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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Auckland Provincial District]

Mr. John Sheehan

Mr. John Sheehan first entered the Parliament in New Zealand in 1872 as member for Rodney, which he represented until 1879. He was then elected for the Thames, for which he sat until 1881. At the general election of that year he stood against Mr. J. D. Ormond in Hawke's Bay, but was defeated by that gentleman. On Captain Morris, member for Tauranga, being called to the Legislative Council in 1885, Mr. Sheehaw became a candidate for the vacant seat, in opposition to Mr. William Kelly, whom he defeated by twelve votes, after a severe contest. He never entered Parliament again, however, for just as he was preparing to leave for Wellington he became ill at Petane, near Napier, and died there of inflammation of the brain on the afternoon of the 12th of June, 1885. His death caused great regret, for he was not only fluent and effective as a speaker on political subjects, but possessed exceptional ability as a public man and a lawyer, and had those personal qualities of good humour, liberality, and general social agreeableness, which endear a man to his friends and make him popular with the public. Mr. sheehan was not thirty-six when he died, for he was born at Auckland in 1850. His father, Mr. David Sheehan, was one of the early settlers, and was for many years a member of the Auckland Provincial Council. He gave his son the best education which was obtainable in Auckland in those days, and articled him to the study of the law, in the practice of which he afterwards achieved distinction, especially in its relation to business in the Native Land Courts of the colony. When a mere boy, young Sheehan served as a sergeant in the Auckland Cavalry Volunteers during the Waikato campaign, he was, also, barely twenty when he entered the stirring though limited arena of provincial politics and was returned for the Northern District, which had formerly been represented in the Provincial Council by his father. In the year in which he entered the Council, 1869, Mr. T. B. Gillies was elected Superintendent of the Province, and notwithstanding Mr. Sheehan's youth, his talents were even then so apparent and so generally acknowledged, that he became one of the members of Mr. Gillies' Executive Council, as Secretary for the Gold-fields. Before entering provincial politics Mr. Sheehan had been a prominent member of the Auckland Catholic Institute, which had really been a training school for his native talents as a debater and speaker on public subjects. Those talents were rther educated by his experience in the Provincial Council, and when he entered Parliament he had, as an orator and debater, a reputation, which he succeeded in maintaining in that assembly. When Sir George Grey entered Parliament in 1875 as member for Auckland City West, Mr. Sheehan's position in the House was such that he became Sir George's lieutenant in the organisation of New Zealand Liberalism; and when Sir George Grey's administration was constituted on the 15th of October, 1877, Mr. Sheehan became Native Minister and Minister of Justice, and held both portfolios until the Ministry went out of office on the 8th of October, 1879. Some time afterwards Mr. Sheehan settled at Napier, and extensively practised his profession as a lawyer in the Native Land Courts throughout the North Island. He was well acquainted with Maori character and customs, and had great influence with the aboriginal natives of the country, of which he himself was one of the most brilliant of the early European natives. Mr. Sheehan was the first European born in New Zealand to sit in the Parliament of the colony.