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 one of Mr. Fergus's tutors when at Ayr Academy. In 1872 he was appointed by the Provincial Government as district engineer for the goldfields, with his headquarters at Cromwell, and held that position until 1876, when he left the service of the Government in order to enter into partnership with Mr. D. Henderson. The firm of Henderson & Fergus carried out several important undertakings, including the construction of the Mosgiel-Outram Railway, the Patea Bailway, the waterworks at New Plymouth, and the railway wharf at the Bluff. In partnership with Mr. J. B. Blair, he was instrumental in building the Deloraine-Mersey Railway in Tasmania and the Heidelberg-Alphington Railway in Victoria. At the general election of 1881 he was returned to the New Zealand House of Representatives for the Wakatipu district, after a severe contest, and in 1884 he was re-elected, having had again to encounter strong opposition. In 1887 and in 1890 he was returned unopposed. On the formation of the Atkinson administration in 1887, Mr. Fergus attained Cabinet rank, being entrusted with the portfolios of Justice and Defence, which he retained until Oct. 15th, 1889, when, consequent on the re-election of the Hon. T. W. Hislop, a rearrangement of portfolios took place, Captain W. R. Russell joining the Ministry and relieving Mr. Fergus of the departments of Justice and Defence, while the latter took over the more important portfolios of Public Works and Mines. He administered these departments until Jan. 1891, when, the Atkinson Government having been defeated at the polls in the previous December, he resigned with his colleagues. He married a daughter of Mr. (q.v.).

Fergusson, Right Hon. Sir James, Bart., G.C.S.I., K.C.M.G., C.I.E., M.P., is the eldest son of the late Sir Charles Dalrymple Fergusson, of Kilkerran, Ayrshire, on whose death, in 1849, he succeeded as 6th baronet. His mother was Helen, second daughter of the Right Hon. David Boyle, Lord Justice-General of Scotland. He was born on March 14th, 1832, and was educated at Rugby and University College, Oxford. Having entered the army in 1850, he became successively lieutenant and captain in the Grenadier Guards. Serving in the Crimea in 1854-5, he was wounded at Inkerman, and received a medal with three clasps and a Turkish medal. He was M.P. for Ayrshire from 1854 to 1857, when he was defeated, but was again returned in 1859, and sat till 1868. He was Under- Secretary for India from 1866 to 1867 in the third Derby Government, and Under-Secretary for the Home Department in the first Disraeli Ministry from the latter year till 1868, when, having been sworn of the Privy Council, he was appointed Governor and Commander-in-Chief of South Australia, and held office from Feb. 1869 to Feb. 1873. Responsible government leaves but little to the initiative of the governors of the self-governing colonies; but Sir James Fergusson is entitled to considerable credit in connection with the establishment of cable communication between Australia and England, the construction of the overland telegraph line from Port Darwin to Adelaide resulting from the encouragement which he gave to Mr. Strangways when the latter was Premier of South Australia. Sir James married, in 1859, Lady Edith Christian Ramsay, daughter of the Marquis of Dalhousie; and this lady died in 1871, during his tenure of the government of South Australia. Two years later he married a second time, the object of his choice being a South Australian lady—Olive, daughter of the late John Henry Richman, of Wambanga, in that colony, and previously of Adelaide, solicitor. From June 1873 to Dec. 1874 Sir James was Governor of New Zealand, when he resigned and returned to England, being created K.C.M.G. in the same year. In 1875 he unsuccessfully contested Frome, and in 1878 Greenock with a like fate. He was Governor of Bombay from March 1880 to March 1885. In Jan. 1882 his second wife, who in the previous December had received from the Queen the decoration of the Imperial Order of the Crown of India, died suddenly in Bombay, of English cholera, during her husband's absence at Baroda. Sir James, who was created G.C.S.I. in 1885, was elected for one of the divisions of Manchester at the general election in that year, and again in 1886. In August of the latter year he was appointed Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and in Sept. 1891  159