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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Wellington Provincial District]
Mr. Thomas Bannatyne Gillies
Mr. Thomas Bannatyne Gillies, widely known as Mr. Justice Gillies, was a member of three ministries. In 1862 he became Attorney-General on the formation of the Domett Government, but retired from office in fifteen days. In the following year he took the portfolio of Postmaster-General in the Whitaker-Fox Administration which position he held for over a year and was also Secretary for Crown Lands for a short time. During the third Stafford Ministry which survived but a month and a day in 1872 he held the position of Colonial Treasurer. Judge Gillies came to the Colony in 1852, and settled in Otago where he practised the profession of which he was so distinguished a member. He entered Parliament in 1860, and was not long before he joined the Government of the day as a Minister. In 1865 he removed to Auckland and four years later was elected Superintendent of the Province which office he filled till 1873. As a puisne judge for the last few years of his life he was patient and painstaking, and clear and incisive in his deliverances. He founded two science scholarships at the Auckland University College. His death occurred in 1889.