John Langdon Parsons

[6] He accepted an invitation to serve at the Baptist Church in Dunedin, New Zealand, but the climate affected his wife's health, and they returned to Angaston.

Stonehouse had been forced by a throat malady to retire from active ministry, and Parsons accepted the invitation to take over that pulpit.

He left the ministry on account of failing health,[4] or loss of faith,[3] and after a holiday in England and Norway, joined with J. Preston as merchants, then with Ebenezer Finlayson's brokerage and agency business.

He was elected to the Assembly seat for Encounter Bay in 1878 as a colleague of (later Sir) James Boucaut until 1881, then won North Adelaide in 1881.

Lucid, exact, and eloquent, there was a charm, and vitality about Mr. Parsons' speeches that won the sympathy and admiration of legislators, as well as of outside audiences.

commissioner for the Government of South Australia to enquire into the prospects of opening up trade relations with Japan, China, and the Philippine Islands.

Parsons did much to extend trade with the Far East, and as recognition of his efforts the Emperor of Japan conferred upon him the Order of the Rising Sun.

In 1896 he was appointed Consul for Japan, and in 1898 when he revisited that country he was granted an audience with the Emperor, who presented him with a pair of valuable cloisonné vases.