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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Auckland Provincial District]

Mr John Henry O'Neill

Mr John Henry O'Neill. Chairman of the Waitemata County Council, is the eldest son of the late Mr Allan
Hanna, photo.Mr. J. H. O'Neill.

Hanna, photo.Mr. J. H. O'Neill.

Charles O'Neill, J.P., a prominent colonist in the early history of Auckland, and a member of the famous Irish family of O'Neill, the founder of which was Neal Roe, Prince of Tir-Owen (now Tyrone), whose descendants were the royal O'Neills, subsequently holders of a peerage now extinct, and O'Neill of the Fews of Tassagh. County Armagh, etc., etc. The last of the O'Neills who bore the title of King of Ulster, was Donal O'Neill, who died in 1325. Mr J. H. O'Neill was born at O'Neill's Point, North Shore, Auckland, in the year 1852. He was educated at the Church of England Grammar School, and at the High School. After spending two years on the Thames goldfields, in the unsatisfactory pursuit of a fortune, Mr O'Neill returned to Auckland, where he was for a year in a solicitor's office. That work being uncongenial, he turned his attention to surveying, and in 1878 he settled on his present fine property in Waitakerei, where he has ever since successfully carried on sheepfarming. He first became connected with public affairs in 1878, when he was returned as a member of the Waitakerei Road Board, on which he remained for five years. Mr O'Neill was elected to the Waitemata County Council in 1887, and has for the last three years been chairman of the council. Mr O'Neill has also been for some years a member of the Waitemata Licensing Committee. He is unmarried.