BERNAYS, LEWIS ADOLPHUS (18311908)

son of Dr A. Bernays, professor of German language and literature at King's College, London, was born on 3 May 1831. He was educated at King's College, and at the age of nineteen, emigrated to New Zealand, where he engaged in sheep farming. About two years later he went to Sydney, and in 1852 obtained a position on the staff of the parliament of New South Wales. At the end of 1859 he was appointed clerk to the legislative assembly of Queensland, came to Brisbane in 1860, and was present at the opening of the first parliament. He organized the inner working of parliament, became an authority on procedure, and was the guide and friend of successive generations of members of parliament, until his death at Brisbane on 22 August 1908.

Bernays had other activities and was for a time secretary to the Brisbane board of waterworks and afterwards a member of the board.He was one of the founders of the Queensland Acclimatisation Society, and for a period its president. He was interested in economic botany, published in 1872 The Olive and its Products, and in 1883 Cultural Industries for Queensland; Papers on the Cultivation of Useful Plants Suited to the Climate of Queensland. He married Mary, daughter of William Borton, and was survived by four sons and four daughters. He was created C.M.G. in 1892.

Bernays was a highly competent public servant, who exercised no little influence in the Queensland parliament. He knew thoroughly its law and practice, and in times of difficulties party leaders naturally turned to him. He was a good friend, a man of culture; and he remained a student all his life. One of his sons, Charles Arrowsmith Bernays, born in 1862, was the author of Queensland Politics During Sixty Years, and of Queensland—Our Seventh Political Decade.