The Matakitaki Post Office is conducted in a small building next to the Mammoth Hotel. Mr. T. O'Rourke is postmaster.

The Matakitaki Public School is situated about five miles from Murchison, up the Matakitaki Valley. It is an old wooden building, and has been in existence since the middle of the eighties. There is one class-room with accommodation for about twenty pupils, and there is an average attendance of twelve.

Miss Cynthia O'Rourke was appointed sole teacher of the Matakitaki public school in the year 1900. She was born at Murchison, where her father was a well known farmer.

Mammoth Hotel (Thomas M. O'Rourke, proprietor), Matakitaki. This hotel was established in the early seventies, when a considerable amount of mining was being carried on in the Matakitaki Yalley. It is situated fourteen miles from Murchison, and four miles from Horse Terrace, and contains fourteen rooms. The best of liquors are kept, the accommodation is good, and the tarilf is moderate. A farm of 100 acres is connected with the hotel.

Mr. Thomas Michael O'Rourke was born at Pleasant Creek, Victoria, Australia, on the 11th of September, 1865. When he was quite a lad his parents came to New Zealand and settled in the Reefton district, where he completed his education. Mr. O'Rourke was engaged for a time in the office of one of the Reefton papers, and then worked in a battery at Reefton. Subsequently, he engaged in farm work at Murchison, and was then droving between Nelson and Reefton. Mr. O'Rourke afterwards carried on the work of breaking, training, and riding horses, and, later still, he was enginedriving on a dredge. For some time he was farming in the Murchison district, but in 1897, he acquired the Mammoth Hotel. Mr. O'Rourke has a wide knowledge of the Buller district. He has been a member of the Matiri school committee. Mr. O'Rourke is married and has four children.

Ring, photo.
Mr. T. M. O'Rourke.