Page:The Dictionary of Australasian Biography.djvu/148

 and Minister for Education. A dissolution by effluxion of time occurring at the close of this session, and a rearrangement of electorates having been decided on, Mr. Dick offered himself as a candidate for the new district of Dunedin West, having for his opponent his old colleague in the united electorate, Mr. W. D. Stewart, who after a severe contest won the seat by a small majority. At the general election in 1887, the contest for the representation of the district between the two gentlemen was renewed, ending with a similar result; so that Mr. Dick has since been excluded from public life.

Dicken, Charles Shortt, C.M.G., F.R.G.S., second surviving son of late William Stephens Dicken, M.D., Deputy Inspector-General of Hospitals, Bengal, and Catherine Lamb, his wife, youngest daughter of Captain Joseph Lamb Popham, R.N., and niece of Admiral Sir Home Popham, was born Sept. 18th, 1841, at Balasore, India, and educated at the Charterhouse. Entered the army as ensign 87th Royal Irish Fusiliers, July 1859; lieutenant 1861; first-class certificate School of Musketry, Hythe, Nov. 1861; retired in 1864, by the sale of commission, for the purpose of settling in Queensland. Arrived in Brisbane in August of that year, and at once proceeded north to Port Denison, and thence to the Suttor River, where he was engaged on a cattle station till shortly before he entered the native mounted police, in June 1866. In Oct. 1867 he was appointed clerk of petty sessions at Springsure; police magistrate, Springsure, July 1872; Gold Commissioner and police magistrate, Ravenswood, July 1874; police magistrate and Gold Fields Warden, Charters Towers, May 1875; police magistrate, Townsville, Dec. 1878 to May 1880, when he was appointed secretary in the office of the Agent-General for Queensland, in London, which position he still holds. Student Middle Temple, Nov. 20th, 1880. Called to the bar June 6th, 1883. Hon. Secretary to the Queensland Commission in London, Colonial and Indian Exhibition, 1866; is a magistrate of Queensland, and Captain (unattached) in the Defence Force. Married, August 25th, 1875, in Sydney, Emily Augusta, eldest daughter of the late Charles William Sheridan, of Becauba Station, Castlereagh River, New South Wales. In May 1891 he was created C.M.G.

Dickinson, Sir John Nodes, M.A., son of Nodes Dickinson, F.R.C.S., of London, Staff-Surgeon to Her Majesty's Forces, was born on the island of Grenada, West Indies, in 1806, and educated at Caius College, Cambridge, where he took his B.A. degree in 1829, and graduated M.A. in 1832. He was called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1840, and four years later went to Sydney with the appointment of Puisne Judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales. He was knighted in 1860, and retired in Feb. 1861 on a pension of £1050 per annum. He married, in 1844, Helen, daughter of Captain Henry Jauncey. He died at Rome on March 16th, 1882.

Dickson, Hon. James Robert, M.L. A., was born at Plymouth in 1832, and educated at Glasgow, and emigrated to Australia, where he engaged in mercantile pursuits in Victoria, and subsequently in Queensland, of which colony he is now a resident. He entered the Legislative Assembly of Queensland in 1873, and for a number of years represented Ennogera. He was Secretary for Public Works and Mines in the Ministry from May to June 1876, when the Government resigned. He was a member of the Cabinet as Colonial Treasurer from June 1876 to Jan. 1879, and filled the same post in the first  Administration from Dec. 1883 to August 1887, when he resigned, owing to a difference of opinion with his colleagues on the subject of the land tax, of the incidence of which he disapproved. He also resigned his seat for Ennogera, in order to test the opinion of the electors, and was again returned, after a severe contest with Mr. Drake, who now holds the seat. At the general election in 1888 Mr. Dickson contested Toombul as an independent candidate, but was defeated by Mr. Gannon. Mr. Dickson, who in 1887 received the Queens permission to bear the title of Honourable within the colony, revisited England in 1890. He is a director of several of the leading banking and financial institutions of Queensland. In April 1892 he was returned to the Assembly for Bulimba at a bye-election.

Disney, Colonel Thomas Robert, R.A., formerly Commandant Victorian Forces, was born on Oct. 16th, 1842. He became 132