Page:The Dictionary of Australasian Biography.djvu/179

 and was appointed a member of the Fysh Ministry, with a seat in the Executive Council, without office, in Oct. 1888. He is Chairman of the Board of Technical Education, and of the Chamber of Commerce, Hobart. 

FitzGerald, James Edward, C.M.G., B.A., J.P., son of the late Gerald FitzGerald, of Queen's County, was born in 1818 at Bath, and educated at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1842. He was assistant in the Department of Antiquities, British Museum, 1844-8, and Under-Secretary to the British Museum 1849-50. When the Canterbury Association was founded, to settle the province of Canterbury, N.Z., he became an active member, and in 1850 arrived in one of the first four ships at LyttletonLyttelton [sic], N.Z., where he started and edited for two years the LyttletonLyttelton [sic] Times, acting at the same time as Police Inspector and Immigration Agent. In 1853 he was chosen first superintendent of Canterbury, and held the office till 1857, when he went to England as agent for the province. He was one of the members for LyttletonLyttelton [sic] returned to the first Parliament in 1854, and was appointed to the Executive Council on June 14th. This was the first step taken towards responsible government, Mr. FitzGerald becoming virtually the first Premier of New Zealand. The newly appointed members were anxious to secure genuine power for themselves as representatives of constituencies, and they urged the Acting Governor (Colonel Wynyard) to get rid of the permanent office holders and re-constitute the Government upon "the ordinary responsible basis." This request being put before the office holders, including Mr. William Swainson (Attorney-General), Mr. Alexander Shepherd (Colonial Treasurer), and Mr. Andrew Sinclair (Colonial Secretary), they declined to advise on the subject, and on August 2nd Mr. FitzGerald and his colleagues resigned from the Executive Council. In 1857-60 he was agent in England for the province of Canterbury. In 1862 Mr. FitzGerald re-entered Parliament as member for Akaroa, and on August 12th, 1865, became Minister for Native Affairs, in succession to Mr. W. B. D. Mantell, in the Weld Administration, which office he held till Oct. 16th, when the Cabinet resigned upon a practical failure to carry stamp duties. In 1866, after his retirement from public life, Mr. FitzGerald was appointed Comptroller-General, and in 1872 Commissioner of Audit, and Comptroller and Auditor-General in 1878, which office he still holds. In 1870 he was created C.M.G. Mr. FitzGerald married in 1850 Fanny Erskine, daughter of the late George Draper, of London.  Fitzgerald, Hon. John Foster Vesey (formerly John Fitzgerald Leslie Foster), is the second son of the late Hon. John Leslie Foster, Baron of the Irish Court of Exchequer, and sometime M.P. for the county of Louth and the University of Dublin, by his marriage with the Hon. Letitia Vesey Fitzgerald, sister of Lord Fitzgerald and Vesci. The families of Foster and Fitzgerald have been for generations distinguished in the Church and politics of Ireland, as well as at the bar and in the judicial arena; Mr. Fitzgerald's grandfather having been Bishop of Clogher, and his great-grandfather the Right Hon. Anthony Foster, Lord Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer. Mr. Fitzgerald, who was born in Dublin on August 19th, 1818, was educated at Dublin University, where he graduated B.A. in 1839 with honours, and became a student for the bar, but abandoned the legal profession in favour of a colonial career. The colony of Victoria, then only the Port Phillip District of New South Wales, was his choice, and he landed there on March 28th, 1841. At first he devoted himself to pastoral and agricultural pursuits, but in 1847 he was elected as representative of Port Phillip, and in July 1848 again came forward for election as one of the six members allotted to Port Phillip in the Legislative Council of of [sic] New South Wales. The feeling was, however, so strong that this so-called representation was a mere farce, that the majority were desirous not to elect any more members until separation was secured. In deference to the protests of this party Mr. Foster's nomination was withdrawn, but a few days later he was put up as a candidate for the borough of Melbourne, when the non-election party nominated Earl Grey, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, in opposition to him, in the hope that his election would call public attention in England to the grievances of which the colonists complained. In the result Earl 163