BROAD, LOWTHER (1840-92) was born at Kensington, London, the son of the Rev J. B. Broad, M.A., of Hitchin, Hertfordshire. Educated partly in France, he came to Victoria as a youth and engaged in mining at Bendigo. In the early sixties he was attracted to Otago, where he was goldmining on the Molyneux. In 1863 he was appointed resident magistrate at Queenstown and later at Arrow, and in 1870 he was transferred to the Thames as warden and magistrate. There he was tempted to resign and enter into business as an auctioneer. In Aug 1870 he was elected to represent Thames in the Auckland Provincial Council, but he did not take his seat. A few weeks later he was appointed warden and magistrate on the Nelson South-West goldfields. In 1872 he was moved to Nelson, where in 1873 he became district court judge, a position he held until his death (on 16 Aug 1892). He was called to the bar in 1875. Broad was a man of comprehensive human sympathies and considerable ability. He was vice-president of the Nelson Exhibition in 1873 and won the prize for a tale of goldfields life. He published a number of legal works, including a digest of cases in district courts, a Resident Magistrate's Court Guide, a Justices Handbook, and The Law of Innkeepers and the New Zealand Law List (1881). He also compiled for the jubilee of Nelson a history of the province. Broad married (1867) Mary Isabella, daughter of Henry Bunny.

Col. Gent.; Broad, op. cit.; Weston; The Colonist, 16 Aug 1892; Thames Advertiser, Jul 1870.

Reference: Volume 1, page 63

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