RICHARDSON, SIR JOHN LARKINS CHEESE (1810-78) was born in the Bengal Presidency, India. He was sent home for his education, and since he was destined for the Indian army he went to Addiscombe College. Early in 1829 he returned to India as an artillery cadet, passed for the Bengal Horse Artillery, and entered the service of the East India Company in 1830. For 22 years Richardson served with distinction. In the Afghan campaign he was with Pollock's army which forced the Khyber pass and reoccupied Kabul, and he distinguished himself in the attack on the forts. Three years later, when the Sikhs crossed the Sutlej, he was serving under Lord Gough and Sir Harry Smith. At Ferozeshah he carried a wounded soldier out of action under heavy fire, and was severely wounded himself. For these campaigns he received the medal, with several clasps. (2nd lieutenant 1828; lieutenant 1837; captain 1846). Appointed to the general staff, he was for some years in charge of the powder magazine at Dumdum. He was secretary and treasurer to the Kabul relief fund, and became a personal friend of Havelock and Lawrence. In 1850 Richardson visited Cape Colony on furlough, and in 1851 he retired from the service. Next year he came to New Zealand in the Slains Castle, made long journeys in the south of Otago, and from Wellington made an adventurous trip overland to New Plymouth. These experiences are described in a scholarly volume, A Summer's Excursion (1854). About the same time he published a volume of blank verse, The First Christian Martyr in New Zealand. Having decided to settle at Puerua, in south Otago, Richardson returned to England to settle his affairs, and came out in the Strathmore (1856). He purchased Suisted's interest in the Otepopo run, north Otago, the other half of which was owned by Edward McGlashan. His disposition was to live the quiet life of a country gentleman, but after avoiding politics for three years he consented to be nominated for the Provincial Council, and was elected for Clutha in 1859. He was forthwith chosen as speaker, a position that threw upon him 18 months later the unpleasant duty of having to impeach the Superintendent (Macandrew) and to assume his office. The address which Richardson made at the time, full of reluctance and a sense of the pressing duty falling upon him, yet warm with indignation at the stigma resting upon the people of the province, is of a piece with the character of the man. Years later, when the people of Otago had again elected Macandrew Superintendent the rigid integrity of Richardson forbade him even to put to the Council the motion for the preferment of Macandrew to a public post, and stiffened the Stafford ministry against delegating to him the powers usually conferred for the administration of goldfields.

In May 1861 Richardson was formally elected Superintendent in Macandrew's place. Almost at once there was a great influx into the province from Australia and California of men of robust and liberal character. They wanted a more managing hand at the helm, and their votes elected John Hyde Harris Superintendent (17 Apr 1863). Richardson was returned to the Council for his old seat (Clutha), and was again speaker (1863-67). His constituents made him a presentation of £230 to recoup him for his expenses, and he devoted the sum to founding scholarships.

Meanwhile he had made a mark in the wider field of colonial politics. Nominated for Dunedin City early in 1862, he withdrew owing to an informality; but a few months later defeated James Paterson. He resigned the seat at the end of the year, and a few months later was returned for Dunedin and Suburbs North, which he represented 1863-66. He lost his Dunedin seat owing to the return to popularity of Macandrew, and the fight between the provincialists and the centralists; but a vacancy was found for him in New Plymouth, for which he sat until his elevation to the Legislative Council in 1867. Richardson was a member of the Weld and Stafford ministries-in the former as Postmaster-general and Commissioner of Customs (1864-65), and in the latter as a member of the executive without portfolio (1866-68). In 1868 he was appointed as speaker of the Legislative Council, a post in the gift of the Government, which he filled with dignity for the remainder of his life. High honours in colonial politics did not wean him from those of the province. Clutha again returned him to the Provincial Council (1873-74). In declining the speakership, he indignantly repudiated the suggestion that it was derogatory for one holding his position in the General Assembly to be speaker of a Provincial Council. 'No possible dignity can be conferred upon me,' he said, 'which would induce me to forego for a moment my rights as a citizen of New Zealand.' Richardson was knighted in 1875 in recognition of his services as Speaker and as New Zealand commissioner in the long and intricate investigation of accounts between Great Britain and New Zealand in respect of the services of Imperial troops in the Maori wars.

Gisborne says of him: 'He was an able, earnest, and conscientious man, guileless, and of whom it may with truth be stated that he was without fear and without reproach. He had a lovable simplicity of thought and character and a heart as courageous as that of a lion. Singularly unselfish, he only thought of his duty, and all his aspirations were pure and patriotic.' He was largely responsible for the passing through the Legislative Council of Bradshaw's factory act, and inspired Bradshaw and others in many social reforms. His pamphlet on the employment of women and girls in factories was published by Bradshaw in 1881. Richardson was a stalwart in the cause of education. He had much to do with the foundation of the Girls' High School in Dunedin, and of the Universities of Otago and of New Zealand. His pamphlet, Thoughts on Female Education (1870) embodied his views on the movement that was then at his heart. He succeeded Burns as chancellor of the University of Otago in 1871, and resigned in 1876. Richardson died on 6 Dec 1878.

Otago P.C. Proc.; N.Z.P.D., pass. App. H.R., 1877, B5, 5A; Richardson, op. cit.; Pearson; Gisborne; Reeves; Saunders; Beaglehole; Rusden; Hocken; Otago Witness, 28 Nov 1862, 22, 29 Oct 1870; Bruce Herald, 10 Dec 1878; Otago Daily Times, 7, 19 Dec 1878; 21 Feb 1930 (P).

Portrait: Parliament House; Girls High School, Dunedin.

Reference: Volume 2, page 120

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