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Ferguson, Hon. Donald, M.P.P., Provincial Secretary and Commissioner of Crown Lands of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, was born at East River, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, on the 7th of March, 1839. His father, John Ferguson, and mother, Isabella Stewart, were descendants of thrifty Scotch farmers, who emigrated from Blair Athol, in Perthshire, Scotland, in 1807, and settled near Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. Donald was reared on the farm and received the rudiments of education in the Public school of his native parish, and subsequently pursued his studies in English and mathematics by private tuition. He became interested in politics when quite a young man, and was a strong advocate of the confederation of the provinces. He was a contributor to the press, and in 1867, wrote a series of letters over the signature of “A Farmer,” which attracted considerable attention, and was replied to by the Hon. David Laird, one of the leading politicians of the island, and subsequently lieutenant-governor of the North-West Territories. At a later date, he engaged, over his own signature, in a discussion with the Hon. George Beer, on the union question, and became at once known as one of the champions on the island for a Canadian nationality. He was also a strong supporter of the interests of the tenantry, an advocate of railway construction, and was the mover of the resolutions in favour of the railway which were adopted at the mass meeting of the electors of Queens county, held at Charlottetown, in the winter of 1871. In 1872, Mr. Ferguson was appointed a justice of the peace, and he held the position of collector of inland revenue for Charlottetown for a short time in 1873. In 1873, the great question of confederation, for which Mr. Ferguson had for years contended, having been settled, he offered himself as a candidate for the Legislative Council of Prince Edward Island, for the second district of Queens county, where the Hon. Edward Palmer had been returned in 1872, to the Council, as an anti-railway and an anti-confederate, by a majority of nearly eight hundred votes—and he succeeded, after a spirited canvass and good fight against great odds in reducing the anti-railway majority to two hundred and fifty votes. A vacancy occurring next year in the same constituency, Mr. Ferguson was again brought out by his friends, and this time succeeded in reducing the anti-railway majority to seventy. In 1876, the question of denominational education came prominently before the electors, and Mr. Ferguson and other leading politicians pronounced in favour of a system of payment by results, by which the state would recognize and pay for secular education in schools in towns, in which religious education might also be imparted at the expense of parents. Religious bitterness was introduced, the Protestants became alarmed, the people decided largely according to their creeds, and the “payment by results” candidates were defeated in all except Roman Catholic constituencies. Believing that almost any settlement of this vexed question was better than a prolonged political-religious agitation, he accepted the situation. In 1874, Mr. Ferguson was appointed secretary of the Board of Railway Appraisers, which office he held until 1876. In 1878, he was invited by the leading electors of the Cardigan district, in Kings county, to offer himself for parliamentary honours; he consented and was returned by acclamation. In March, 1879, on the meeting of the legislature, the government, under the leadership of the Hon. L. H. Davis, was defeated, and the Hon. W. W. Sullivan, who had been entrusted with the formation of a new administration, offered Mr. Ferguson a seat in his cabinet, with the portfolio of public works, which office he accepted. A dissolution of the house having immediately followed, Mr. Ferguson was returned by acclamation. In 1880, he resigned his position as head of the Public Works department, and became provincial secretary and commissioner of Crown Lands, and this position he occupies to-day. In 1882, Mr. Ferguson was elected to represent Fort Augustus, and again in 1886, he had the same honour conferred upon him. Hon. Mr. Ferguson is a member of the Board of Commissioners for the management of the Government Poor-House; a commissioner for the management of the Government Stock Farm, and a trustee for the Hospital for the Insane, at Falconwood. He was a delegate to Ottawa, on the Wharf and Pier question in 1883, in conjunction with the Hon. Messrs. Sullivan and Prowse, and also a delegate to England, with Hon. Mr. Sullivan, on the question of the communication between the island and the mainland. Mr. Ferguson is an enthusiastic agriculturist, and has a farm in a high state of cultivation, four miles from Charlottetown. Besides having published several useful official reports, Mr. Ferguson gave to his fellow-citizens in 1884, an excellent paper on “Agricultural Education,” and another in 1885, on “Love of Country.” He has been a lifelong total abstainer, and became connected with the Good Templars in 1863, and held the office of grand secretary for two years, 1863-5, and that of grand worthy chief templar the following two years, 1865-7. He is a Conservative in politics, and in religion a member of the Baptist denomination. In 1873, he was married to Elizabeth Jane, daughter of John Scott, Charlottetown, and has a family consisting of three sons and two daughters.