TE AWAMUTU NEWS | 1
THURSDAY OCTOBER 5, 2023
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OCTOBER 5, 2023
We’re in the business
The publisher of the Te Awamutu News and Cambridge News has added another print masthead to the company’s stable. Good Local Media announced this week it had bought the Waikato Business News. Good Local owner David Mackenzie said the Waikato Business News had a trusted and respected name and was a good fit with Good Local’s
existing publications. “The Waikato Business News has been publishing for over 25 years serving the Waikato business community well – we look forward to building on this,” he said. “With the significant depth and experience of our staff we can add a lot of value to the publication. We excel in producing high quality relevant local
editorial content and will do the same for the Waikato Business News.” The move is the most significant for the company since June 2019 when it launched the Te Awamutu News as a sister paper to the Cambridge News. “Our existing Cambridge and Te Awamutu clients who work with advertising director Janine Davy will have an opportunity to reach
the Hamilton and wider Waikato market and many of our advertisers already use the Waikato Business News.” Good Local Media publications are edited by Roy Pilott, who spent almost four decades in senior roles with the South Waikato News, Waikato Times and the Taranaki Daily News. Its senior writer, Mary Anne Gill, has a similar track
record on both community and daily publications and has collected a host of national awards. She is also a former business editor at the Waikato Times. Davy has worked with Mackenzie for more than a decade on daily and community newspapers across the country. PICTURED RIGHT: David Mackenzie
Obituary – JOHN GIBBONS: June 26, 1927 - September 25, 2023
Modest man’s Le Quesnoy legacy By Viv Posselt
John Gibbons, one of New Zealand’s most remarkable bandsmen and a resident of Te Awamutu for 24 years, was farewelled at the town’s St Patrick’s Catholic Church last Saturday. Recognised widely as a skilled bandsman, cornet and piano player, repairer of instruments and prolific composer, John died on September 25, aged 96. His funeral acknowledged his musical standing with the inclusion of a brass band comprising members from around the region. They played one of John’s marches, ‘The Town of Taumarunui’, and formed a guard of honour at the end of the service. Te Awamutu Brass member Steve Wilson said that outside his extensive association with bands, John was an accomplished pianist who spent many hours entertaining at Matangi’s Assisi Home, or at Rosehill Village where he and his wife Joan lived.
A guard of honour made up by band members from around the district farewells John Gibbons after Saturday’s funeral service in Te Awamutu.
He said John had given 58 years of service to the brass band organisation, starting out with the Takapuna Municipal band in 1943.
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He also played for the Auckland Artillery Band, the Auckland Watersiders’ Band, Te Aroha Municipal Band, he formed the Te
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Aroha College Band, played for Lower Hutt Municipal Brass (now Titan City Brass), the Tauranga City Silver, and the Cambridge Municipal Band in 1996 and 1999. A march he composed around 2004 for the 6th Hauraki Battalion, which carries lyrics written by Gavin Marriott, is rated as one of the world’s top marches, and was played for the late Queen Elizabeth. One of the 50 marches he composed overall was entitled ‘The Spirit of Le Quesnoy’, a piece written for the Cambridge/Le Quesnoy sister city relationship formed around the story of the French town’s liberation in November 1918 by Kiwi soldiers. “John was an active competitor as a soloist at regional and national contests, with many successes,” Steve said. “He was often awarded the Attendance Cup … his last national contest was in Hamilton in 2019.” Continued on page 2