NIAS, JOSEPH (1793-1879), joined the Royal Navy in 1804 in H.M.S. Nautilus; was a midshipman in the Comus at the siege of Cadiz (1810) and in 1818 began some years of Arctic service in the brig Alexander under Sir John Ross and Parry. At the battle of Navarino he was a lieutenant in the Asia. Promoted to command the brig Alacrity, he served with distinction against Greek pirates. In 1835 he attained post rank, and in 1838 was appointed to command the Herald on the East Indies station. In 1840 he brought Captain Hobson to New Zealand to assume the lieutenant-governorship, and he was some months in these waters assisting to complete the Treaty of Waitangi and to inaugurate British sovereignty. Nias was for two years senior officer in China and distinguished himself at the capture of Canton. (C.B.) In 1850 he commissioned the Agincourt and later was flag captain to Admiral Sir Michael Seymour in the St George. He was superintendent of the dockyard at Devonport and in 1854-56 of the victualling yard and hospital at Plymouth. (Rear-admiral, 1857; vice-admiral, 1863; admiral, 1867.) Nias was knighted in 1867.

G.B.O.P., 1841/311; Scholefield, Hobson (p); Bunbury; Buick, Waitangi; T. D. H. Hall, Captain Joseph Nias and the Treaty of Waitangi, 1938. Portrait: National Portrait Gallery, London.

Reference: Volume 2, page 64

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