THE LATE M P. O’CONNOR.

Waipa Post, Volume I, Issue 25, 11 July 1911, Page 2

THE LATE M P. O’CONNOR.

The remains of the late Patrick Daniel O’Connor were interred in the Waikaraka cemetery, Onehunga, on Sunday last, the Rev. Father Mahoney officiating. The four brothers of the deceased acted as pall-bearers. Many residents of Te Awamutu and surrounding districts, including Father Tormey, at one time in charge of this, parish,-were present to pay their last tribute to the memory of one whose death has caused a gap that will be hard to fill. A pathetic feature at the graveside was the meeting of hardy West Coast pioneers, mates and companions of deceased, miners of the “ good old times,” some bent and worn a.nd very near the “crossing,” who had not met for over forty years. The late Mr O’Cnnnor arrived in Dunedin from Ireland in 1868, leaving immediately for the West Coast goldfields, where he followed mining for two or three years, when he, with his brother John, left for Gulgong, N.S.W. The two brothers were inseparable right up to the time of John’s death a few months ago. From Gulgong the}'- went to the Palmer River rush in Queensland. There they took up big contracts on the Queensland Downs water-finding and dam-building. Amongst these contracts were several for the millionaire T3'son, better known as “ Hungry ” Tyson, who, with one exception, was never known to trust anybody. The story is told in Queensland today how, a chap from New Zealand named O’Connor, who had contracts for Tyson, was the only man who was ever allowed a free hand, and whose tally of the sheep killed to feed his navvies was accepted. “ Such was the man.” With the introduction of artesian boring, but probably more on account of failing health, the O’Connor brothers, returned to blew Zealand in 1892, and settled in Te Awamutu.

Many a tale can be told of Mr O’Connor’s prowess as an athlete. As a wrestler he was unbeaten, and the late Hon. Richard Seddon enjoyed telling the story against himself of how, in the good old days on the Coast, the deceased took him by the scruff of the neck and the slack of the trousers, and lifted him out and clear of the wrestling ring, where something “ not quite the cheese ” had happened.