Page:The Dictionary of Australasian Biography.djvu/361

 Eureka stockade, where Captain Thomas was in command of the Queen's troops, he induced the rioters to disperse without further bloodshed. He was nearly seventy years of age at the time of his death, which occurred on May 26th, 1855.

Nimmo, Hon. John, J.P., C.E., was born at Catrine, Ayrshire, Scotland, and educated as an engineer. He arrived in Victoria in 1853, and was for some years town surveyor of Emerald Hill, of which municipality he was subsequently mayor, and which he represented in the Assembly from 1877 to 1889, when he was returned for Albert Park. Mr. Nimmo, who is a moderate Liberal and Protectionist, and a strong advocate of temperance, was Commissioner of Public Works in the Gillies Government from Feb. 1886 to June 1889, when he resigned. He was for some time representative of the Government on the Melbourne Harbour Trust. At the general election in April 1892 Mr. Nimmo lost his seat.

Nisbet, Hume, artist and author, was born on August 8th, 1849, at Stirling, Scotland. As a boy he received special artistic training, and was educated under the Rev. Dr. Culross (now of Bristol College) up to the age of fifteen, when he left Scotland and emigrated to Melbourne, Vict. The next seven years he spent in wandering over the Australian colonies, Tasmania, New Zealand, and the South Sea Islands, painting and sketching and writing poetry and stories, besides making notes for future work. Of this period he spent one year acquiring theatrical experience at the Theatre Royal, Melbourne, under the well-known actor Mr. Richard Stewart. He returned to London in 1872, and spent some time in studying and copying pictures in the National Gallery and at South Kensington. At the end of the next year he went back to Scotland, and devoted himself to art, with an occasional lapse into literature. For eight years he was art master of the Watt Institution and School of Art, Edinburgh. He again went to reside in London, and in 1884 revisited Australia, and made his way to New Guinea, where he was the first painter-author to "interview" the Papuans. Most of his pictures have found a location in Scotland, and in 1883 he had an exhibition in Edinburgh of his collected works. He got to loggerheads with the Royal Scottish Academy, whose methods he criticised in numerous pamphlets and articles. During this trying period he owed much to the kindly encouragement of Mr. John Buskin and Sir Noel Paton. Among his best-known paintings are "Eve's first Moonrise," "The Flying Dutchman," "The Dream of Sardanapalus," four pictures of "The Ancient Mariner," and "The Battle of Dunbar." His literary efforts are mainly inspired by his Australian and South Sea experiences. He has published "The Practical in Painting" (Edinburgh, 1880), "Life and Nature Studies" (London, 1887), "The Land of the Hibiscus Blossom" (London, 1888), "Dr. Bernard St. Vincent" (London, 1889), "Eight Bells" (ditto), "Memories of the Months" (ditto), "Ashes" (London, 1890), "Bail Up" (ditto), "My Illustrated Diary of a Voyage from London to Australia" (ditto), "The Black Drop" (London, 1891), "Lessons in Art" (ditto), "The Savage Queen" (ditto), and "A Colonial Tramp" (ditto).

Nisbet, William David, M.I.C.E., J.P., was appointed Engineer of Harbours and Rivers for the colony of Queensland in March 1875.

Nixon, Right Rev. Francis Russell, D.D., sometime Bishop of Tasmania, son of Rev. Robert Nixon, of North Cray, Kent, was born in the year 1803. He was educated at St. John's College, Oxford, and after taking his degree was elected a Fellow of his college. Having taken orders, he was for some time chaplain to the Embassy at Naples. On the erection of Tasmania into a bishopric, Dr. Nixon was appointed first bishop by the Queen's letters patent, and was consecrated in Westminster Abbey on August 24th, 1842. On his arrival in Tasmania he was enthroned in St. David's Cathedral, Hobart, on July 27th, 1843. His administration of the diocese was marked by great energy and decision. In 1857 he attended the first synod of colonial bishops held in Sydney. In 1862 his state of health compelled him to leave Tasmania for England, and in 1864 he resigned his see, and was presented to an English living. Dr. Nixon was an accomplished scholar, and an artist of considerable ability. He was author of "Lectures on the Church Catechism" (second edition, London, 1844), a book which went through four 345