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Free Lance, Volume XVI, Issue 867, 16 February 1917, Page 17

Major James o'Sullivan, who retired on superannuation the other day at his own request, has a fine record of v 39 years', continuous service in our Defence Department. During the last 16 years he controlled the Defence Stores of the Dominion. He was- an agricultural student in the Emerald Isle, when, in 1876, glowing tales of the Britain of the South and its rich gold-mines—the Fortunate Isles which contained the classic Gardens of the Hesperides with their Golden Apples —fired the imagination of young o'Sullivan and,- along with many other ardent spirits, - he turned agriculture down and hit out for the Land of Big Nuggets. # it * •» ' _■• He spent a year on the Wild West Coast hunting for gold, and then arrived at the conclusion that the best gold-mines were located in the Government Buildings at Wellington. So he crossed Cook Strait and got a job in the Native Office, under the late Mr. T. W. Lewis, then Under-Secretary, the Hon. Johnny Sheehan (who was partial to young Irishmen) being Native Minister. Office duty was irk-

some to one used to an open-air life,; arid, so O'Sullivan applied for arid was granted a transfer to the; Armed > Constabulary. Sergt.-Major Coleman. T (afterwards Major) soon licked him into = shape as a smart trooper. In the training depot at the same time with O'Sullivah were such recruits as "present .Commissioner O'Donovan, Superintendents Ellison, Dwyer, and Xiely, and • ■_'■ Inspector McGrath. ...'•'■..... *•• '*■ ] .•"" '*- ■ * In .1878 O'Sullivan was. drafted off to OpotiM,. then a small garrison station, — but to the delight of the A.C. recruits, hemmed in by peach, groves in full luscious bearing. Maori troubles in 1879 led to .the recal of ~fche, Opotiki garrison, and after a month's training in Wellington O'Sullivan was one of a party of "100 men who were despatched to New Plymouth in the old s.s. Stella, - Captain Fairchild, commander. They landed on the beach in surf-boats, and a' detachment was sent to Okato arid H. D. Vavasour's farm to protect the settlers' property. . ' Trooper O'Sullivan spent four happy years in Taranaki, but the operations .. which culminated in the capture of Te Whiti and Tohu with their stronghold at Parihaka produced no VhC's. or war medals. Some of the 5 troopers —amongst them the late Colonel Ma- . lone, of Gallipoli fame—stopped on to take up land, but O'Sullivan went on with the rest of the A.C. to Taupo,. where native troubles, had broken out." They had a five-days' inarch from Napier to Taupo, and. when Major O'Sullivan now reads of' the great achievements of the Reinforcements that march over the Rxmutakas, he smiles '"- broadly when he thinks of the load those old-time A.C. men carried as they trudged from Napier to Taupo. There was no Army Service Corps in-' those days. Each man had to carrc- his Snider and 100 rounds of ball cartridge, two " blankets, w.p. sheet, great coat, and haversack, and his day's ration of four ""- biscuits and a chunk • of cold boiled mutton and some tea and sugar. In 1885 Captain Anderson (then ia charge of the Stores Department) se- - lected "O'Sullivan to replace Captain Croise (retired) on the clerical staff, and in 1886 O'Sullivan acted as quartermaster for the mounted men at the South Island Volunteer Camp held at Easter at Oamaru., He then. met for the first time Captain Robin (now Major-General) then captain of the Otago Hussars, also the Hon. Colonel Heaton Rhodes, who, during this camp, was promoted from trooper to lance-corporal in that smart corps, the C.Y.C. These men were mounted on beautiful coal-black horses, and almost every officer and even trooper had his private groom. At the camp; when the : usual ration of a pound and a-half of mutton was being issued from the Q.M/ Stores the fastidious troopers of theC.Y.C. laughed loudly and ordered : sheep by the dozen from the nearest butchers. * » 3t • O'Sullivan became a valuable officerin the Defence Stores, and hi s splendid work in fitting out the contingents for the Boer War earned general praise' from Premier Seddon downward. He was made captain by the Council of Defence, and promoted to the rank of .major by General Godley. For 16 years he controlled tho Defence Stores, but latterly two serious nervous - break-.'.' downs caused him to seek retirement on superannuation. . .