THE HON. T. MacGIBBON.

Wanganui Chronicle, Issue 20128, 16 July 1914, Page 7

THE HON. T. MacGIBBON.

I The Hon. T. Mac Gibbon came to New j Zealand as a lad -with his father and i mother, arriving by the ship Blundell (in 1848. Mr Mac Gibbon, worked with j his father, and as he grew ut> did his j share of pioneering in the very early ; days. He. drove teams of horses and bullocks through from the Taieri to Dunedin before there were any roads. .In the early fifties, Mr Mac Gibbon went with his father to Mataura. Later Mr. Mac Gibbon took up a small run with his father and brother, and subsequently he was a mail contractor. Eventually he settled down as a store- . keeper and carriod on a firm, in part- ! nership with his brother Mr John Mac- . Gibbon, at the Falls, and afterwords at Gore. Mr. Mac Gibbon has continued his connection with this business ever since. He entered public life as a member of the Lyndhurst Road1 Board in the early sixties and was one of the first county councillors in the Southland County. Later he became chairman of | the County Council. He was one of the i earliest members of the Southland Edu- | cation Board, and served upon it for twenty-five years, filling the office as chairman on various occasions. Mr. Mac Gibbon was also a member of the district Hospital Board, and he was for nearly twenty years one of the Otago and! Southland School Commissioners representing the Southland Education Board, and he was Mayor of ; Mataura on. several occasions. He is now a member of the Otago University , Council representing Southland Education Board. In 1905 he stood for Parliament against Mr M'Naib, but was defeated1. For many years Mr MacGibbon has been closely identified with the jjublic life of Mataura. He has a long record! of service as a member of the Gore High School Board and has I been one of the leading office-bearers in ' the Mataura Presbyterian Church since its foundation. He has conducted, the ; Sunday School for fully forty years. Mr Mac Gibbon was one, of this found- . ers of the Southland Frozen Meat Company.