James LALOR was born in Co Kilkenny, Ireland, c1837-1838, to John and Mary Lalor.
He was in Bendigo when the Eureka Stockade riots took place in Ballarat (in 1854) and was described as a ‘distant relation’ of Peter Lalor who was prominent in the rebellion. According to his obituary, he was a butcher in Melbourne, and was a manager in Mr Pettie’s large butchery shop for several years.
In his obituary it also says that he sailed in the ship ‘Lightning’ and followed the early gold rushes at Addison’s Flat on the West Coast, but never met with much success there. (Gold was discovered at Addison’s Flat in May, 1867.)
By 1871 he was living in the Greymouth district, and on 14th September 1871, he married Catherine ROWLAND in the Roman Catholic Chapel, Greymouth. He was described as a bachelor and a miner, with a stated ‘length of residence’ of 2½ years. A marriage notice appeared in the Grey River Argus.
Catherine and James had six children. Their first daughter, Margaret Jane, was born 22 August 1872, while they were residing at South Beach, and subsequent children were named John, Mary, Robert, James and Thomas.
James mined for gold at South Beach. On the Westland electoral roll of 1911, James Lalor, of Paroa, is listed as a miner, and in 1914 on the Westland supplementary roll he is listed as “6182 Lalor James, senr. South Beach, miner.”
In April 1883 James is listed as one of four men applying for a lease of 8 acres of land at South Beach, for a period of 15 years, to be worked by ground sluicing. The company formed was to be called “The Rising Sun Gold-mining Company”. One of the other company members was Robert Delaney, who had been named as a witness at James Lalor’s wedding 12 years earlier.
James Lalor was clearly accustomed to public speaking, and many references can be found to him in ‘Papers Past’, performing varied public roles. A second, more detailed account of his life has many of these references attached.
James Lalor was confident when taking a public stand for the rights of miners. In 1886 when a public meeting was held about leasing of South Beach lands, James Lalor was one of those involved in the discussions, and he proposed a motion “That a petition be presented to the Waste Lands Board, and a copy forwarded to the Honorable the Minister of Mines, showing that by the sale or leasing of any land within the Paroa district that the miners would suffer severely, inasmuch as their very costly dams and water-races would become valueless, which should be viewed as a calamity to be averted.”
In his later years James also became a 'Parliamentary Messenger'. An article in 1901 in New Zealand Free Lance described him in favourable terms, noting that among the messengers in the recent session of the House of Representatives ‘there was one at least who bore a historic name and is a blood relation to two men who have achieved celebrity'. The writer told us that James Lalor was a modest man: 'Yet, Mr James Lalor, who came up from Greymouth to wear the livery of Parliament and who has just got back to the Coast this week to resume his avocation as a gold miner could boast of his family connections if he were not far too modest a man to say anything about himself at all.' The writer then said that James Lalor was a ‘full cousin’ of the celebrated Irish orator, Richard Lalor Sheil.
In 1992, my aunty, Edith Lemon (nee Lalor), showed me where the old residence of James and Catherine Lalor stood at South Beach. It was rather derelict, but had clearly been a rather grand villa in its time. I am told that it is no longer standing.
James Lalor died at South Beach on 3 October 1916, of malignant disease of the throat. In the Argus he was described as ‘well and favourably known throughout the West Coast’ and a ‘true and devoted father’. On October 5th, Catherine Lalor invited friends to attend the funeral for her late husband James, leaving from her residence at South Beach for the Greymouth Cemetery.
He is buried in Karoro Cemetery in Greymouth, together with his wife Catherine, and two grandchildren who died as infants.
Compiled by Margaret Riordan, great- granddaughter of James Lalor snr,
27 March 2020
I have various documents and references to the facts listed above, but my footnotes didn't come through on the cut and paste to the blog. Here they are, included as pictures.
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