The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Hodgson, Sir Arthur
Hodgson, Sir Arthur, K.C.M.G., son of the late Rev. Edward Hodgson, of Rickmansworth, Herts, was born in 1818, and educated at Eton and Cambridge University. He served for three years as a midshipman on board H.M.S. Canopus, and emigrated to New South Wales in 1840, becoming one of the pioneer settlers in the Moreton Bay district (now Queensland), where his station at Etonville is well known. Before the separation of Moreton Bay from New South Wales he represented the Darling Downs in the Legislative Assembly of the latter colony, and in 1856 he was appointed general superintendent of the Australian Agricultural Company. He favoured the introduction of convict labour and the establishment of a colonial peerage, and opposed all the popular movements which eventuated in the formation of Queensland into a separate colony, under democratic institutions. He represented Queensland at the International Exhibition in London in 1862, and was for some time member for the Warrego in the Queensland Legislative Assembly, being Secretary for Public Works in the Mackenzie Ministry from Sept. to Nov. 1868, and Colonial Secretary in the Lilley Government from Jan. to Nov. 1869, when he left the colony on a visit to England, where he finally settled in 1874. He represented Queensland at the Paris Exhibition, was created C.M.G. in 1878, and was a Royal Commissioner for the Colonial and Indian Exhibition in 1886, and General Secretary to the Reception Committee in connection therewith, being created K.C.M.G. in that year in recognition of his services. He is a J. P. and D.L. for the county of Warwick, and was High Sheriff in 1881. Sir Arthur married in 1841 Eliza, daughter of the late Sir James Dowling, formerly Chief Justice of New South Wales.