Famed N.Z. engineer subject of new film

Press, 4 February 1987, Page 30

Famed N.Z. engineer subject of new film

The Australian playwright, Mary Gage, had a special reason for visiting Christchurch this week. The ‘ city is the former home of C. Y. .0. O’Connor, the subject of her latest screenplay. The screenplay, which is to become an Australian tele-movie, focuses mainly on O’Connor’s role as the Irish architect of Fremantle.

But “Pipe Dreams,” as the film will be called, will not overlook his previous engineering prominence in New Zealand, or his love for his home city of 25 years, Christchurch.

Mrs Gage, on holiday in New Zealand, said she had spent her two-day stay in Christchurch researching library archives and visiting the home of O’Connor’s wife in Christchurch, Susan Ness.

“He really always thought of himself as a New Zealander and regretted leaving Christchurch,” said Mrs Gage.

But .he did leave in 1891, when after becoming Under-Secretary of Public Works he was passed over for the job of Commissioner of Works in New Zealand.

Mrs Gage believes O’Connor fell foul of the then Prime Minister, R. J. Seddon, because of a controversy when he was the planner of the Hokitika-

Christchurch railway. “Seddon wanted the railway to run through his constituency, but O’Connor was a very honest person and said it would cost $70,000 more to run through Kumara. That, of course, did not endear him to the politicians of his day.” . ' O’Connor reluctantly migrated to Western Australia, which was experiencing a gold rush similar to the one he had been involved with on New Zealand’s West Coast.

He designed the nowfamous Fremantle Harbour, its public works, all roads in Western Australia, trained public servicemen, and even ran the railways there. The film will focus, however, on his most con-

troversial project, the piping of water into the deseirt.'goldfields of Kalgoorlie, and his subsequent suicide. Mrs Gage. said there was political and social disbelief . that O’Connor could ‘ save the; typhoidracked miners by pumping water to them from 400 miles distance.

The pipeline proved a success when it was opened in 1903, but O’Connor did not live to see it He had shot himself 10 months earlier, supposedly because of the profiteering by the engineer he had put in charge of the project.

“What was so interesting was that nobody knew why he had shot himself, but it was thought to be because of . the adverse publicity in the newspapers. For the first time in his life, he had been blind to the people in his department. He admitted that he had been in the wrong for trusting them.” The film will be told through the eyes of the profiteer, Hodgson, who was “horrified” that his actions had killed a man he greatly admired. Mrs Gage said the producer of “Pipe Dreams,” Bill Hughes, was trying to arrange finance for the project. If all went well, shooting would begin at the end of the year, and the film would screen in Australia in 18 months.