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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Wellington Provincial District]

Mr. C. C. N. Barron

Mr. C. C. N. Barron, the Chief Hansard Reporter, has held that important position for nearly twenty years; in fact, it was he who organised the staff. Mr. Barron was born on the 20th of August, 1834, in Waterford, Ireland, and comes of an old aristocratic family referred to at length in Burke's Peerage and Burke's Colonial Gentry, Vol. II. He was educated in his native country and on the Continent, and held the position of interpreter during the Crimean War, afterwards joining the service of the P. and O. Company as purser. In 1864 he came to Auckland via Melbourne, and found employment there on the editorial staff of the New Zealander, his duties embracing those of reporter, sub-editor, and editor. Coming to Wellington soon after the seat of Government was removed, he accepted a position offered by Messrs. E. and J. Bull, as editor of their paper, the New Zealand Advertiser. This was in 1866, and a year later Mr. Barron was asked to organise a Hansard staff. The work in those days was exceedingly heavy, and for many years the position of Chief Hansard Reporter was most trying. It was not until Mr. Barron's health was beginning to fail that he was allowed a staff large enough to admit of the work being performed without serious discomfort. The Chief Reporter is exceedingly popular, not only with the members of his staff, but with all whose duties bring them into his pleasant company. Mr. Barron was married in 1861 to Miss A. J. Curtiss, daughter of Mr. W. B. page 109 Curtiss, of Sydney, and his family consists of three sons and two daughters.