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John Lomas of the Dunrobin Hotel and Store
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William McKay suffered ill health and on February 29th, 1876 offered his Dunrobin Hotel for sale by public auction. The hotel consisted of eight bedrooms, a bar, parlour and dining room, together with store, post office, stable, outhouses and twelve acres freehold. The land was divided into two paddocks planted in potatoes and oats. He sold a further 5 acres near the Hotel to Mr Cross in April 1876 for �10 per acre.
Mr John Lomas who purchased the Hotel for �700, was granted a hotel license on 10th June 1876. He started erecting a large store at Dunrobin next to the hotel and offered to become the post office agent. Lomas with his wife Elizabeth, (nee Atkinson) had previously been a storekeeper at Lammerlaw, where he also held a slaughtering license. When the new store was completed on the 24th April 1876, Lomas hosted a supper and ball, his store the venue, entertaining about forty men and women. Mrs Muir gratified with a song, toasts were proposed by Mr Walker, Lawrence Barclay, William McKay, John Muir, John Finlay, Mr Heath with thanks from John Lomas. Songs by various present including Mr Lamont brought the supper to close with dancing continuing until dawn.
The store sold everyday needs such as sugar, tea, general groceries, drapery and wines and spirits, furthermore Lomas had been granted a slaughtering license at Dunrobin. Adam Braudigan, Tapanui Postmaster, became the successful mail contractor with his first delivery to Dunrobin on 18th May 1876.
It was with great suspicion that a fire started in the Dunrobin store at 1 am on 6th August 1877, burning the place to the ground. A stable, with open door had also caught alight but Lomas and Robert Caffel, an employee who lived in the hotel, put it out. Caffel had shifted two ewes from the slaughter yard about 10 pm and had seen no sign of a fire. Henry Giesig, ploughman employed by Lomas slept in the stable loft and swore to the inquest jury he had closed the door from the inside when he went to bed but when called for by Lomas and Caffel they had closed the door from the outside and he had to break out. The Victoria Insurance Company paid Lomas' claim of �450 for the loss of his store and by October 1877 he had erected a new building on the same site.
The above article is part of my book West Otago - 150 Years, Farming and Families. If you would like to read more about Dunrobin the book will be available towards the end of 2008. You can contribute and have your family included in the book if they lived or worked in West Otago.
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