Page:The Dictionary of Australasian Biography.djvu/482

 majority of more than two to one over his opponent. He joined the Ministry in July 1877 as Minister of Lands, but retired on their defeat in October 1879. In 1884 he was the mover of the resolution which caused the resignation of the first - Ministry, and was entrusted with the task of forming a new administration, but failed in the attempt.

Thorn, Hon. George, formerly Premier of Queensland, son of George Thorn, the founder of the town of Ipswich in that colony, was born in Sydney in 1838, and educated at the King's School, Parramatta, and the University of Sydney, where he graduated B.A. in 1858. Primarily engaging in pastoral pursuits, he was returned to the Queensland House of Assembly for West Moreton in 1867, and sat for that constituency till 1873, when it was subdivided, and he was elected for Fassifern. He was appointed Postmaster-General in the Ministry with a seat in the Legislative Council as Representative of the Government in that Chamber in Jan. 1874, and in October of that year he attended the Intercolonial Conference held at Sydney, to consider the laying of cables to connect New Zealand with New South Wales, and extending the communication to Singapore and Europe via Normanton. Mr. Macalister resigned in June 1876, and Mr. Thorn became Premier with the office of Minister of Works and Mines. In March 1877 the Ministry was reconstructed, Mr. Douglas becoming Premier in place of Mr. Thorn, who continued to hold office under his successor as head of the Public Works and Mines Department till Nov. 1877, when he again became Minister of Lands and Mines. In February of the following year he resigned and visited England. On his return in 1879 he was elected to the Assembly for Dalby, and subsequently represented Northern Downs. He was an unsuccessful candidate for Ipswich at the general election in 1888.

Thornton, Hon. George, M.L.C., was born in Macquarie Street, Sydney, on Dec. 28th, 1820, and educated at Cape's School and at the Australian College. He was for some years a custom-house and ship agent, and was an alderman and twice mayor of the city of Sydney. He sat in the Assembly as member for Sydney in 1858, and was at one time member for the Western Goldfields. Mr. Thornton, who was appointed to the Upper House in Oct. 1877, managed the agency of the New South Wales Government in London for upwards of a year. He was offered the post of Executive Commissioner to the Philadelphia Exhibition, but was obliged to decline. Mr. Thornton was Secretary for Mines in the Ministry from Oct. to Dec. 1885. He married in 1840, Mary Anne, daughter of John Solomon.

Thornton, Right Rev. Samuel, D.D. first bishop of Ballarat, is the third son of the late Thomas Thornton, F.R.A.S., who was for many years connected with the literary department of the London Times. Bishop Thornton was born on April 16th, 1835, and educated at the Merchant Taylors' School; in 1852 he won an open exhibition at Queen's College, Oxford, where he gained a first-class in moderations, and graduated B.A. in 1856 as a double second in classics and natural science. Dr. Thornton took the M.A. degree in 1858, and was sometime Michel Fellow at Queen's, receiving the honorary D.D. degree in 1874. He was ordained by Bishop Wilberforce in 1858, and performed missionary duty in the East End of London. In 1860 he was appointed perpetual curate of St. Jude's, Whitechapel, and four years later rector of St. George's, Birmingham, where he remained till 1875, when he was selected for the bishopric of Ballarat by the Bishop of Melbourne and Chief Justice  of Victoria, in consultation with the two English archbishops, and was consecrated by royal mandate at Westminster Abbey on May 1st, 1875, the new diocese of Ballarat thereby coming into existence. The Bishop married in 1866 Emily, daughter of H. T. Thornton, of Ilfracombe, Devon.

Thurston, His Excellency Sir John Bates, K.C.M.G., F.L.S., F.R.G.S., Governor of Fiji, is the eldest son of the late John Noel Thurston, of Bath, Gloucestershire, and was born on Jan. 31st, 1836. In early life he went to sea, and in 1866 was employed in the British Consulate of Fiji and Tonga, becoming acting Consul in July 1869, the duties of which position he discharged till Dec. 1869. At this time the state of affairs in Fiji was of a highly anomalous character, the native King, Thakambau, being driven to his wits' 466