John O'Meara (politician)

O'Meara was born in Australia in 1856.{{sfn|Hamer|1988|p=365}} He came to New Zealand with his family in 1868, and joined the Post and Telegraph Department in 1871. After that, he was in business in Queenstown in Otago. His sister married Albert Eichardt, the owner of Eichardt's Hotel. Soon after the November {{NZ election link year|1893}} election, he moved to Woodville in the Manawatū-Whanganui region.{{cite news |title=Sudden Death of an M.H.R. |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ESD19040704.2.24 |access-date=23 August 2016 |work=Evening Star |issue=12239|date=4 July 1904 |page=4}} He became an auctioneer by trade.{{sfn|Hamer|1988|p=365}}

{{NZ parlbox header|nolist=true|align=left}}

{{NZ parlbox

|start = {{NZ election link year|1896}}

|end = 1899

|term = 13th

|electorate = {{NZ electorate link|Pahiatua}}

|party = New Zealand Liberal Party

}}

{{NZ parlbox

|start = {{NZ election link year|1899}}

|end = 1902

|term = 14th

|electorate = Pahiatua

|party = New Zealand Liberal Party

}}

{{NZ parlbox

|start = {{NZ election link year|1902}}

|end = 1904

|term = 15th

|electorate = Pahiatua

|party = New Zealand Liberal Party

}}

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File:S.S. Mapourika. E.G. Allen, Geo George Fowlds, J. O'Meara, 1903, PH-NEG-2681 001.jpg, George Fowlds and O'Meara during the Parliamentary Excursion to South Sea Islands, 1903]]

O'Meara was chairman of the Lake County Council for some time, and a member of the Queenstown Borough Council. When Thomas Fergus retired from the {{NZ electorate link|Wakatipu}} electorate prior to the 1893 election, O'Meara was one of three candidates for the position; William Fraser won the election, and O'Meara came a distant second but ahead of William Larnach.{{cite web |title=The General Election, 1893 |year=1894 |publisher=National Library |url= https://atojs.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/atojs?a=d&cl=search&d=AJHR1894-I.2.3.2.21 |access-date=19 November 2013 |page=3}}

He was still relatively unknown in the Pahiatua electorate when he stood in the 1896 general election, and to the surprise of many, he defeated Robert Manisty and William Wilson McCardle.{{cite news |title=The General Election |url= https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=AS18961223.2.28.11 |access-date=12 January 2014 |work=Auckland Star |date=23 December 1896 |volume=XXVII |issue=305 |page=6}} O'Meara held the Pahiatua electorate until his sudden death in 1904.{{sfn|Wilson|1985|pp=224}} In 1903 he was elected as the Liberal Party's senior whip in which role he was to serve until his death.{{sfn|Wilson|1985|pp=278}}

O'Meara died unexpectedly on 3 July 1904. Returning home from a bike ride, he had just passed his housekeeper when she heard him crash onto the gravel driveway; he was dead before a doctor arrived 15 minutes later. An autopsy found that an artery carrying blood to his brain was blocked. He was survived by his wife and eight children.{{cite news |title=Sudden Death of a Politician |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19040705.2.31 |access-date=23 August 2016 |work=The Press |volume=LXI |issue=11937 |date=5 July 1904 |page=8}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{Cite book |last=Hamer |first=David A. |author-link=D. A. Hamer |title=The New Zealand Liberals: The Years of Power, 1891–1912 |year=1988 |place=Auckland |publisher=Auckland University Press |isbn=1-86940-014-3 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/newzealandlibera0000hame }}
• {{cite book |last= Wilson |first= James Oakley |title= New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1984 |edition= 4th |orig-date= First ed. published 1913 |year= 1985 |publisher=V.R. Ward, Govt. Printer |location= Wellington |oclc=154283103}}

{{s-start}}

{{s-par|nz}}

{{s-new|constituency}}

{{s-ttl|title=Member of Parliament for Pahiatua|years=1896–1904}}

{{s-aft|after=Bill Hawkins}}

{{s-ppo}}

{{succession box | title = Senior Whip of the Liberal Party

| years = 1903–1904

| before = Walter Carncross

| after = Frederick Flatman}}

{{end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Omeara, John}}

Category:New Zealand Liberal Party MPs

Category:1856 births

Category:1904 deaths

Category:People from Woodville, New Zealand

Category:People from Queenstown, New Zealand

Category:Australian emigrants to New Zealand

Category:19th-century New Zealand politicians

Category:Members of the New Zealand House of Representatives