Page:The Dictionary of Australasian Biography.djvu/539

 F.R.Met.S., the son of a solicitor, was born at Stourbridge, Worcestershire, on Sept. 18th, 1852, and educated at Uttoxeter Grammar School, Staffordshire. In early life he visited Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and North America; and in 1876 arrived in Adelaide and surveyed the Flinders Ranges and Murray Scrub, as a clerk in the Surveyor-General's department, forming a collection of native weapons, which he presented to the town of Stafford. In England Mr. Wragge studied meteorology and climature, and established three observatories in the Churnet Valley and Moorlands of North Staffordshire, a fourth on the summit of Ben Nevis (4406 feet high), and a fifth in connection therewith at Fort William; the two last under the auspices of the Scottish Meteorological Society. Returning to Australia in Jan. 1884, he established the Torrens Observatory at Walkerville, near Adelaide, and one at Mount Lofty, S.A., in October of the same year. Mr. Wragge was appointed Meteorological Observer for Queensland in Jan. 1887. He was elected F.R.G.S. in 1875, and is also a Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society, the Society of Arts, the Royal Societies of Queensland and South Australia, and honorary corresponding member of the Scottish Geographical Society.

Wrensfordsley, Sir Henry Thomas, late Acting Chief Justice, Western Australia, is the son of Joseph H. Wrensfordsley, of Dublin, and was educated in France and at Trinity College, Dublin. He entered at the Middle Temple on June 1st, 1860, and was called to the Bar on April 30th, 1863. He was a member of the old Norfolk Circuit, and was successively deputy county court judge for the metropolitan districts of Marylebone, Brompton, and Brentford, 1876; second Puisne Judge, Mauritius, Nov. 1877; Procureur and Advocate-General, June 1878; Chief Justice of Western Australia, 1880. In this capacity he represented the colony at the Intercolonial Conference of the Australian colonies, held at Sydney in 1881; he was Chief Justice of Fiji and Chief Judicial Commissioner of the Western Pacific from Oct 1882 to 1883; administered the government of Western Australia from Feb. to June 1883; and acted for some time as judge of the Supreme Court of Tasmania; and as puisne judge of Victoria in 1888. Sir Henry unsuccessfully contested Peterborough in the Conservative interest in 1868 and 1874. He was knighted by patent on June 16th, 1883, and was appointed Acting Chief Justice of Western Australia in 1890. In 1891 he became Chief Justice of the Leeward Islands.

Wright, Francis Augustus, M.L.A., formerly represented Redfern in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, and was Postmaster-General in the Stuart Ministry from Jan. to May 1883, and Secretary for Public Works from that date till Oct. 1885, when he joined Mr., and held office as Minister for Public Instruction, under that gentleman's premiership, till the following December. He was elected for Glen Innes at the General Election in 1889, and again in 1891.

Wright, George Speller, J.P., was clerk in various departments of the South Australian Government service from Sept. 1863 to July 1864, when he was appointed Secretary to the Marine Board; chief clerk Chief Secretary's Office in Jan. 1877; acting Under-Secretary and Government Statist in Sept. 1880; Secretary to the Commissioner of Crown Lands in March 1882. Mr. Wright has also been Inspector-General of Credit Lands since 1884.

Wright, Hon. John Arthur, M.L.C., M.Inst.C.E., son of John Wright, was born at Dover, England, and was articled to the late Joseph Cubitt, Vice-President Institute Civil Engineers. After a varied engineering experience in England, Spain, Russia, and France, Mr. Wright was Director of Public Works, Engineer-in-Chief, and Commissioner of Railways in Western Australia, with a seat in the Legislative and Executive Councils, from 1885 to 1889, when he retired from the public service to become manager of the Western Australian Land Company. Mr. Wright has since acted as Consulting Engineer to the Government. He was nominated to the Upper House after responsible government was conceded at the end of 1890, and was one of the representatives of Western Australia at the Sydney Federation Convention in March 1891. He has received the royal warrant to bear the title of "Honourable" within the colony of Western Australia. Mr. Wright married in Jan. 523