.

Challis, John Henry, was a native of England, and emigrated to Sydney, where he became a clerk in the employment of Messrs. Flower & Marsden. In 1842 he was admitted a partner in the firm, but left for England in 1855, revisiting the colony once subsequently. He died in 1880, leaving the greater part of his property to the University of Sydney, subject to his widow's life interest. She died in 1888, when the large fund became available for the endowment of a number of new chairs, named after their founder.

Chalmers, Rev. James, the well-known New Guinea missionary and explorer, was born at Ardrishaig, Argyllshire, on August 4th, 1841, and was brought up in Inverary, where he served articles in a lawyer's office. He was subsequently for some time a city missionary in Glasgow, and then studied for the ministry at Cheshunt College, near London. He left Great Britain as a missionary for Rarotonga, Hervey Group, on Jan. 4th, 1866, in connection with the London Missionary Society, on board the John Williams, and suffered much in the Channel from the severe gale in which the London was lost. Mr. Chalmers arrived at Rarotonga on May 20th, 1867, having been twice wrecked on the way and lost everything. He spent ten years in Rarotonga at the head of an educational establishment, but at the request of the directors of the London Missionary Society left the island in 1877, and joined the New Guinea Mission. During the years that followed Mr. Chalmers explored and opened up many miles of coast line and inland for the purpose of establishing mission stations, and assisted in the proclaiming of the protectorate over British New Guinea. Mr. Chalmers visited the north-east coast of New Guinea three times, and made several important discoveries. In conjunction with Dr. Gill, he wrote "Work and Adventures in New Guinea," and afterwards "Pioneering in New Guinea," both published by the Religious Tract Society.

Chalmers, Right Rev. William, Church of England Bishop of Goulburn, N.S.W., was educated at St. Andrews University and at St. Augustine's College, Canterbury. In 1858 he accepted an appointment from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel as Missionary to Labuan, where he was ordained Deacon in that year and Priest in 1859. In 1861 he proceeded to Australia, where he was Incumbent of Inglewood in Victoria from 1862 to 1868, Malmesbury from 1868 to 1870, Kyneton 1870 to 1878, and of St Paul's, Geelong, from the latter year (when he was also appointed Canon of Melbourne) till May 1892, when he was elected to succeed the late Dr. as Bishop of Goulburn.

Chambers, Charles Haddon, the well-known dramatist, was born at Stanmore, Sydney, N.S.W., in 1860. He traces his descent from an old west of Scotland family which had migrated to the north of Ireland, and been incorporated in the famous Ulster plantation. His father's maternal grandfather, John Ritchie, was the first shipbuilder in Ireland. In the middle of the last century, this enterprising Scotsman went over from the Clyde, and founded the yards where the White Star liners are now built. The dramatist's father, John 86