The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Melville, Ninian
Melville, Ninian, M.L.A., Chairman of Committees, Legislative Assembly, New South Wales, son of Ninian Melville and Catherine (Hayes) his wife, was born in Sydney on Dec. 29th, 1843. Mr. Melville, who was formerly an alderman and Mayor of Newtown, has sat in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly since 1880. He is member for Northumberland, and is well known as a teetotal advocate and orator. He has been Chairman of Committees and Deputy-Speaker since 1890, and being a cabinet-maker by trade, made the chair which he now occupies by virtue of his office with his own hands in 1886. He married on Dec. 29th, 1869, Mary, daughter of Thomas Brooks.