OBITUARY

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVII, Issue 10847, 12 March 1921, Page 11

OBITUARY

MR J. R. GIBBONS

We regret to announce that Mr John Robertson Gibbous, for upwards of 30 years chief reporter of the “Evening Post,”’ passed away at a private hospital in Wellington, after a severe illness lasting several weeks. Mr Gibbons, who was 61 years of age, joined the literary staff of the “Evening Post” in 18S2, and in 1887 he became chief reporter. Genial and kind-heart-ed, Mr Gibbons would take infinite trouble to help newspaper men in diffi culties, and many men now occupying important, position© in the journalistic world, not only in Australia and New Zealand, but also in England and other countries, owe much —in some case© thenstart in life—to the good office© of “John Gibbons,” a© be was affectionately called. Indeed, ho functioned as a:i employment bureau for journalists in searoli of work, and hia advice and help were sought, seldom if ever in vain, by newspaper men from all over New Zealand. His remarkably extensive local knowledge was an invaluable asset to him asi chief reporter of a metropolitan newspaper. Mr Gibbons, like many more, began his newspaper career a© a compositor, being apprenticed to the trade in the office of the “Thames Advertiser.” But he soon proved himself a great newsgetter, and was thereupon transferred to the reporting staff of that paper. The “Thames Advertiser” was then owned by Messrs Wilkinson and Horton, the latter of whom afterwards became a proprietor of the “N.Z. Herald.” At the time of the Te Aroha gold fever, Mr Gibbon© was sent to take charge of a branch of the “Thames Advertiser” at that centre; hut ou the fever subsiding he was recalled to tbe Thames, and remained on the staff of the “Advertiser,” till, ill 1882, ho came to Wellington and joined the staff of the “Evening Post.” For some years he represented the “Thames Advertiser” in the Parliamentary Press Gallery, a© photographs now hanging m the Press Gallery rooms attest. In his qariy days as a. pressman in Wellington Mr Gibbons was keenly devoted to ©port, being an enthusiastic senior Rugby football-player, and an expert yachtsman. He wa® the son of tbe late Mr John Gibbons, of Thames, one of a number of brothers who l came to New Zealand from Nova Scotia and established sawmills in the Auckland district'—one at the Thames and another at- Te Huia, on the shores of Manukau harbour. Mr J. R. Gibbons is survived by a son and daughter, Master Kingston Gibbons and Miss Ngaire Gibbon©. His eldest son, Artilleryman Huon Gibbons, was amongst the manv of the 41st Reinforcement who lost their lives through influenza on the transport Tahiti, soon after that veesel had left Sierra Leone on her way to the Old Country. From this blow, Mr Gibbons never really recovered; and in October last he> suffered further bereavement, his wife dying in a Wellington private 'hospital after an operation. liis other relatives are: Mies Lena Gibbons, his only sister, the mistress of a native school near Whakatan©; Captain R. H. Gibbons, harbourmaster, Onehunga, and Messrs Frank and Edward Gibbons, engineers, Auckland. A brother Pressman -writes: John Robertson Gibbons was known throughout New Zealand as one of the most experienced reporters in the Dominion, and one of the most kindlyuatured men in his profession—a man who was an interested friend to the journalist out of employment, and the trusted adviser of the newspaper proprietors in search of reporters, such was his knowledge of men and thencapabilities. Mr Gibbons’s father was one of several Nova Scotian brothers who came out to New Zealand early in its history, and were instrumental in establishing many of .the sawmills with which the Auckland jirovincial district was dotted. The kindness of the late Mr Gibbons to other Pressmen, and his readiness to assist any of them in bettering tlieir positions, by tihe uee of hia powerful influence, have made for him friends in many newspaper offices in Now Zealand and elsewhere.” Two of Mr Gibbons’s brothers, Captain R. H. Gibbons, harbourmaster at Manukau, and Mr Fred Gibbons, postmaster ati Raglan, arrived in Wellington by yesterday’s midday .train.