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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Wellington Provincial District]
Major the Hon. Sir John Larkins Cheese Richardson
Major the Hon. Sir John Larkins Cheese Richardson, Kt., M.L.C., occupied a seat in two Ministries. In the Weld Administration of 1864–5, he was Postmaster-General and Commissioner of Customs, and was a member of the Executive Council, without portfolio, in the second Stafford Ministry, from August, 1866, to May, 1868. Born in Bengal in 1810, and educated at Addiscombe College, he entered the service of the East India Company, and returned to his native land in 1851. A year later he visited New Zealand for the first time, and subsequently published an account of his trip in a volume entitled “A Summer's Excursion.” After this, Major Richardson went to England, and returning to Otago in 1856, settled in the Molyneux District. Before entering Parliament, Major Richardson held the office of Superintendent of the Province of Otago during the exciting times of the goldfields rush, and had earned the respect and gratitude of the public. In 1869, having been called to the Legislative Council, he was elected to the Speaker's Chair and served for nearly eleven years. He was knighted by Her Majesty in recognition of his distinguished services. He was an able, earnest man, who acted conscientiously and without fear or favor, and at his death all political parties joined in lamenting his loss.