SHAMROCK HOTEL,
LAWRENCE, TUAPEKA.
J. DONOVAN has the pleasure to inform his friends and the public that he has opened the SHAMROCK HOTEL, where, by keeping Wines, Spirits, and Ales of the best brands, he hopes to receive a share of public support.
Good Accommodation for Travellers.
N.B.— GOOD STABLING. -Tuapeka Times, 16/5/1868.
A small nugget, weighing full half an ounce, was discovered the other day in a singular manner. Mr Donovan, of the Shamrock Hotel, has recently been gravelling the approaches to his hotel, and has been carting the stuff from the heaps of tailings along the creek. From among the stuff thus procured a passer-by picked out the nugget, which was immediately handed over to Mr. Donovan. — Tuapeka Times. -Grey River Argus, 1/1/1869.
SHAMROCK HOTEL SPORTS.
On Boxing Day the sports which the enterprise of Mr. Donovan provided for the amusement of the people of Lawrence, came off as advertised. There was a very fair attendance. Mr. Donovan himself attended to all the arrangements, and they certainly reflected great credit on his management. Several novelties in the way of sports were introduced, and proved entirely successful. The skipping match was a concession to the popular cry of Woman's Rights, which did not cause any controversy, but on the contrary, afforded great amusement. Nor was the other novelty, dipping for money, less popular — the delight of successful children; and the curious bedraggled appearance they presented after making a duck, affording amusement and pleasure to their elders. The greasy pole was an uncommonly hard nut to crack; but after several attempts it was done successfully. We append the prize list: —
Hop, Step, and Jtmp, 1st prize, L1; 2nd do., 10s. Barkman, 1st; Craig, 2nd. 4 entries.
Putting the Stone, prize. 30s. Craig, 29ft. 9in.; Mee, 29ft. 6 entries.
Rushing High Leap, 1st prize, L1 ; 2nd do., 10s. Davidson, 4ft. 8in.; Taylor, 2nd. 3 entries.
Standing High Leap, prize, Ll. Davidson, 1st. 3. entries.
Climbing Greasy Pole, prize, L1. Sayers, 1st.
Catching Pig with Greasy Tail, prize, L1. Mee, 1st.
Sack Race, prize, L1. Mee, 1st.
Handicap Boys' Race — Downie, 1st.
Skipping, for girls — Miss Ellen Brossnan, 1st; Miss Richards, 2nd; Miss Brunton, 3rd; Alisa Mitchell, 4th.
Hop, Step, and Jump, prize, L1. Barkman, 1st. 3 entries.
For throwing the hammer and wrestling there were no entries, and in consequence of the high wind the quoit match did not come off. In the diving for money, all the silver was secured by the juvenile competitors. Altogether, a very satisfactory day's sport was given. -Tuapeka Times, 2/1/1869.
LAWRENCE. (excerpt)
(From Our Own Correspondent.)
To relieve the probable tedium of the Queen's birthday our plucky and enterprising townsman John Donovan has succeeded in making up a wrestling match to come off on the ground attached to the Shamrock Hotel. The combatants are one of the Tysones, already a favorite athletics and one McTeague from Waipori. Stake to be L20 a side. This is occupying a some considerable amount of speculation, as the friends of each are confident of the stamina of their man. -Bruce Herald, 26/5/1869.
A MEETING of those interested in the formation of a Cricket Club will be held at the SHAMROCK HOTEL, on Monday Evening, at 8 o'clock, p.m.
JOHN DONOVAN, Sec. pro. tem. -Tuapeka Times, 18/9/1869.
WAITAHUNA. (abridged)
(From our own correspondent.)
The great event — our ploughing mateh — came off on the 19th inst., and as the morning broke bright, cold, and clear (a bit of a frost was on the ground), with a cutting wind, the Waitahunaites could be seen mounting the rather steep spur leading to the farm of Mr Donald Clark, where a great muster of people had congregated to witness this the first ploughing nlatch on these goldfields. A booth, erected by the indomitable Donovan, was well patronised, and he deserves it, too, for his energy and pluck. If we had a few more of his sort in the district to stir up the latent fires of manly energy and spirit known to be possessed by a number in the neighborhood, we should soon have friendly contests of every sort between us two close neighbors. -Bruce Herald, 24/8/1870.
HAVELOCK.
(From a Correspondent.)
On Wednesday, the 12th inst., the residents here were much astonished and somewhat alarmed at the sight of a large cavalcade descending the slope of Grant's Hill, leading to the township. The cause of the invasion was for a few minutes the subject of considerable speculation; some were inclined to think that the Prussians had appeared somewhere off the coast, and that the horsemen were the Tuapeka Volunteers, telegraphed for to oppose their landing, while others inclined to the opinion that they they were a body of Fenians on their way to sack Dunedin. This last surmise seemed to be that most favoured, till the procession crossed the bridge, and it was seen to be headed by Mr. Donovan, of the Shamrock Hotel, Lawrence, when the loyal and pacific nature of the demonstration was at once taken for granted, and we were of course reassured, but still much puzzled. On a nearer view, the procession resolved itself into a buggy and pair, some four score horsemen, and a vehicle suspiciously like a baker's van, which brought up the rear, and on which was inscribed in large letters the name of ''Harris," dear to Mrs. Gamp, of immortal memory. The horses were of all description, heavy and light draught upstanding, saddle and light harness, and inferior ditto — the latter class predominating. The riders on the whole would scarcely witch the world with horsemanship. As a rule, their toes were well turned, and their trousers had worked well up, displaying socks of various colours, and calves red with the unwonted friction. Most of them, like John Gilpin, stooped down, because they couldn't sit upright, and as they passed up from the township at a trot evidently reserved for the occasion, their backs rising and falling they appeared for all the world as if they were engaged in a lively game of leap-frog. From a straggler, I was enabled to learn that the procession was intended to escort the Roman Catholic Bishop from Waitahuna to Lawrence, and that his Lordship was expected by the coach, which then appeared on the crest of the Round Hill. The prearranged place of meeting was Waitahuna township, and there the procession arrived just before the coach, and prepared to receive him. But how shall I describe the blank dismay which appeared in every face when the coach pulled up, bearing indeed a Pope, but no Bishop; and how joy ngain illuminated their countenances when Tommy announced that be had left his Lordship on the Round Hill; and how joy again faded to anxiety when further told that he had taken the other road to Havelock, and that they must make great haste to be there before him. Helter-skelter, neck or nothing, off they flew. The sight was picturesque in the extreme. Those had stooped before now absolutely crouched, and leap frog gave place to vaulting. Their hands forsook the bridles for the mane, for sure the horses heads were homewards, and it may safely be averred that never were two miles — not even at Chevy Chase, or Bull's Run — got over by so many in shorter time. However, the roads were good, and they all arrived, much to their own surprise, at Havelock safe in wind and limb, "Barring some leather lost behind," and they were there before his Lordship. For just as the hindmost horseman left the township, the Bishop drove in. The flight of his escort at his approach must have appeared to him unaccountable. Many would have been disconcerted. Not so his Lordship. The lash was vigorously applied to the horses, and off they flew after the fugitives, and the novel and entertaining sight was presented of a fourscore hurry scurry in headlong pursuit of a Bishop, while the said Bishop was on his part straining every nerve to overtake his pursuers. But a stern chase is a long one, and the procession had halted at Havelock ere his Lordship drove up. He at once stepped into a carriage which awaited him, and the strangest scene of this eventful history was then enacted. A gentleman, who had taken the precaution to dismount, then called out, "Three cheers for the Bishop," when every horseman convulsively grasped his bridle with one hand, his horse's mane with the other, and clung desperately with his legs to the saddle, his face assuming at the same moment an aspect of extreme terror. The invitation to cheer was responded to only by the occupiers of the van, and the dismounted horseman who, gave it. This arose, not from any want of welcome to the Bishop, but solely, I am persuaded, from a very natural cause. Each horsemen, like myself, expected hurrahs, loud, long, and reiterated, and each felt convinced that his steed would resent the clamour. The instinct of self-preservation for the moment swallowed up every other feeling, and so thinking, if he thought at all, that his individual silence would not be remarked in the general acclaim, every horsemen devoted all his energies to keeping his saddle. Hence the result I have described. Despite the efforts of the four aforesaid, the cheering was not on the whole, perhaps, a success. And it was better so. For if the cortege had cheered, and they would have done if standing on the sod, the peal would have awakened a soul under the ribs of the sorriest scrub that ever wore breeks. A stampede would have taken place, and the consequences been disastrous. Fancy four score horses, foam bespread and hopelessly foundered, galloping riderless up Peel-street and into Donovan's back-yard. Fancy eighty cavaliers sprawling in the dust at one fell shock, or wearily limping, battered and bruised, in procession to Lawrence. Honour to the cheerers, but honour also, I say, to those who refrained.
The Bishop having suitably acknowledged the compliment, drove off. Some slight delay occurred ere the procession followed his Lordship, owing to Mr. Donovan, who, for some reason unknown to me, posted on the bridge, and armed only with a heavy riding-whip, which checked single-handed the advance of the whole body. Perhaps he was smitten with a sudden ambition to rival the achievements of Horatius, who, from a similar vantage ground, beat back a whole army. Their situations were remarkably alike I fancy, and I cannot better describe them than in the words of the ballad —
Alone stood brave John Donovan, But constant still in mind.
With three times thirty men before, And the broad flood behind.
A scrimmage was imminent; but after a time he allowed them to pass covering their retreat, and his stalwart proportions mounted on a piebald charger. Vanishing over the hill was the last we saw of the procession. -Tuapeka Times, 20/4/1871.
Sudden Death.
The Lawrence correspondent of the Bruce Herald chronicles the sudden death of Mr John Donovan, of the Shamrock Hotel, Lawrence. -Evening Star, 8/2/1872.
THE LATE MR. JOHN DONOVAN
The above-named gentleman departed this life on te evening of Wednesday, January 31st. He had for some time past suffered from bronchitis, from which, however, although it occasionally confined him to bed for a day or two, no immediately serious results were apprehended. On Thursday and Friday, the 25th and 26th ult., although not quite recovered from the effects of an attack of the above-named complaint, Mr. Donovan attended the Tuapeka Races, and on the evening of the latter day the complaint returned. The severity of the disease being intensified by the excitment and exposure he was subjected to on the race course, he grew seriously ill. Medical skill, although it alleviated hs sufferings, and retarded in some degree the swift progress of the disease, proved unable to avert its fatal termination and he died shortly after ten o'clock on the evening mentioned. Mr. Donovan was one of the oldest residents in the Tuapeka district. For about six years le followed his trade as a carpenter and builder, and during that time erected many of the principal buildings in Lawrence. Some four years ago he quitted the building trade and erected the Shanrock Hotel, of which he contined landlord till the time of his death. Mr. Donovan's amiable qualities endeared him to a large circle of friends, by whom his loss will be greatly deplored. Impulsive to a fault, but withal generous and warm-hearted, he never bore malice toward a fellow-creature, and his charitable disposition manifested itself whenever the tidings of distress reached him. The remains of the deceased gentleman were conveyed to the Lawrence Cemetery on Friday afternoon. The funeral started from his late residence, and was one of the largest that has taken place in Lawrence. From all parts of the Tuapeka district and from Waipori, Teviot, and Waitahuna, numbers assembled to pay the last sad tokens of respect mankind, can show to a departed brother. The Oddfellows, of which body Mr. Donovan was a member, assembled to the number of seventy, and headed the mournful procession. After them came the hearse, which was followed by a mourning coach containing the relatives of deceased. Then came 260 gentlemen on foot, the rear being brught up by 70 horsemen — about 400 in all being present. Mr. Donovan died at the early age of 37, and left a wife and young child to lament his loss. -Tuapeka Times, 8/2/1872.
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