OBITUARY

New Zealand Tablet, 30 March 1911, Page 575

OBITUARY

MR. THOMAS FAHEY. - ,] Ve (Tuapeka Time s) regret to have to record the death of Mr. 1 horn as 1 alley, who has been a resident of this district since 1861. Me had been in failing health for the past twelve months and practically confined to bed for the Jast three months, and his death on Sunday afternoon was therefore not unexpected. The late Mr. Fahey was a native of County Galway, where he was born in 1837, and was therefore <4 years of age. At the age of twenty-two he emigrated to Victoria, where he engaged in farming and railway work till the news of Gabriel Read’s gold discovery in Tuapeka reached him, when he decided to try his f tune in this part of the world, arriving here in the latter, part of 1861. He did not, however, immediately engage in mining pursuits, but went in for carrying between Dunedin and the Dunstan and Wetherstones, his route being via ? M p U ii Sat i In 1863 he married, and, settling m Mum os Gully, lie , worked on. the Blue Spur for about hi e years. He then took up a farm at Evans Flat, where he ana his family resided up till three years ago, when, leasing his farm to his sons Edward, Michael, and Mark, he retired from active w 9 and came into Lawrence to reside. He took a keen interest in land settlement, and uas an ardent supporter of the late Mr. T. Barton, the late Messrs. Brookes, and others in inducing the Government of the day to subdivide what was then known as the Dalhousie hundred, Tuapeka West, into farm allotments, and open them for settlement on 1 the deferred payment „ hi lhe la + e Mr. I alley took up one of these sections (the property now occupied by Mr. . Hartstonge) aa Inch he cleared and cultivated. Fortune, however, did h-id S,V°9nn 118 venture, for owing to an early frost he had about 200 acres of as fine a crop of wheat as one could nrnnrt+if 66 £ om ete i y riu I ned > aild bo later relinquished this P n?r<V ; Ti e then P as( ; d a property from Messrs. Herbert and Co. iin the neighborhood of Dales Flat, and later purchased ~ the freehold of the property owned by Mr. Kelly of Kaitangata, known as Chinaman’s Flat run, and also the freehold of the property the family now occupy at Evans Flat. In his farming life the late Mr. Fahey expenenced many ups and downs, but by his indomitable pluck and hard work he overcame all difficulties and retired with a competence three years ago. He was an exceedingly fine type of settler and very highly esteemed by his neighbors tor his sterling qualities of heart and mind. He leaves a widow and a family of nine—five daughters and four sons—all..grown up and all married, with the exception of one daughter. The funeral took place on Tuesday afternoon, when the settlers of the surround mg districts almost to a man were present to pav their last tribute of respect to the deceased. The obsequies a* the grave were conducted by the Rev. Father Collins assisted by the Rev, Father Coffey, Dunedin R I p lllllßl