The Hon. 
Sv Gilliam Macleap, Hit., 
GELS. MLC, 
Sir Winuiam Macteay, the last Australian representative in the male line of 
the old family name which for all but a century has had so honourable a place in the 
annals of biology and which so appropriately links together important biological 
beginnings in Britain and in her vigorous offshoot at the Antipodes, was one of a trio 
of notable men who, having made Australia their home, became completely identified 
with her welfare for the rest of their lives, so that their joint experiences embraced 
‘the greater part of the most important period of Australian history dating from the 
time when the country began to be something more than a penal settlement ; men 
who combined in a remarkable degree scientific tastes with the characteristics and 
personal qualities of colonists of the most patriotic and enlightened type, and who 
samidst the drawbacks and distractions of life in a newly colonised country still found 
‘time and opportunity to cultivate their inherent love of natural history. 
Aexanper Macteay, the pioneer of the Australian Macleays, was. born in. the 
County of Ross on June 24th, 1767. His father, who was Provost of Wick and 
-Deputy-Lieutenant of the County of Caithness, belonged to one of the oldest families 
‘in the north of Scotland. The son, Alexander, in 1795 became Chief Clerk in the 
Prisoners of War Office, in 1797 head of the Department of Correspondence of the 
Transport Board, and in 1806 Secretary of the Board, a post which he continued to 
‘fill until the abolition of the Board in 1818, when he retired upon a pension. In the 
year 1825, at the solicitation of the Earl of Bathurst, Mr. Macleay came out to 
Australia to undertake the important office of Colonial Secretary to the Government 
of New South Wales, which he held until the close of 1836. In 1843 he was elected 
first Speaker of the Legislative Council under the Constitution Act, a position which 
he filled with great ability, judgment and impartiality, so that on his resignation in 
May, 1846, by reason of his advanced age, he retired with the marked approbation 
of both sides of the House. Mr. Macleay died in Sydney on July 19th, 1848, im his 
eighty-first year. 
Mr. Justice Therry in his ‘‘ Reminiscences” thus refers to Mr. Macleay :— 
. “‘ Amongst the leading families and persons who then [in 1829] dispensed a liberal hospitality, was the 
principal officer of Government, Mr. Alex. McLeay—a name favourably known to science as Secretary of 
the Linnean Society. . . . He shared in the Colony for a time a portion of the unpopularity attached 

