OBITUARY.

Otago Witness, Issue 1934, 19 March 1891, Page 13

OBITUARY.

It was with deep regret that the friends of Mr W-ilHam. Heflernan, licensee of the Pier Hotel, herird of his" death on -tlie 12th iasfc. after a shorfe-illness, at the advanced age of 88 years. Th'e.dtoc'e&sed: gentleman was born ia Tipperary, and spent his childhood and early manhood in an eventful manner id his native land. In Cork he was. wedded to- his first wife, and the issue of tbe marriage was two daughters'. From Cork he went to the United St*«e», where he was at v tfie time of the Californian rush, to which, on receipt of the nowsNjf • the 'gold discoveries, he hastened. The route he ohoße wav that across ti&, Isthmus, of, Panama, and it is recorded, that heV as the first white roan .to walk across the isto"nra9.: "Fortune . sailed ''upon him in California, wher&he was one^of toe most successful diggers, opening enfc a\ wonderfully rich reef in Nevada. He brought back to Philadelphia 20,000d0l worth of fold, which he disposed of in one parcel to the mint. His wife having died, Mr Heffernan went' travelling about the States, and while at Bangbr, Maine, he wedded the present Mrs Heffernan. ' When he got to New York he heard of the gold discoveries in Australia, and it being reported that flour was at an abnormally high price, he freighted a vessel called the Eagle and started off in her for the southern continent. The passage was, however, a prolonged one, and by the time the Eagle arrived flour had become abundant, and the speculation resulted in a- loss. Mr Heffernan then settled in old Bendigo, where he started as « boarding-bouse keeper. He was remarkably successful, and beoame a large owner of property. Of one of his enterprises in Bendigo, Mr James Francis Hogan, in his work on " The Irish in Australia," says :— " One of the greatest institutions of Sandhurst is the Shamrock, a capacious and comfortable hostelry that, notwithstanding its aggressively Hibernian title, has been the headquarters of visitors of every nation under the sun, and a favourite resort of successive generations of gold-diggers. Its founder, Mr William Heffernan, was an Irishman of extraordinary enterprise, who made fortunes and lost them again with equal rapidity. To. him Sandhurst is also indebted for a beautiful theatr.e and a commodious public hall. In tbe palmy-days of gold digging he spared no ..efcgensVjti 'bringing up to Sandhurst all the WUsioatij^i theatrical celebrities who crossed &ie; edwifiatrinto the southern hemisphere." For sß years' Mr Heffernan was a resident in Bendigo, and - during that time bore a distinguished name for bis enterprise and liberality. Subsequently came reverses in fortune and the result of an equity suit was to leave him, after the sacrifice of some fine properties, in comparatively reduced circumstances. About seven years ago Mr Heffernan removed with his family to Dunedin, and after a short residence with Mrs Murphy, who is Mrs Heffeman's sister, the deceased entered into possession of the Pier Hotel, of which he was, as already stated, the licensee at the time of his death, which removes a prominent figure in the history of colonial, and particularly of Victorian, progress.