GREAT BENEFACTOR

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20093, 13 November 1939, Page 10

GREAT BENEFACTOR

MR. G. J. ORMOND PASSES

HIS WORK FOR WAIROA

BEST KNOWN RESIDENT

(Special to the Herald.) WAIROA, this clay

S\lr. Geo. Canning Ormond, whose death occurred at his home in Queen street, Wairoa, on Saturday morning, was une of the district’s greatest benefactors and one who was greatly esteemed by Maori and European alike. lie was aged about 85 years.

Mr. Ormond was tile eldest son of the late lion. J. D. Ormond and Mrs. Ormond, of Napier, his father being a member of Parliament; for Clive and later Waipawa. being in the Fox, Stafford and Waterhouse ministries as Minister of Public Works and Post-master-General, as well as filling other portfolios. As Minister of Immigration he was responsible for the settlement of the Seventy-Mile Bush near Dannevirkc by Scandinavian settlers.

The late Mr. G. C. Ormond was educated at the old Grammar School. Napier, and later at Wellington College. lie subsequently went to Edinburgh University, where he studied for a veterinary surgeon, returning to New Zealand and farming at Anaura, on the East Const. In 1885 he took up land at Mahia Peninsula, where he had been farming ever since.

' Mr. Ormond married a Maori chicftainess of the Mahia district, who traced her lineage back to Rongomaivvahine, the principal wife of Chief Kahungunu. His homestead at; Mahia was erected on the site of the old Kaiuku pa. a place famous for Maori history on the East Coast.

Family of Sixteen Mr. Ormond had a family of 18 children, 12 sons and four daughters. Two of the sons are dead, one, Lieutenant A. Ormond, of the Manchester Regiment, being killed at the Somme in the Great War. The other sons who are farming on Mahia and other parts nearby are Messrs. G. E. Ormond, Jack Ormond. James Ormond, William Ormond, Guy Ormond, Frank Ormond, Dudley Ormond, Gordon Ormond, Joseph Ormond, and Richard Ormond, of North Canterbury. The four daughters are Mrs. J. Miller, Palmerston North, Mrs. R. Bowen, Mahia. Miss Aira Ormond. Napier, and Miss M. Ormond, Wairoa. Eight of the sons were representative footballers, one, Jack, gaining All Black honours. At one time they fielded a seven-a-sidc team.

The deceased was farming at Mahia until five years ago, when he came to live in Wairoa for health reasons. However, he still continued to take an active interest in the property.

He represented the Mahia riding on the Wairoa County Council, and acted as chairman for a number of terms. He was one of those responsible for the formation of the Power Board in Wairoa, being its first chairman, and it was mainly through his efforts that the Waikaremoana hydro-electric scheme was established. Mr. Ormond was a member of the Waikokopu Harbour Board until it ceased to function. He was a director of the Nuriaka Cheese and Butter Factory, and at the time of his death was one of the few originaL shareholders of the company surviving. lie was also a pastpresident of the Nuhaka Agricultural and Pastoral Society and a life member of the Wairoa society. Keenly Interested in Racing Mr. Ormond was keenly interested in racing, occupying the position of patron of the Wairoa Racing Club at the time of his death. He was also president, of the club for some time, he bred many fine horses on the Mahia, conducting his own stables and possessing his own private racing track. His best known horse was Hinetaura, which won many good races and ran second to Advance in the Wellington Cup. Mr. Ormond was also the owner of Te Rn Katio, another fine horse and considered by Paddy Munro, a well-known Gisborne trainer, to bo the fastest horse to pass through his hands.

Mr. Ormond was responsible for the securing' of the Te Kupenga racecourse, where the Wairoa Racing Club at present holds its meetings.

He started hunting in Wairoa and for many years owned and ran the pack. He imported hounds and bred them at the Mahia, and they were subsequently taken over by the Poverty Bay Hunt Club.

He was responsible for the establishment of the Wairoa Rod and Gun Club, and was also a director of the old freezing company in Wairoa. At one time he was also a director of the Hawke’s Bay Farmers’ Association. Mr. Ormond was a great friend of the late Sir James Carroll.