GOLDFIELDS CELEBRITIES.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 359, 21 January 1876, Page 3

GOLDFIELDS CELEBRITIES.

MR. J. a. BROWN.

Mr. J. C. Brown was born at j\taoclesfield, Cheshire, England. He' landed in Victoria, September, 1852. >'Hi<ffit\<it verttuiro'ip'the ytjUng Colony was »u Forest; (Mot,-where ho was engaged<in gold mining for sometime. He afterwards was at Saliarat, Mount Korong,, Inglewood; and rarat district. In September, IBSI, Mr. Brown.came to OtagOy in company with Mr. B. NayJor, tho yrescht Mayor of Clyde, and commenced work in the celebrated Gabriel's Gully. At tha end of the year Messrs. . Brown and Nay lor started in business at Wetherstone'a, and also opened stores at Queenstown and the West Coast. In 1865 Mr. Brown was elected the "first .member for Lawrence in the Pro'Vlndfal C6urlcil. 1n'1867 ho was returned at the head of tho poll to the Council for the amalgamated Goldfields district, with Messrs. Mouat and Shepas colleagues. In' 1870 he was re- < turbed without opposition to the Assem- * bly as member for Bruce. In 1871 he was 'again elected for the Assembly, and also i for the Provincial Council as member for Tuapeka. In 1873, at the Macaodrew dissolution, Mr. J. C. Brown was again successful for Tuapeka, being returned ■ with Mr. Horace Bastings, ana defeating Mr. Vincent Pyke. As our readers are aware, Mr. Brown was the other day returned to the Assembly without opposition for hi? old district. It will be seen that the subject of this sketch is no novice in politics. Ho has worked his way steadily to the high place in the confidence of his district he at present occupies. Mr. Brown is one of the most painstaking and useful members in the House, and is an inv&luablo party man when in a strong Opposition. "When the odds are too much against him ho becomes so bitter as to forget his usual well-developed conciliatory tact. Mr. Brown is not an impressive speaker. On * rare occasions he has his say, and is not easily put down by an opponent. His strength as a party man is in the lobbies. At the same time as a Goldfields representative there are few who hare done better service than the member for Tuapeka. It matters nothing to Mr. Brown where he is—tho Otago Goldfields are always uppermost in his mind. It may be at the Palmer, or in a Minister's office at Melbourne, Sydney, or Wellington, it matters nothing—his eyes are always open to secure some gain, practical or theoretical, for the Goldfields in general, and Tuapeka in particular. During last session Mr. Brown contributed the most complete speech on the Abolition question from a Goldfields point of view, which was noticed by this paper with commendation at the time. It would not be true to credit Provincialism with having spent all the money enumerated in Mr. Brown's tables for the benefit of the Goldfields only, for obviously the freeholders, present and future, will reap tho most gain. Mr. J. C. Brown does not aspire to be a statesman. He is of opinion that useful members are infinitely preferable to ornamental genii. Tuapeka is of like opinion; ana at the present time we know of no man in New Zealand, however emiment, who could depose the reigning monarch from his tlirone.