This is not the story of a successful land-owner, but the record of an Irishman who chose to spend most of his life in Tokirima with the Maraekowhai Development Company.  No spacious abode, just a simple bach alongside the cookhouse.  Three square meals a day, a roof over his head and a drop or two of gin.  What more could a man ask for?

Jimmy O’Neill came to Maraekowhai in 1916 when Cecil Von Blaremberg was the Manager.  His specific job was a Teamster which included looking after the horses and their gear, ploughing pastures and growing crops of oats for fodder.

Undoubtedly his most traumatic experience happened in 1920 when he was returning from Ohura late one evening with his mate.  Paddy Hunter’s horse slipped as they were negotiating “The Bluff” not far from home.  Paddy fell, broke his neck and disappeared into the Ohura river.  His body not being found till a few days later.

Jimmy O'Neill, Teamster in 1935.

Horses l to r: Molly, Duke, Bloss

When horses were no longer needed Jimmy became the Cowman/Gardener and had a wonderful vege garden.  Later still he helped in the kitchen preparing those veges to feed the hungry young shepherds who worked there.

Apart from one brief absence, he worked for successive Managers and was given the assurance that for his long years of service he would always have a place to call ‘home’.  However this didn't eventuate and in 1961 he decided to return to Ireland where he spent the last few months of his life at the home of his brother.

Those who still remember him speak of him with affection and describe him as a dear old man, kind, jolly and the teller of outrageous tales!

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This story was almost finished when a first-hand description of Jimmy O’Neill came to hand.   The following report was written by Bill Sandilands in 1961 at the time of Jimmy’s departure for Ireland.

Jimmy O’Neill was the longest serving employee to work on Maraekowhai Station.  He was born about 1878 in county Kerry Ireland from a farming family.

At the age of fifteen his Uncle sent him to a horse fair to sell a horse.  It sold for fifty pounds and Jimmy said he ‘borrowed’ the money to pay his passage to Queensland.  He worked at Townsville cutting sugar cane.

He came to New Zealand about 1905 and worked on the Main Trunk Line at Paekakareki and later a a flax mill at Foxton and from there he came to work as a roadman in the Ohura country area.

He started working for the station about 1916, and worked and retired there until 1961, apart form a period of 9 months when he left just prior to my family shifting up in 1929.  His reason for leaving was that he wasn't’t going to work for a so and so boy!

However, he came back and to the best of my knowledge did most of the ploughing, as well as making tracks with horse and scoop, small bridges and crossings and drains etc. In Mr Blaremberg’s days I could say he would be involved with harvesting and cutting chaff, and haymaking which carried on in our time.

The last big job being maize silage on the long point after he had ploughed it in 1938.  He also worked on a lot of drain jobs.  I think the biggest was up the Omutu valley below Hodsons.

Jimmy O'Neill feeding out - 1939

Unless there was something special on Jimmy worked to his own schedule and decided what jobs should be done.  Woe betide anyone who used his horses or gear without asking.

He had very little schooling: my mother used to write home to Ireland for him and for any other matters my father or someone else on the station helped him. 

In private life he was a very reserved and shy man.  He had a white horse called Kowhai that he used to ride to Ohura about once a year for his yearly shopping and annual binge.  In his younger days he had been known to drink a bottle of whisky in three nips.  He would take a hundred pounds or so with him and come home when it had gone.  Of course he had plenty of mates on those occasions.

I can remember he went to Ohura to get the local chemist “coomy” (W.S. Coombridge) to pull all his teeth out in one hit. NO needle, etc, only whisky.  He slept that night in Loveday’s woolshed (Lofts) and arrived at the station the following morning for his usual breakfast of two chops.

Around 1940 he took on the Cowman/Gardeners job plus other odd jobs like cropping potatoes etc in a small way.  He continued in this capacity until 1950 when his heart and old age started to play their part.  He helped my mother in the cookhouse and other small odd jobs.

Mr Oscar Monrad arranged a small pension and a home for life at Maraekowhai for him, as he had not family in New Zealand.  I continued with his correspondence when my family left the district.

Jim O'Neill at Keith Sandilands Racecourse home in 1961 prior to returning to Ireland

He became very lonely and with his health deteriorating he finally agreed to go for a trip back home where he had a younger brother and other relations. 

Ivy & Bill Sandilands, Jimmy O'Neill, Keith & Grace Sandilands - 1961

Jack Stevens Produce Agent for Newton Kings in Stratford arranged his travel by air and we put him on a plane at New Plymouth for Auckland (in 1961)

His last words to us were spoken with tears rolling down his face, “Sure and be Jessus I never thought I would get on one of those bastards.”

His brother wrote and sent us a cutting from their local paper.  The heading –

THE HORSE THIEF RETURNS FROM DOWN UNDER.

Jimmy stayed in Ireland and passed away in his sleep about twelve months later.  He would have been 84.

Information collected by Rosemary Corbett. Typed by Lyn Neeson. 2008