All Sorts of People

Free Lance, Volume II, Issue 90, 22 March 1902, Page 3

All Sorts of People

THE late Mr. C. Y O'Connor, Engineer -iu- Chief of Western Australia repoited as having died by his own hand on March 10th. was remarkable not only as one of the ablest engineers who ever came to the colonies, but as one of the finest specimens of a true Irish gentleman this colony ever possessed. Everyone knows Mr. O'Connor's great success as an engineer under the Provincial Government of Canterbury in 18bb. and under the General Government later, but everyone doesn't know that to see the ever-present twinkle in his eve, and to listen to the ever ready flow of wit from his lips, was the reason why Mr O'Connor got the prodigious quantity of work out of his subordinates that has been the marvel of his successors ever since. * * * Mr. O'Connoi was until mg, and as Under-Seoretary for Public Works he mapped off his day's work with mathematical exactness The only thing he forgot to allow for was sleep' A propos. Mr. Blow the present courteous Under-Secrotan tells some stories. During a pressuie of work on one occasion. Mr O'Connor as usual, quite oblivious of time, worked on past dinner time, past supoer time, past midnight A clerk assisting lum. worked too far into the night, but still the chief showe 1 no signs of abating his tireless energy Just before 1 daylight, he went home, as also did the clerk. Of course, the clerk was down as usual at 9 o'clock. Later in the morning, Mr. O'Connor went to Mr. Blow "I say, Blow, do you know what's w rong with that man P Ho's gone silly, or something. I can't get any sense out of him at all '" "D'ye think working all night has anything to do with it, sir?" "Great Scott, yes, of course. I forgot" — and then the twinkle He himself was as fresh as a pink ' * * * On another occasion, the Under-Sec-retarv and Assistant Under-Secretary vrere going strong at midnight, and Saturday midnight at that Mr. Blow, who is a "frother," but in a lesser degree, rose from his seat, heaved a sigh, and remarked he thought he would knock off. "Win you Ye not religious, are you 9 " said the ' jaynial." glancine at the clock, which was on the Sunday side, and proceeding to break the first hour of the day of rest. Mr. O'Connor loved his piofession, and left no time for anything else except horse ridiner Ho rode "flash" horses, and to his love for the most fieiry animals Mr Blow attributes his late accident That Mr O'Connor comnutteed suicide because he had three Roval Commissions on hand Mr Blow ridicules "He took the happiest view of all possible circumstances and he w r as essentially a brave man. His frequent advice to his subordinates to 'look trouble in the face' he ever acted on himself " Mr Blow remembers to have seen Mr O'Connor throw the inkpots around but once. He hated superficiality, and a subordinate offended him bv not having a grasp of some important business When the humorous gleam died in Mr O'Connor's little brown eyes, and the lightning played — stand clear 1 * * * He worked bv no "rule of thumb " and laid down his own principles Ho permitted no deviation frojn them neither did he deviate himself. One son of Mr. O'Connor is in the Westra-

kan Public Works Department He has one othei son, and three daughters Of the latter his, daughtei Kileen mamed a, *on of Bishop Julius The loss to the Now Zealand friends ot the kind-heait-ed, tireless, and chivahous engineei is a sad one, and all regret the accident tlrat aftected his reason and incidental K caused his death. jf. # * Mr. Witheford, M.H R foi Auckland, 'does not believe m sending moie Contingents to Africa, but he mielit be induced to agree to one New Zealander going over as Oamm.aiid.er-in.-Ch.ief"' Did anything ever written before eonve-s so correct an impression ot the value New Zealanders put on their sei vices* s If the War Office cabled to-morrow for ,1 Commandei -in-Chief to replace Lord Kitchener (whom Mr. Witheford mdiicotly savs is not fit for his position), several thousands of willing men would leave the plough or the milk-cait and with superb assuiance, slip into the breach.. Oh, ve«, we aae a gieat people, but so paiiifull> shy, don't vou know ' Mr Judah Mveife the Wellington merchant, who completed his 71st veaalast week is an interesting old gentleman, whose memory takes him back to pre-steam and electricitj davs in England, pre-gold rush days m Australia, and pre-Parliament days in New Zealand As a child of six, he faintly remembers the coronation of Queen Victoria, and, as a veteran colonist of three score years and eleven he left this city on Saturdav to see the coronation of a sovereign who wa« but a child when h<? quitted England with his parents to brave the unknown perils ot life in Australia ♦ » * Those were stirring times Before Hargreaveis had discovered the gold that was to call aloud for gold-seekers. Mr Mvers knew of the back-country shepherd who had for years been bringing his yearly bag of yellow dust to melt down in Sydney for his annual "burst " At BaJlaarat and Bendigo the future Wellington merchant was one of the stragglers after the precious mefcail was m the Turon (the district made famous by Rolf Boldrewood and his •'Captain Staihght"), and he was ui the Hill End district when Bvers found the ton-weight nugget at Louisa Creek. He prospected in "Possum Gully" before the immense rush, which brought 50,000 mem and much machinery over pathless and almost inaccessible scrub mountains, anid where it is populaily supposed 'Starlight's" Rainbow won the Mineis' Handicap . Mr Mvers went "berrying" in Sydney on the spot behind Hyde Park where is now an immense and intricate .series of streets It was mallee and ti-tree scrub then, tho electric trams were not and a bullock drav was a possession worth its weasht m Bendigo gold When Hargreave,s, the first gold discoverer who*e find was made public had duly made his monev, and last it he sailed for California Mr Myers intended following the golden will-o'-the-wisp, too but the vessel bound for the new El Dorado was pronounced nnseaworthv, and he staved Very few of the old gold diggers who shod then horses with gold and drank alleged champagne at £10 a bottle were lastingly wealthv Hargreaves himself left nothing but a name for that town of pot-holes between Mxidgee and _Hill Knd and Bvers, the semi-millionaire, v, living on the eharitv of a publican whose house he u=ed to own * * * Mr Myers himself, though successful or the Victorian diggings and the later Turon rushes as he puts it, spent the com as fast as it came, and he is convinced that all the wealthy men of Australia made their monev by being luckv enough to hang on to the land— bought for a song in the early days. Gold, however did not keep Mr. Mvers in

Austiaha, and m the sixties he oaine to New Zealand w hile 1 the days were still eailv days." He has weathered tho storm and stiefs of New Zealand life is he weathered those lawless old times in Australia, and remarkably hale andwel' lu looks as, on the threshold of his eighth decade he cheerfully goes forth p.ti'll a - lung man at heart, to mix for . short time with the millions in the Em pire's metropolis. # * # Harlev Donald, the young Masteitoiuan who is now a sergeant in the Ninth Contingent, does not seem to have got that much-discussed commission some wrathful critics in Masterton were so distuibed about. Whatever inav be said about his youth and pre\ ious eixpenence, he certainly has had bad luck. Mrs Arnot, an aunt of tlie voung soldier, who has just been doing" the Old Country, the Continent, and elsewhere in pursuit of health and journalistic "copy," dropped in to the Lance office recently to explain that no influence had been brought to bear to secure a commission for the young man He received the- appointment while still in the employ of Mr. Pownall, Mavor of Masterton, and it was cancelled after the "Circumlocution" Department had dulv kept him in suspense and m Wellington for a week. # ♦ * If environment and family traits go for anything, Donald can't help being a soldier. His grandfathei was an old cavalry warrior who, a-- an officer m the Maori War, kept the Maoris piettv well occupied between meals, and his father is Major Donald, of the Wairarapa Cavalry, whose leg is not quite, sound from that Maori bullet even vet An uncle is captain in the Grey tow n volunteers, and half-a-dozen relatives, male and female 1 , are helping to hold up Britain's end in South Africa at the present moment It may be that Donald is unfit to command men, having been but a lieutenant in a> cadet corps, and it may be that men who have never even been "full privates" are fit and proper persons to command men Perhaps, the department is right Who knows 9 Air. George Frost, ex-mayor of Meliose, after two and a-half years spent m ul7 successfully refrigerating his colleagues m council into a sense of the fitness of things in the borough generally, lias thawed himself out of the position, and will turn om his blast from the vantage point of an outside critic. The Mehose Borough Council meetings recently have been remarkably entertainmg to outsiders, who don't care whether Wellington assimilates Melrose, or Melrow swallows Wellington. Some people are under the impression that Melrose councillors do not care either, and 'tis actually said that a few of them are too pachydermatous to feel even a Frost # * * George of that ilk will have his time bufhoioaith taken up without having \ otos of "century," (as one councilloi phrased it) passed on him. He belongs to the great army of Js.P., and is chairman o4o 4 the Wellington Pigeon and Poultr\ Association, and while he is not engaged rearing chickens he is busy rearing houses that are making the place Greater Wellington," even though some of the aforesaid councillors are averse to any such scheme. Suppose that Melrose should federate witli Wellington, and get something done for itself m the way of sanitary arrangements, w r ould it be worth the candle, seeing that the occupation of the gentleman of the "century" would be gone p Dreadful to think of, truly. May the day be far distant when the Melrose amusement organisation shall be a thing of the past. Melrose, the very hub of this district, to be assimilated by a mere spoke in the wheel like Wellington p Perish the base thought !

The late Trooper Albert Henry De- \ me, who recently died of enteric fever m Pietermantzburg Hospital, was a Wellington boy. He had scarcely left St Patrick's College when he implored his father, Mr. J. J. Devine, the wellknown Wellington solicitor, to let him g> to the front. The authorities would not permit him to go, as he was under age, and not a sufficiently good horseman. The young trooper went on to a station, and put in his time on the back of a few "outlaws." and came back, passed the riding test with flying colours, and was accepted' for tihe Seventh. A troop - mate recently wrote of him as a born soldier, and Sur-geon-Captain Dawson calls him a "brave and good lad." ■» ♦ ♦ It «as after six months' continuous tiekking, and wlnle resting in Newoastle, that the dread fever attacked the young Weliingtonian, but he recovered, and wrote hopefully to his parents Then, he got a relapse and died. The young fellow was but nineteen at the time of his deaith. One little incident, showing how near a soldier may be to death, and then miss it, is recorded of Albert Devine. Coming in to camp from a patrol some months before his death, he left his mates to look for fresh meat. He made towards a farm, captured a pier, took it on his horse, and rejoined his troop-mates in safety, and with fresh pork. Another straggler, also riding past the farm to join the same patrol five minutes later was fired on from the sarae farm, and killed. Young Devine had been continuously engaged in the operations against De la Rey previous to "going sick," and was spoken well of in one fight in which his isquatdron was engaged for nearly five hours u ith that celebrated "fighting parson." To escape so many times, and to be at last stricken down by fever is hard luck indeed. # * * Mr. Grattan Grey, ex-chief reporter of the New Zealand "Hansard" staff, is evidently not going to anchor permanently in either London or New York. Nor is he burning with, impatience either to witness the Coronation, or to Weilcome King Dick to the world's metropolis". Just now, Mr. Grey is on his way to Melbourne, aocompanied by Mrs. Grey. He was formerly on the staff of the "Age," and may probably settle down to journalistic work again in the Victorian capital. So the local Chows want a consul of their own, allee the same as the Japs! Well, what price Fred. Haybittle? They must surely have their eyes set on him. Fred, has long been jocularly known in town, as "the Chinese Consul" from the deference which the Mongolians pay to him, and the fact that they seem to look upon him as a sort of general adviser. Mr. Haybittle has been brought into contact with them in business perhaps in larger measure than any other man in Wellington, because it 1-5 to his auction sales that they flock for their fruit supplies. And when Fred. is in the rostrum, surrounded by the eager, chattering crowd of Johns, he ia at Ins best. He controls that discordant Babel as perfectly as if it were a harmonious little choir, and he seems to understand "pidgin English" just as completely as if it were his mother tongue. Willy Sohweigerhausen, the worldtouring journalist, is probably the greatest cyclist of modern times, if the "Post" is to be believed. Among other little feats, including snake and fever fighting, it mentions the fact that tJhia cycling scribe, who is on his way hither, "crossed the border at Quetta, pedaled through India to Colombo, and shipped to Fremantle." It is understood that Willy will start at the North Cape, and pedal over the cliffs somewhere at Island Bay, call at Blenheim for lunch, dine at Inveroargill, and then scorch along on his wheel to Stewart's Island, whjere supper will await him.

Police Sub-Inspootoi O'Donovdii who ha<= just quit turning at the handle ot the Mount Cook policeman manufacton, is an Irishman When we .reused him of this misdemeanour the othei d<i\ ho pleaded auiltv offeung no euxtenuatmg ciicuin^ta'ues except that he was son \ , and couJd not help it. Like thousands of his countivmen. he was born mi Cork, and he docis not even count this for righteousness. It was the most important event of Ins fortv-two years of life and the sun-anspeetorship the next one Ino jiuomle O'Donovan's earhor paths were doondedh peaceful He never fought but ho captured the misdemeanants ot the ullage of Ro=sbarberv and crossexamined" them until thev were jolh dad to own up to being euiltv of thefts of turf bog-manges or bacon, and to Mioar to ne\ or do it anv moie * + * Like all the O'Dono\an iaimU , the member of it we are talking about, and who was, at this time, no longer than lus father's caubeen," had a leaning towards learning, and easily beat all the rest of the budding policemen in the village. When ho had learnt all the national school had to teach him, he went along to the Anglican diocesan semnian, captured the bit of learning be had not come across in the State school, and fitted himself to do most things in the educational line Then, The o' Donovan came to New Zealand and was in business on the West Coast with his/ brothers, the big building contiactors. Afterwards, he became assistant clerk under Mr. (now Inspector) Ellison, and, as Inspector Ellison will be inducted to the charge of the Wellington hstnet at the end of this month, O'Donovain will once again be second in command under his old chief * ♦ •• Twelve years ago Policeman O'Donovan imbibed an unaccountable liking for law, and, as court orderly, m the Wellington SM. Court, he acquned a smattering of the expensive cure-all. He is proud to tell you that he ow e.s lus legal knowledge to ex-Judge Martin and Mr. J. W. Poynton, who were eminent in their piofession." Then, when the O'Donovan passed the barristers' law examination the papers burst out wtith the information that he was a barrister, a solicitor, and what not. This, of course, is not so, and he merely studied law, and passed that examination for the use it was to him in has occupation. As constable in charge of several stations, the man from Cork kept order, and a sound and whole body, and when the Scotland Yard man, Commissioner Tunbridge, came out to look into things, he thought he was a fit subject foi sergeant's stripes * * * Then the recruit training school — quite a novel idea^ — cropped up, and the keen sergeant was called upon to straighten up amateur protectors of the peace, and teach them something of police law Sub-Inspector O'Donovan's family are all in the preservation of law line His brother— also a police sergeant — ■lost his life in endeavouring to save tine people of Olive in the Hawke's Bay floods. Another brother was a member of the Westland Provincial Council for many years, and up to its abolition in 1876. A cousin in Ireland is a Stipendiary Magistrate, and others hold commissions in the Royal Irish Constabulary. Dr. O'Donovan, the savant and distinguished writer of the "Lancet," is a second cousin of our subinspector. Sub-Inspector O'Donovan's modesty prompts him to suggest that his advance is "sheer luck." We agree with him. The luck is to the police force and the public

Surprising what a numbei of colonists <ue turning then steps homeward, so a*, to be 111 London duniig the period of Coronation fostnities Amongst the number is Mr A M De Costa who purposes leaving about, the end of April toi a so\en or right months' pleasure trip to London " Mi De Cast a, has been a well known hgure m Wellington foi many vea.rs and has been more especially prominent by reason of his connection with the New Zealand Rugby Union, of which body he has been honorary secretary since 1895, and foi two years prior to that date acted a,« assistant, secretaiy We understand that it is Mr De Co'ta's intention to stand tor re-election at the forthcoming a.nnual meehng. of the New Zealand Rucbv Fnion, and, if successful, to apph for leave of absence, making, of course, satisfactory arrangements far the discharge of the secret anal duties duiins; his absence fiom the colonv The Wirth Brothel's, whose fine en cut, and menagerie opened at the Tow n Hall site on Wednesday last, are up-to-date iypecimeTis of colonial enterprise and industry. They took as naturally to the business of public entertainers a.s the duckling takes to the nearest pond You see then father was in the show Line himself, and was a partner with Barlow and others in various undertakings which travelled around m the public entertainment business But the pieseiit oncus and menagenie are distinctly the work of the four brothers Wirth, and the real founder of them was the eldest brothei John John f-tarted. the show with himself and lus three bi others and thiee sisteis as the leading; performers, and for A r oais it throve steadily and piosipered undei his management. " * * * But John has now played his la,<-t act He died during the recent circus tour of South Africa and Mas laid to his rc-t at

AhwaL Noitli, where he sleeps in the midst' of the brave fellows who have f.il'e-i during the present war in the l-mpiio's cuk' Hany Wirth, the next M)ii, has also passed over to the gieat majority. He became tired of the nomadic en ens life, and left it to take <i hotel in Chnst church. But he tired ci that too, started out with a cqicus of- his own for a torn of tlie world and had been through America, and ewe-red Japan and part of China when, at Hongkong, he succumbed to a Minstioke. Philip Wnth is the third brother, and is the horse-trainer and general inside manager of the circus He has studied the methods of eveiv anima,l train e« nbo has come nndei his observation and there aie no points in the businc s which he has not at his fingers' ends. * * * George Wirth, the \ ounge&t brother, iv the kind of -\eisitile young man who ca,n turn his hand to nearh everythniig He would be equally leacVv to fill a vacant Cabinet portfolio for King Dick on a, pin oh, or to take a Tenth Contingent out to South Africa At piesent, he has his hands full w ith the outside butanes^ of the circus, and, being a clever equestrian, he takes his share in the arena work, and is al c o a useful man in the band. In that line alone he would hi a "orfect treasure to the Salvation Armv * * * Of the tin ee sisteis, two aie still with the show. Miss Manzles (pronounced Maireeles by the w av) is the eldest sistei, and is said to be the cleverest equestrienne oil this sade of the line, while Miss Edith Wirth excels m the menage. The present tour is to terminate at Auckland After showing there, the' circus will go into winter quarters, and either Philip or Georere will proceed to Ameiica and Europe in. diK'fit of fresh novelties foi next season