Page:The Dictionary of Australasian Biography.djvu/234

 Zealand. In 1889 he resigned the bishopric, and Archdeacon Churchill Julius, of Ballarat, was elected to succeed him. Bishop Harper is warden of Christ College, and governor of Canterbury College.

Harpur, Charles, one of the best-known poets of Australia, was born at Windsor, on the Hawkesbury river, in New South Wales, in 1812. He published a small collection of sonnets, and some years afterwards a volume of miscellaneous poems. In 1850 he married Mary, eldest daughter of Mr. E. Doyle, of Jerey's Plains. In 1858 he was appointed Gold Commissioner at Araluen, but the office was abolished in 1866. A year afterwards his son was accidentally shot, and he never recovered the shock, dying on June 10th, 1868.

Harris, Rev. Richard Deodatus Poulett, son of Captain Charles Poulett Harris, of the 60th Rifles, was born at Cape Breton Island on Oct. 26th, 1817. The family traces descent in a direct line from Sir Amias Poulett, of Queen Elizabeth's time. Mr. Harris was educated by his father, and at Manchester Free Grammar School, and afterwards at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated as Twenty-fourth Wrangler in 1843. He was Principal of the Huddersfield College in 1844; took orders in 1846, and was classical master of Blackheath Proprietary School in 1849. In 1856, having received the appointment of Rector of the High School of Hobart Town, Mr. Harris went to Tasmania. During his Rectorship of the High School, which lasted twenty-eight years, he was a most successful head master, and trained a number of the most prominent Tasmanian public men. At the suggestion of Mr. Harris, the Tasmanian Parliament in 1858 passed an Act establishing a system of examinations on the plan of the Oxford and Cambridge local examinations, and founding two annual scholarships for Tasmanian youths of £200 per annum, tenable at any of the universities of the United Kingdom. The Tasmanian Council of Education and Scholarship Act had a most important effect in raising the standard of education in the colony. Mr. Harris was one of the original members of the Council of Education appointed by the Government in 1859. He remained a member until the absorption of the Council in the new Tasmanian University. He had long been a warm advocate of the establishment of a university in the colony, and on its foundation in 1890 he was unanimously elected first Warden of the Senate. Mr. Harris has a distinguished Masonic record. He has twice been First Principal of the Royal Arch Chapter in Tasmania. In June 1880 he was appointed District Master for Tasmania. In 1890, on the establishment of a Grand Lodge of Tasmania, Mr. Harris was installed first Grand Master, the Grand Masters of other colonies—Lord Carrington, Lord Kintore, Chief Justice Way, and other distinguished Masons—coming to Hobart to take part in his installation. In 1885 Mr. Harris resigned the Rectorship of the High School, and has since resided at Peppermint Bay, Dentrecasteaux Channel.  Hart, Hon. Frederic Hamilton, M.L.C., was born at Madras, on March 26th, 1836, and received his education in the Australian colonies. He first came to Sydney in 1843 with his father, the late William Hamilton Hart, who was superintendent of the Bank of Australasia, and who, as a member of Sir Charles Hotham's Secret Commission in 1854, did immense service in reconstituting the disordered finances of Victoria. The father and son revisited England in 1849, returning to Australia in 1853, when they took up their residence in Melbourne, and the former established the firm of Bright Brothers & Co., the son acting as junior clerk. In 1862 he was sent to open a branch of the firm in Queensland, arriving in Brisbane in September of that year. In 1881 the designation of the firm of which Mr. Hart is still the resident managing partner in Queensland was altered to Gibbs, Bright & Co. He was appointed a member of the Marine Board or Queensland in 1869, and subsequently vice-chairman. In 1872 he took an active part in the formation of the Queensland National Bank, and was elected director at the first meeting of shareholders and became first chairman of the Board, a position he has held continuously ever since. In July 1872 he was summoned to the Legislative Council.

Hart, Hon. John, C.M.G., sometime Premier of South Australia, was born in 1809, and went to sea, ultimately becoming a captain in the merchant service. In 1835, the year before South Australia 218