GOLDEN WEDDING.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 219, 15 September 1931, Page 10

GOLDEN WEDDING.

Celebrations Held at Wanganui. MR AND MRS HOP GIBBONS. WANGANUI, September 15. Mr and Mrs Hope Gibbons, of Wanganui, celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of their wedding yesterday. Their four sons, Messrs Hope, Alfred, Robert and Norman Gibbons, of Wellington, and their only daughter, Mrs A. R. Gibbons, Lower Hutt, together with their children, were at Wanganui for the celebration. Mr Gibbons was born in Tasmania in 1856 and arrived in New Zealand in 1862. He was educated at Nelson. After a variety of occupations, which included sawmilling and lightering, he acquired a business of his own at Patea. It was to Patea that he took his bride, Miss Barnes, who had come with her parents to New Zealand from London. He began public life at Patea as a member of the borough council. In 1895 Mr Gibbons came to Wanganui, where he has lived ever * since. Mr Gibbons is chairman and director of a number -of large com;panies. These companies control large ■ interests and employ hundreds of J hands. He and his sons have the con- * trolling interest in the Colonial Motor k Company, with branches all over New J Zealand. ' During the war Mr Gibbons took a t leading part in the efforts to raise \ funds and equipment, and received the , M.B.E. He has given Wanganui .public parks, and also a fine residence ‘at Gonville to be used as a St Helens Hospital. The Beautifying Society - and Plunket Society also have to thank Mr Gibbons for help he has given them. For three years he was Mayor Wanganui, and was also for some " years a member of the Wanganui Har- _ bour Board. He is still a member of the Wanganui-Rangitikei Power Board. *Mr Gibbons has been for two world 1 tours in company with Mrs Gibbons. ‘ Mr and Mrs Gibbons have enter- ; tained most hospitably at their home lin Wanganui East, both privately and ! publicly.