DEATH OF MR. J. KNOWLES

Taranaki Daily News, 30 April 1934, Page 6

DEATH OF MR. J. KNOWLES

WELL-KNOWN TARIKI FARMER. MEMBER OF OLD SURVEY PARTIES. The death occurred at New Plymouth yesterday morning of Mr. John Knowles, aged 84. Mr. Knowles, who was bom in Cheshire, was trained as an accountant in a Liverpool office and came to Taranaki 56 years ago. Although brought up in a city, he chose on his arrival the strenuous pioneering work of surveying. Joining Mr. Joseph Bird’s party, he worked in the Ngaere and Eltham districts and later in the vicinity of Cape Egmont. When Mr. Bird was transferred to the office staff of the Lands and Survey Department Mr. Knowles became a member of the late Mr. Frank Duthie’s party and in that capacity assisted with the very fine and difficult survey of the coastal district several miles north of Awakino. Subsequently he commenced farming at Koru, where he remained until he purchased a farm at Tariki. He stayed at Tariki until 1919, when he retired to a property of a few acres on Mangorei Road. Mr. Knowles was a director of the Moa Dairy Company until many years ago he founded the Tariki Dairy Company, of which he was chairman for about 20 years. He had been a member of the Tariki school committee. Mr. Knowles is survived by his widow, formerly Miss Sarah Partington, and three sons and two daughters—Messrs. Harry and George Knowles, Tariki, and William Knowles, Patea, and the Misses Mary and Gladys Knowles, Mangorei Road.