bridge across the Indus, on the completion of which he was made C.I.E. On four subsequent occasions the government tendered O'Callaghan its thanks, viz. for services connected with the question of frontier railways (Feb. 1886), for the construction of the Bolan railway (June 1886), for the erection of the Victoria bridge at Chak Nizam on the Sind-Sagor railway (special thanks, June 1887), and for the construction of the Khojak tunnel and extension of the railway to New Chaman. In 1887 he was commended by the secretary of state for work on the Sind-Sagor state railway. Next year, for the construction of the railway through the Bolan Pass to Quetta, he was made C.S.I. His technical abilities were linked with tact, judgment, and genial temper. On his retirement he returned to England, and was appointed in Sept. 1895 by the colonial office to be the managing member of the Uganda railway committee; and he held the position until the committee was dissolved on 30 Sept. 1903. In 1902 he received the recognition of K.C.M.G.
O'Callaghan was elected an associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers on 12 Jan. 1869, and became a full member on 23 April 1872. He was also a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. He published in 1865 'Bidder's Earthwork Tables, intended and adapted for the Use of the Public Works Department in India.'
He died suddenly at his residence, Clonmeen, Epsom Road, Guildford, on 14 Nov. 1909, and was buried at Holy Trinity Church, Guildford. He married, on 22 Sept. 1875, Anna Maria Mary (d. 1911), second daughter of Lieut.-colonel Henry Claringbold Powell, of Banlahan, co. Cork, and left an only son, Francis Reginald Powell (1880-1910), captain R.E.
[History of Services of Officers of the Indian Public Works Department; Proc. Inst. Civ. Eng., clxxix. 364.]
O'CONNOR, CHARLES YELVERTON (1843–1902), civil engineer, son of John O'Connor of Ardlonan and Gravelmount, co. Meath, was born at Gravelmount on 14 Jan. 1843. He was educated at the Waterford endowed school, was articled at the age of seventeen to John Challoner Smith, and after three years' experience on railway work in Ireland emigrated to New Zealand in 1865. There he was employed as an assistant engineer on the construction of the coach road from Christchurch to the Hokitika goldfields. Gradually promoted, he was appointed in 1870 engineer of the western portion of the province of Canterbury. From 1874 to 1880 he was district engineer for the combined Westland and Nelson districts, and from 1880 to 1883 inspecting engineer for the whole of the Middle Island. In 1883 he was appointed under secretary for public works for New Zealand, and he held that position until May 1890, when he was made marine engineer for the colony.
In April 1891 O'Connor was appointed engineer-in-chief to the state of Western Australia; the office carried with it the acting general managership of the railways, but of this he was relieved at his own request in December 1896, in order that he might devote all his time to engineering work. He remained engineer-in-chief until his death, and in that capacity was responsible for all new railway work. He was a strong advocate of constructing railways quite cheaply in new countries.
The discovery of the Coolgardie goldfield in 1892 led to an extraordinary and rapid development of the state of Western Australia, and in that development O'Connor, as engineer-in-chief, played a part probably second only to that of the premier, Sir John Forrest. In the short period of eleven years he undertook two works of the utmost importance to the colony, namely Fremantle harbour: and the Coolgardie water-supply, besides constructing all new railways. He also executed a large number of smaller works, such as bridges, harbours, and jetties, and improvements in the permanent way, aligmnent, and gradients of the railways.
The Fremantle harbour works, carried out from 1892 to 1902, at a cost of 1,459,000l., made Fremantle, instead of Albany, the first or last calling-place in Australia for liners outward or homeward bound. A safe and commodious harbour, capable of receiving and berthing the largest ocean steamships at all states of the tide and in all weather, was formed by constructing north and south moles of limestone rock and rubble; while an inner harbour with wharves and jetties was provided by dredging the mouth of the Swan river. The Coolgardie water scheme, carried out between 1898 and 1903 at a cost of 2,660,000l., was designed to afford a supply of water to the principal goldfields of the colony. The source is the Helena river, on which, about twenty-three miles from Perth, a reservoir was constructed whence five million gallons of water could be pumped daily through a steel main thirty inches in diameter to Coolgardie,
