HUME'S EXPEDITION.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 1929, 10 March 1875, Page 2

HUME'S EXPEDITION.

The following particulars are giren by the Queenslander of O'Hea, who was a mate of Hume on his last expeditions I and whose body is s said. to have been found, although Thompson, a survivor of the expedition, says that it is not that of O'Hea, asserting that th& latter is still alive ':-r- . \ v "O'Hea was born in Bantry, county Cork, Ireland, and joined the Ist Battalion Eifle Brigade, with which regiment he was quartered in Canada at the time of the Fenian invasian. At Lake Erie it was found necessary to telegraph for ammunition to head-quarters at Montreal or Quebec. It was deemed necessary to send the ammunition in- a truck with a passenger train, in charge of four picked men, who alone knew the contents of the truck—viz., ninety-five barrels of gunpowder. O'Hea was one of these men. On arriving at one of the stations, in a township, O'Hea noticed the roof of the truck in question to be in flames./Hd~ gave the alarm, and acquainted the officials with the contents of the truc^ on which, according to his statement the officials, as well as a company of infantry drawn up in station yard, withdrew to a safe distance. Demanding the keys of the truck in the Queen's name, he procured a short" ladder and bucket, with" which, he mounted the truck nineteen times, having to refill his buckets each time at some distance. . This feat, in which not only was he entirely unsupported, but . during which his comrades and others at a distance were continually shouting to him to come back, occupied O'Hea nearly an hour. He however, succeeded in extinguishing the fire before it touched the powder. Locked up in the second class carriages were 800 German emigrants, on their way to the interior, whose lives were thus saved by. the self-devotion of a single individual. The Press of Canada took up the case Of O'Hea. A military board sat on an inquiry into the circumstances and recommended the bestowal of the "Victoria Cross, which carries with it a pension of £10 per annum. The Victoria Cross was . presented to O'Hea in presence of several regiments of the line.* O'Hea shortly after left Canada; and came to New Zealand, where he joined the constabulary and remained in ie for two years. 'x In June last he came to Sydney, and two days afterwards volunteered, and earnestly begged to be allowed to join the Hume Expedition. He was told that the expedition party was full, aDd that he could not go. He persisted in his request, and after several other interviews, arrangements were made for him to accompany the expedition. :