THE LATE MR JOHN CARD.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XVII, Issue 992, 11 March 1909, Page 21

THE LATE MR JOHN CARD.

Mr. John Card, licensee for the past fifteen years of the Empire Hotel. Featherston, died on February 13, at the age of 75 years. Deceased was one of the old band of pioneers now rapidly passing away. He arrived in Adelaide in 1 849 at the age of th’rteen years, and worked at the copper mines until the gold discovery in Victoria in 1851. For ten years he •followed the gold rushes of Australia, when, on the d’scovery of gold at Gabriel’s Gully, Otago, n 18 61, he crossed to New Zealand. In 1864 he overlanded from Otago to the West Coast, arriving on the Greenstone in July of that year. He was the first white man on the New River where for many years he was storekeeping and acting as gold-buyer for the Bank of New Zealand. From 1870 to 1879 he was licensee of the Pioneer Hotel, Marsden, one of the busiest goldfields in Westland : n those days. With the hotel he carried on a large storekeeping. butchering, and coaching business. In 1879 he removed to Greymouth, where he carried on the old Cosmopolitan Hotel and livery stab es until 1890, when he removed to the North Island, and took the Star and Garter Hotel in Cuba Street. Wellington. In 1894 he purchased the freehold of the Empire Hotel over the management of which he presided till his death. He was a keen sportsman, and took a practical interest in all matters of local importance. A few years ago the Featherston Town Board carried a poll for a high-pressure water supply, but was unable to raise the loan under four years. To save the s tuation and give the town the immediate benefit of the water, Mr. Card guaranteed the whole loan (£4000). and thus enabled the Board to immediately carry out the work. A widow and grown-up family of three sons (one of whom is Mr. J. W. Card, the well-known solicitor) and two daughters survive him. as d|oes a’so his elder brother William, who was with him right through his career on the goldfields.