LORD BRASSEY.

Timaru Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 3967, 25 June 1887, Page 4

LORD BRASSEY.

* As Lord and Lady Braaaey are now visiting the Colonies, it may be interestto our readers to peruse the following account of his Lordship, from Men of the Time :— Brassey, Thomas K.C.B. Ist baron, was born at Stafford in 1836, son of Thomas Brassey, the well known contractor for public works. He waa educated at Rugby and University College Oxford, graduating in honours in the modern law and history school. He was elected for Devonport in 1865, and haa represented Hastings from ISGB, to 1886, being appointed Civil Lord of the Admiralty in 18S0, and Secretary to the Admiralty in 1884. He is the author oE " Work and Wages," "Lectures on the .Labour Question," "English Work and Foreign Ways," "British Women," and "The British Navy " (in 5 vols). He has published numerous pamphlets on political,economical and naval questions. Lord Brassey began hia career in Parliament by seconding a motion by Mr Thomas Hughes in 1869 for an enquiry into the labour laws. In 1871 he began the first of a serie3 of speeches on naval administration. The subjects dealt with have included the defence of the commercial harbours, the organisation of the comptroller's department and of the dock-yards, the principal reform advocated being a more decentralised manngement. In treating of ship-building policy, the objections to esi reme d'niensions liiive been strongly urged. O'lio q.ic .iiou . f the Naval ft«Berve3 w;:. bronchi ioi-wai'd by Lord Braaaey in Piiv'Jaiu.. >u.,-i several occasions, and lie ucc^ed ■ i in obtaining the consent rf the Admiralty to the enrolment of a ; euo d-class reserve, for which the fishing population would be eligible. The present strength of the fovca is 10,000. He also took an active pai-t in establishing the Royal Naval Artillery Volunteers. Lord Brassey moved for a select committee, on the Euphrates Valley Railway in 1871, and for a Royal Comiiiissimi on Marine Insurance in 1875. In 1879 ho seconded Mr Chaplin's motion foe tio appointment of a Royal Commission on aj>ricultur". In 1874-5 he served on tho Royal Commission on unseaworthy ships, and in 1885 he was appointed a member of the Commission on tha defence of the coaling stations. As a yachtsman, Lord Brasaey has made many distant voyages. In 1876-7 he went round the world in the " Sunbeam." Ko v?as the first yachtsman who obtained a Board of Trade certificate of competency to navigate as master. Lady Brassey i3 the author of the well-known work "Voyage of the Sunbeam." At the general election of 1886 Lord Brassey withdrew fi'oia Hastings and offered himaelf as a Gladstonian'.T/iberal for one of the divisions of Liverpoo'. He was defeated, and on the resignation of Mr Gladstone's government he was raised to the peerage.