Major Jackson Keddell , Stipendiary Magistrate and Commissioner for the Oamaru District, which includes Waimate, Kurow, Hampden, Palmerston, and Waikouaiti, is also Warden for Ashburton and Livingstone, and Chairman of the Oamaru, Waitaki and Waikouaiti Licensing Committees, and of the Assessment Court. He was born in 1831 in Kent, England, was educated at Arno's Court, Somersetshire. In 1850 he joined the 16th Lancers as cornet, but after a short time left for the Australian Colonies. In 1853 he joined the Victorian Mounted Police, and rose to the rank of sub-inspector, when he paid a visit to Otago on leave, previous to the establishment of the gold escort service between Dunedin and Tuapoka. In 1862 Major Keddell settled in Otago and became coroner of the goldfields, with his head- page 526 quarters at the Dunstan. During the Maori war he joined the military forces under General Sir Duncan Cameron in 1863, served in the Waikato campaign, and obtained the rank of major in 1881. Four years later Major Keddell was appointed Resident Magistrate and Warden at the Thames goldfield, where he was a colleague of the late District Judge Broad, with whom he subsequently entered into partnership in a mining agency business. He, however, rejoined the service in January, 1870, and was stationed as Resident Magistrate and Warden at Coromandei, where he remained till 1879, when he was transferred to Central Otago. In 1885 he was removed to Greymouth, and seven years later to Oamaru. Major Keddell is a past master in the Masonic Order, into which he was initiated in Otago. He was married in December, 1864, to a daughter of the late Mr. William Corbett, chief postmaster of Auckland. Mrs. Koddell died in February, 1880, leaving three daughters and six sons, but the eldest daughter has since died. In December, 1882, Major Keddell took for his second wife a daughter of the late Mr R. McCracken, of Otago, and by her has had three sons and two daughters.