OBITUARY

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 28, 2 August 1923, Page 2

OBITUARY

MAJOR J. T. LAKQE-.

A very old colonist, and' a veteran of the Maori Wars, passed away at the -Auckland Hospital on Monday, in the person of Major John Thompson Large Major_ L*rge was born in Surrey, England, in September, 1845, and, coming to Aew at un early age, completed his education at. Da Castro's Academy Wellington, the Rev. Mr. Marshall s School at Napier, . - and the .Church- "." of ...Erigiaiid' "/.Gram-: mar Schqol, Parnell. He followed sneepfarming pursuits on the East Coast and from 18$8 to the end of 1871 took part as a- volunteer in qpeijatioji?; against re Root?.. In this capacity he was at-, tacheq; to many expeditions sqiit out from the.East Const, particularly the JNgatikahungauu and A Tgatiporou Native contingents, and was mentioned in dispatches for conspicuous service laier receiving the Maori War Medal. . He was appointed to a commission in the Militia ii! 1872, and passing his niili-' tary examination in 1885, he was 'promoted to the rank of captain. In 1904 he was placed on the retired list of ■MUitin. with the rank of major. Major Large was a fine Maori linjjujst, and tor twenty years from 1874 was engaged uvst as Government interpreter to the Native Land Purchase Department on the East Coast, and afterwards us a licensed interpreter in i rivate practice, generally in the same district. In 1880 he purchased the Wairoa "Guardian" newspaper in Hawkes Bay, and was ediißooan'ipl'°pde,t?r o£ th^ i°u™al »ntil 18S<J. _ During this period he occupied tlio positions of chairman of the Wairoa Harbour Boari ai,d Clyde Town Board, presdent l of the local Mechanics' Institute and member of ofcJier local bodies, being made a Justice of the Peace in 1886. me late Major Large, in 1898, became an oihcer of ihe Cook Islands Administration under the British Resident, the late lieutenant - Colonel Gudgeon, UM.G., and up to the end of 190;f was Resident Agent, Chief Magistrate, Customs* Ofhcer and President of the Island Council at AHutaki, He was then trans feued to Mangaia, in the same qapacitv, « position he held for many years " a I. aJ°l'L»rge hud lived in retirement.in Auckland for a nnmher of years, and had taken a great interest in the veterans and in th B work of the Auckland Institute.