KNEW DICKENS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 4, 6 January 1938, Page 9

KNEW DICKENS.

DEATH OF PIONEER.

NEARLY 94 YEARS OLD.

FOUGHT IM" MAORI WARS.

(By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.)

NAPIER, this day.

A Xew Zealander who could remember Charles Dickens as a frequent visitor to his parents' home has died. He was Jerome Edward Knapp, of Tikokino, in Central. Hawke's Bay.

Mr. Knapp, who was one of the pioneers of the Hawke's Bay province, was nearly .94 years old, and was a man of unimpaired activity up to within a short time of his death.

Mr. Knapp was born at the Rectory of Swaeton, in Lincolnshire, a. son of the Rev. Henry Knapp. As a child he saw a great deal of Charles Dickens, the author being a close friend of Mr. Knapp senior, and a frequent visitor to the rectory. .

Jerome Knapp came to New Zealand in 1862, ajid shortly after his marriage a few years later to Miss Emma Dora Ramsden, of Hawke's Bay, he settled at Tikokino. Mr. and" Mrs. Knapp rode by horse through unbroken and difficult country to their new farm and home, each with a child on the saddle in front.

During the years of the native troubles Mr. Knapp served in the Wairarapa 'militia. . Throughout his life Mr. Knapp was a keen livestock enthusiast, and even in his last years attended •agricultural and pastoral shows in all parts of Hawke's Bay. In his leisure moments he was an enthusiastic gardener and pajnter, and in both pursuits he was active almost to the end of life.; Mrs. Knapp died in 1924, and his family consists of three sons and seven daughters. There are also thirty grandchildren and eleven greatgrandchildren.