Page:The Dictionary of Australasian Biography.djvu/315

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DICTIONARY OF AUSTRALASIAN BIOGRAPHY.
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negligence on the part of the latter as local directors of the plaintiff company in making advances to certain persons on securities which proved to be insufficient. After protracted proceedings, the first of the actions terminated in a verdict for the defendants. Mr. Andrew McIlwraith, Sir Thomas McIlwraith's younger brother, is head of the firm of McIlwraith, McEacharn & Co., the well-known Anglo-Australian shipping and mercantile firm. It may be added that Sir Thomas McIlwraith took an active interest in the experimental voyage of the Strathleven early in the year 1880, when, it will be remembered, his brother's firm, above alluded to, sent out this steamer to Australia for the purpose of testing the possibility of bringing meat in a fresh condition to the English market. The experiment, being eminently satisfactory, was the means of conferring an enormous boon on the pastoral industries of Australia and New Zealand.

Mackay, Hon. Angus, son of Murdoch Mackay, of 78th Highlanders, and Elizabeth (Macleod) his wife, was born at Aberdeen on Jan. 26th, 1824, and was taken to Sydney, N.S.W., by his parents when only three years old. He was educated at the Australian College, and was intended for the Presbyterian ministry, but became a schoolmaster, and meanwhile contributed to the Australian Magazine and also to the Atlas, a Sydney paper, established by Mr. Robert Lowe (now Viscount Sherbrooke). In 1847 he became editor of the Atlas, but resigned in 1850 to become manager of a business for Mr. (now Sir Henry) Parkes at Geelong, Victoria. Returning to Sydney, he was attached to the People's Advocate, but again took up his residence in Victoria in 1853, and in the following year joined in purchasing the Bendigo Advertiser, subsequently assisting his co-partners in starting the M‘Ivor Times and the Riverine Herald. In Feb. 1868 Mr. Mackay was returned to the Victorian Parliament for Sandhurst, and was re-elected in March 1871 and again in April 1874. At the general election in May 1877 Mr. Mackay suffered defeat owing to his adherence to Sir James M‘Culloch; but Mr. Blackham, who displaced him, being unseated on petition, he was once more returned for Sandhurst in July of the same year. Having again gone to reside in Sydney, he did not offer himself as a candidate in 1880, but was elected in 1883 and again rejected in 1886. In July 1879 Mr. Mackay started the Sydney Daily Telegraph newspaper on behalf of a company of which he was manager till Feb. 1883, when he was re-elected for Sandhurst. Mr. Mackay was Minister of Mines in the M‘Culloch Government from April 1870 to June 1871, and in the Francis Administration from June 1872 to July 1874, acting also as Minister of Public Instruction from May to July 1874. In the Kerferd Government Mr. Mackay continued to be Minister of Mines and Education from July 1874 to August 1875. He died on July 7th, 1886.

M‘Kean, Hon. James, son of Rev. David M‘Kean, a Presbyterian minister, was born at Belfast, Ireland, on April 24th, 1832. He emigrated to Victoria about 1854, and experienced a variety of the ups and downs of colonial life. In 1863 he was admitted a solicitor of the supreme court of the colony, and still practises in Melbourne. He was member for Maryborough for a number of years, and was Minister of Lands in the Macpherson Ministry from Sept. 1869 to April 1870. During the prevalence of the "Stonewall" agitation, in 1876, Mr. M‘Kean was committed to the custody of the Serjeant-at-Arms for disorderly conduct in defying the closure rule, and was ultimately expelled the House for some uncomplimentary references to his fellow-members of the Assembly, made whilst conducting a police court case. Mr. M‘Kean was subsequently elected for North Gippsland, but was defeated at the general election in 1883, and has not since re-entered parliament, though he contested Collingwood in June 1892.

MacKellar, Hon. Charles Kinnaird, M.L.C., M.B., C.M., son of Frederick MacKellar, M.D., of Sydney, N.S.W., and Elizabeth Beaton (Robertson) his wife, was born in Sydney in Dec. 1844. He married in 1877 Marion, second daughter of Thomas Buckland, of Sydney. Dr. MacKellar was admitted M.B. and C.M. of Glasgow University in 1871, and practises his profession in Sydney, N.S.W., where he is a member of the Board of Health. Dr. MacKellar was nominated to the Legislative Council in Aug. 1885, and represented the Jennings

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