The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Bird, Hon. Bolton Stafford
Bird, Hon. Bolton Stafford, Colonial Treasurer of Tasmania, was born near Newcastle-on-Tyne in 1840. He has been in the Australasian colonies since 1853, and in Tasmania since 1879. About twelve years of his life were spent as a minister of the Congregational Church. Soon after his arrival in Tasmania he resigned the charge of the Davey Street Congregational Church, Hobart, of which he was the minister, and betook himself to fruit-growing in the Huon district. He has taken an active part in the recent establishment of the fruit export trade to England. He has represented the Franklin district in the House of Assembly since 1882. In March 1887 he joined the Fysh Ministry as Colonial Treasurer. He was a member of the Commissions on Education and on Lunatic Asylums in 1883, and is a member of the Council of the University of Tasmania. Mr. Bird was one of the representatives of the colony at the third and fourth sessions of the Federal Council of Australasia, and at the Federation Conference at Melbourne in 1890, and the Sydney Federation Convention in 1891.
Bird, Hon. Bolton Stafford (p. 41). In August 1892 Mr. Bird resigned the position of Treasurer of Tasmania, and retired with his colleagues, owing to the defeat of his financial proposals in the House of Assembly.