Fr T.J. Linane, From Abel to Zundolovich, Vol. 2: Biographies of Priests on the Australian Scene up to 1900, 1980, p 109-110:

Crowley, Timothy, Irish
An Asset to any School
In the instances where the columnist has found from the Shipping Records that New Zealand priests have passed through ports on the mainland, their names have been recorded on the A to Z list, as visitors. Such is Timothy Crowley, and as he is a man of some ability we have pleasure in recording what Father Peter Mee, Chancellor in Dunedin, has kindly forwarded about him:

In 1871 there were three small schools in the diocese of Dunedin. One of these was a school for boys and girls in the parish of Lawrence where Gabriel Read discovered gold in May 1861. Initially, and for many years which followed, the spiritual care of the prospectors and their families, many of whom were of Irish origin, was in the hands of volunteer priests who at the most stayed but a few years. As would be expected of a Bishop whose top priority was Catholic Education the school standards were high. On one occasion when the school pupils were examined in the various subjects, the Inspectors report made special mention of the high standard in Latin and French.

It was in this educational centre that Father Timothy Crowley found himself when Bishop Moran appointed this brilliant classical scholar assistant to the parish of Lawrence in 1873. His seminary companions at St. Colman's, County Cork, and later at Maynooth Seminary where he was ordained in 1871, described Tim as an extraordinary character, a brilliant scholar with a fantastic memory. To pass the time of day on the trip out to New Zealand Tim memorized the Greek Lexicon. His travelling friends to test his memory would read a few lines from Homer and then ask him to repeat them. Tim would not only repeat the lines given but would also add a further fifty lines.

Tim's eight years in the diocese of Dunedin were in Lawrence. The classical studies in the local parish school would surely have attracted his interest. He may have even taught these subjects in the school. In the prize giving ceremony in 1875 attended by many distinguished visitors prizes were given for Latin, French, reading, geography, sewing, mapping and GREEK! It would not be difficult to conclude who taught Greek in the parish school. Apart from his interest in the school, fellow priests used to ask him what made him keep at his Greek studies. He used to tell them that on one occasion when he was in Dunedin he told his priestly director, a Jesuit at St. Aloysius' College, that he found it difficult to make full use of his spare time in such an isolated town too far distant and with poor road conditions to visit his fellow priests regularly. The Jesuit knowing Tim's scholastic attainments urged him to use the time to study his Greek again. Tim took his director seriously. He returned home with the Greek Lexicon, Works of Homer and other Greek Readings and assiduously applied himself to mastering them.

After eight years in the diocese of Dunedin, Father Tim felt the call to return to his home diocese of Cloyne. He had thought of leaving earlier but he was reluctant to go until the debt on the church at Lawrence had been paid off. I suppose today we would be calling in the Programme Giving organizers but in 1879 Tim introduced "pew rents" which no doubt provided a stable income.

In May 1882 he was publicly presented with a farewell gift of 50 sovereigns. In a touching speech Father Crowley expressed his sorrow if he had been harsh towards anyone in the parish, and while thanking all for their kindness to him, handed back the presentation for church funds — no mean gesture for a young priest about to travel home!

After serving in a number of parishes in the diocese of Cloyne he was appointed parish priest of Meelin in 1903, and after his death there 12 September 1933 was buried in the church grounds.
(Footprints, Vol. 3, No. 4)