NOTED MAORI LINGUIST

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 423, 3 August 1928, Page 1

NOTED MAORI LINGUIST

MR. VERNON ROBERTS GOLDEN WEDDING TO-DAY A noted Maori linguist and interpreter, who was beloved by the members of the native race with whom he was connected for many years, is Mr. Vernon Roberts, of Symonds Street, Onehunga, now aged 82. To-day Mr. and Mrs. Roberts are celebrating their golden wedding. With his brother, Mr. Roberts arrived at Auckland in 1865, in the sail-ing-ship TJlcoats. He tried his luck on the goldfields, and subsequently joined the Post and Telegraph Department. For 37 years he remained in the service of the department, and when he retired in 1911 was postmaster at Greytown. At one time Mr. Roberts was also a licensed interpreter at the Thames. He retired from active life in 1920, and has since lived quietly in Auckland. Mr. Roberts was a friend of -he late King Tawhiao, and among some of his treasured possessions are several personal relics of the late Maori l-Cing, of whom Princess Te Puea Herangi, of Ngaruawahia, is a grand-daughter. Before her marriage, Mrs. Robert.! was Miss Frances Codlin. They have one daughter and three sons—Mrs. A. F. Gibb, of Auckland, and Messrs. Charles, Frank and George Roberts, of Auckland. Mr. Roberts’s two children by his first wife are also living. They are Mrs. H. A. Hawke, of Pukekawa, and Mr. V. J. Roberts, of Auckland.