The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Meredith, Hon. Charles
Meredith, Hon. Charles, descended in a direct line from the last kings of Wales, was the son of George Meredith (born in Birmingham), and of his wife Sarah Westall Hicks. Charles Meredith was born at Poyston Lodge, Pembroke, May 29th, 1811, and with his father and other members of his family emigrated to Tasmania, arriving at Hobart on March 18th, 1821. After some early years of varied and adventurous life, he became a successful squatter in New South Wales; and, revisiting England in 1838, married, at Old Edgbaston Church, Birmingham, his cousin, Louisa Anne Twamley, of that city, April 18th, 1839. Returning with his wife to New South Wales, Mr. Meredith, after a year's residence there, removed to Tasmania, where he remained, and was, during a period of thirty-eight years, a prominent member of the House of Assembly. In the second Tasmanian Ministry formed after the concession of responsible government, he held the post of Colonial Treasurer under Mr. Gregson, Feb. 26th to April 25th, 1857. He held the same position in the Whyte Ministry from Jan. 20th, 1863, to Nov. 24th, 1866. He was Minister of Lands and Works in the Innes Ministry from Nov. 4th, 1872, to Aug. 4th, 1873, and Colonial Treasurer in the Reibey Ministry from July 20th, 1876, to August 9th, 1877. He was a staunch free-trader, and in 1866, when Treasurer, he introduced a measure for the abolition of Customs duties (except those on spirits and tobacco), and the substitution of trade licences and a land or property tax; but the proposal led to the defeat of the Government. Among the many measures which Mr. Charles Meredith introduced into Parliament, the one most gratifying to himself was an Act for the protection of the native black swans, then in danger of extermination; and this, although at first received with derision, eventually passed, and was succeeded by other valuable enactments for the preservation of native birds and animals. Heart-disease compelled him to resign his seat in 1879. He died in Launceston, Tasmania, March 2nd, 1880. A public fountain, erected to his memory, was placed in the Queen's Domain, Hobart, in 1885.