Paul Gabites was born 5 December 1913 in Timaru, New Zealand.
[2] After completing his education at the University of Canterbury, Gabites served in World War II from 1941 to 1945.
He remained in Europe until 1946, during which time he met and married Italian Anna Dora Lunghetti.
[2] Paul Gabites was a teacher at St Peter's Cambridge[3] from 1937 to 1941.
As a politician, after serving in the Second World War, Gabites served in the Internal Affairs Department (1946–47), the Department of External Affairs (1947), as Head of Information Division in Wellington (1951–53), as Official Secretary in Ottawa (1953–56), as Councillor in Paris (195659), as Charge d'Affaires in Paris (1959–60), as Consul General in New York (1960–65), as member of New Zealand United Nations' Delegates (1960-64), as High Commissioner of Western Samoa (1965-68), as Administrator of the Tokelau Islands (1965–68), as Assistant Secretary in Wellington (1968–69), as Senior Commissioner of the South Pacific Commission (1968–69), as New Zealand's ambassador to France (1969–75), as a Permanent Representative to the OECD (1970–75) and as New Zealand's ambassador to the Holy See from 1973 until 1975, when he retired.