SIR J. POPE HENNESSY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXII, Issue 239, 8 October 1891, Page 9

SIR J. POPE HENNESSY.

HIS DEATH ANNOUNCED.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.

London, Ocbober 7. Sir J. Pope Hennessy, M.P. for Kilkenny North, is dead.

[Sir John Pope Hennessy, K.C.M.G., M.P., Knight of Malta, was the son of Mr John Hennessy, of Ballyhonnessy, county Kerry, by Elizabeth, daughter of Mr Henry Casey of Cork. He was born in Cork in 1834, educated at Queen"s College, Cork, and was called to the Bar at Inner Temple in IS6I. He entered the House of Commons as member for the King's County in 1859. He received the thanks of the Roman Catholic Committee of England for the Prison Ministers Act, and an address of thanks from the miners of Great Britain for some amendments he secured in the Mioes Regulation Bill. Mr Hennessy drew the attention of the House of Commons to the decline of the population of Ireland, and urged the Government to keep the people at homo by amending tho Irish land laws and reclaiming the waste lands. He opposed the Governmenb system of education in Ireland on bho ground bhab the socalled national system was anti-national. Ha voted for church-rates, and in favour of the Church of England in England, but supported concurrent endowment in Ireland, by which the Irish ecclesiastical property founded before the Reformation would be restored bo bhe Roman Cabholic Church, and some ancienb abbeys in Ireland revived. He was appointed Governor of Labuan in 1867 ; of bbc West African settlements in 1872; of the Bahamas in 1873 ; of the Windward Islands in 1875 ; of Hong-kong in 1877 ; and of the colony of Mauritius in December, 1882. On more than one occasion his conduct as Governor pro-, yoked remonstrances, the last instance being his disagreement wibh Mr Clitlord Lloy i, which led bo questions in Parliament and the despatch of Sir Hercules Robinson to Mauritius to investigate the quarrel. This resulted in Sir John Pope Hennessy's return to London, when he laid tbe matter before the Secretary of Stabe, and was restored to his office for the remainder of his term. Subsequently he was congratulated in a public despatch by the Secretary of State, on his successful administration of Mauritius, and on his retirement was awarded the full pension payable to a colonial Governor. He was created a Knight Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George in April, 1880. He contributed papers to the proceedings of the Royal Society and to the reports of the British Association, also to the " Philosophical Magazine," the " Contemporary Review," the " Cenbury," and " Subjects of the Hay," aud he published in 1883 a volume on " Raleigh in Ireland with his Letters on Irish Affairs, and some contemporary documents." He has been Hon. Secretary to the Mathematical Section of-the British Association, and Chairman of the Repression of Crime Section of the Social Science Congress. Sir John Pope Hennessy, immediately after tbe exposure of Mr Parnell's adultery in December, 1890, contested the North Kilkenny election, and beat the Parnellite candidate by 1,147 votes, an excess of almost two to one. Sir John Pope Hennessy married Catbarino, daughter of Sir H. Low.]