THE PASSING OF A PIONEER

Greymouth Evening Star, 23 December 1913, Page 3

THE PASSING OF A PIONEER

WILLIAM JAMES I.E HEIBAY

There passed awey in Blackball a few clays ago, in the person of Wiliam James Le Heiray, a .very old pioneer of ttie Coast and one 1 of those stalwart colonists who did so much to develop the wilds of New Zealand half a century ago. Lo Heiray was born in the Island of Oeurnsey in 1839 where he spent his childhood, received a very good education, and mastered the trade of shipwright. Leaving his native island as a youth he soon found himself in Portsmouth Dockyard, where in those days a large part of Britain’s shipbuilding operations, both naval and mercantile, was carried on. Here be spent some time but the sea kept calling him, and he set out as ship's carpenter aboard an emigrant ship, and paid three visits to New Zealand, among the early colonists who ventured to this colony in the earliest days of its established Government. He visited all parts of the world and trafficked among the craft and flags of all nations. But the finger of Fate soon pointed out a new and a wider sphere of operations and in 1865 he landed on this rugged West Coast and was digging on the North Beach: boating timber from th; mills of Wallace and Skinner, Coal Creek, and working the coal boats from the Brunner mine. Since 1872 Le Heiray has been more settled in the coal mining centres of the Grey Valey as a carpenter, mostly in connection with the mines. Of late years he made Blackball bis home, and failing health incapacitated him from almost all labours this year or two, and his friends and relatives were not unprepared when the old man, bent with the toils of long life, passed away quietly as recorded in Inis journal. His name was well-known by nil the old residents of these parts, and his record of hospitality, rugged honesty, faithful workmanship, and manliness make his memory dear to a wide circle of friends. He bore within' him the best traditions of the old days, when mens’ hearts were warmer and their 1 lands readier than they are to-day. He ; would have been an honoured guest at that great gathering of pioneers so soon 4 o be held in Hokitika, but Death cut him off just before ho had completed his 50 years of colonial life. He leaves friends Mid relatives in many parts of the Grey district, and we publish this sketch as a small tribute to one honoured in the course of a long life amongst ns, and honoured in the grave after life’s siren nous battle.