(1834–1919).

Surveyor, explorer, administrator

McKerrow was born on 7 July 1834 in Kilmarnock, Scotland, and was educated at the Kilmarnock Academy and Glasgow University. He arrived in New Zealand in November 1859 to take up an appointment with the survey department of the Otago Province. McKerrow worked with J. T. Thomson in the triangulation of Otago and Southland, helping to make the Otago system of surveying, based on the practice of the survey of India, the best in New Zealand and later its model.

One of McKerrow's main tasks was the exploration and mapping of the Otago lakes district, where sheep farmers had already penetrated, between 1861 and 1864. He began with a journey through from Wanaka down into Southland. Then he explored the two northern lakes, Wanaka and Hawea, reached over the Lindis Pass, and his excellent account in the Otago Provincial Gazette comments shrewdly on the possibilities and the drawbacks of this inland region with its pastoral as well as goldmining potentialities. It could be reached by bullock dray only by the Lindis Pass, and the unfordable Clutha made southern access difficult. McKerrow explored the Matukituki, Motatapu, Makarora, and many subsidiary river systems. He noted especially the great seasonal fluctuations in volume of the glacier-fed mountain rivers. Later McKerrow travelled through the southern portion of the lakes district, exploring Wakatipu, Te Anau, and Manapouri, with the rivers feeding the lakes from the Kawarau south to the Waiau. He left the exploration of country beyond Lake Hauroko to be completed from Preservation Inlet. Again his report was shrewd and realistic: even if passes existed to the West Coast, the routes would be so menaced by flooding rivers as to be of doubtful value.

The physical difficulties of these journeys, in which over 500 square miles of country were explored, can hardly be exaggerated, even though the existence of a few scattered sheep stations provided a certain amount of support. Lakes Wanaka and Hawea were surveyed from a whaleboat. A much smaller craft had to be used in similar waterborne surveys of Manapouri and Te Anau, where storms made the enterprise especially dangerous. In January 1864 McKerrow and his companion landed at the head of the western-lying Middle Fiord of Te Anau and made their only deliberate attempt to reach the West Coast. Although after some days of struggle in this very difficult region they stopped short of their objective, they did reach a mountain top from which they could see Caswell Sound in the distance.

In 1863 McKerrow was appointed Geodesical Surveyor and Inspector of Surveys in Otago. His work was of a high standard; his younger colleague, J. H. Baker, who accompanied him on his visit to Bluff Hill to take bearings on prominent distant features, attested his debt to McKerrow: “This work and my conversations with Mr McKerrow were of great use to me, as they gave me an insight into the higher branch of my profession which I had not had before”.

In 1873 McKerrow was appointed Chief Surveyor of Otago. In 1877, after the abolition of the provinces and the absorption of their servants into the General Government's civil service, McKerrow became Assistant Surveyor-General. Two years later he was appointed Surveyor-General and Secretary of Lands and Mines. In 1882 McKerrow observed the transit of Venus from the Wellington Observatory, and in 1885 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.

As a competent administrator, McKerrow had much to do with work with other Government Departments. He was appointed Chief Commissioner of Railways in 1889 and on the dissolution of the Railways Commission in 1895 he became chairman of the Land Purchase Board. He retired from the Public Service on 31 December 1901. In 1905 he was appointed chairman of the Land Commission. He died on 30 June 1919.

A casual acquaintance, C. S. Ross, reported McKerrow's genial nature and that “his wide and comprehensive knowledge of New Zealand made him a most attractive and interesting companion”. McKerrow was typical of the lad “of pairts” who came out from Scotland with a good education and undertook skilled tasks with “painstaking enthusiasm and tireless accuracy”. In addition to his meticulous survey field work, McKerrow discharged with distinction the tasks of a higher public servant at a time when administration needed resource and invention as well as energy and method.

by David Oswald William Hall, M.A., Director, Adult Education, University of Otago (retired).

• History of Otago, McLintock, A. H. (1949)
• Exploration of New Zealand, McClymont, W. G. (1959)
• Early Otago and Some of its Notable Men, Ross, C. S. (1907)
• A Surveyor in New Zealand, Baker, J. H.

(Pneumatophorus japonicus), closely resembles the English mackerel. It is shining bluish-green with meandering and chevron-shaped markings in darker colour. It is a surface fish usually found in schools and is not uncommon from Cook Strait northwards. It grows to about 18 in. in length.

The southern mackerel generally is not very popular as a food fish, but is often used for bait. When freshly caught and cooked, however, it is very palatable and is esteemed by many of the Pacific Islanders resident in the North Island.

by Arthur William Baden Powell, Assistant Director, Auckland Institute and Museum.

(Trachurus novaezelandiae). This is a streamlined, blue-green and silver fish reaching 20 in. in length, with large eyes and a prominent row of enlarged scales along the side of the body. Near the tail each scale in this row has a raised, pointed ridge, or scute. The horse mackerel is not a true mackerel, but belongs to the trevally family. It inhabits coastal and offshore waters south to about the Otago Peninsula, being most common off the North Island coast. Horse mackerel are school fish, each school usually containing individuals of similar size. They feed on small fish and crustaceans. There is a second, very similar species of horse mackerel in New Zealand (the mackerel scad, Trachurus declivis), as well as a smaller, related fish, the koheru (Decapterus koheru).

by Lawrence James Paul, B.SC., Fisheries Division, Marine Department, Wellington.

(1854–1930).

Politician, explorer, business man.

A new biography of Mackenzie, Thomas Noble appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

Mackenzie was born in Edinburgh on 10 March 1854 and came to New Zealand in 1858 when his father, David Stewart Mackenzie, brought out his family in the Robert Henderson. They settled in a fern-tree cottage in what is now St. Clair, Dunedin, and Thomas was educated at the Green Island and North-east Valley Schools and then at the Stone School. After some private tuition he ended his schooling in his early teens, and he worked for several years in mercantile firms before following his brother James (later Surveyor-General) into surveying. Thomas was 20 when he joined the Survey Department; he worked in the Hutt Valley, Rangitikei, and Manawatu, and finally in the Dunedin area.

In 1877 Mackenzie bought a general storekeeping business in Balclutha, which he developed considerably and sold well in 1886. He was now a man of substance and one well-known personally throughout South Otago, partly because of his service on the Balclutha Borough Council (1881–87) and partly because of his conduct in the “seeds case”, in which in 1887 he established in the Courts that there was a legal responsibility falling upon the vendors of seed that it should be true to label even without an express warranty. This local popularity resulted in his return to Parliament in 1887 as member for Clutha. He retained the seat until 1896. For the next three years Mackenzie was in Britain representing certain cooperative produce marketing concerns and insurance interests. He discovered and suppressed a system of assessing imported produce for non-existent damage. He had already, in 1889, inquired into the export of produce to Britain on behalf of the Government.

In 1900 Mackenzie returned to Parliament when he won the by-election for Waihemo caused by the resignation of his near-namesake, Sir John McKenzie, Liberal Minister. Mackenzie at this time was an opponent of the Liberals. He criticised most effectively the siting of the Central Otago railway and considered the development of the Catlins area in South Otago at least as promising. In successive Parliaments, in 1902 representing Waikouaiti and in 1908 Taieri (he complained that shifting electoral boundaries always seemed to be unseating him), he championed the interests of Otago in a style somewhat reminiscent of the days of Macandrew and Pyke. Meanwhile he had been moving closer to the Liberal viewpoint and early in 1909 joined the Ward Cabinet as Minister of Industries and Commerce, later adding the portfolio of Agriculture. In 1911 Mackenzie transferred to a North Island electorate, winning the Egmont seat. In February 1912 the Liberal Government led by Ward was saved from defeat only by the casting vote of the speaker. Ward resigned, and Mackenzie was thereupon elected leader of the party and invited to form a Government. He was Prime Minister from 28 March to 10 July when he resigned, as his party was defeated as soon as it met the reassembled Parliament and gave way to the first Government of William Massey.

Although he had virtually changed sides in 1909 and had more recently endured the embarrassments of leading a “caretaker” Government, Mackenzie was personally a respected figure and it seemed natural that in August 1912 he should resign his seat to take up an appointment as High Commissioner in London, in which he served, with distinction, until 1920. As High Commissioner Mackenzie bore the brunt of the problems of war. He was critical of the management of food imports into beleagured Britain and did not hesitate to speak his mind. Although he had protested against profiteering, he retained the confidence of business interests and represented the London Chamber of Commerce at international gatherings in America on his way home. He had represented New Zealand at the Peace Conference and League of Nations, and had served in a variety of international bodies covering safety at sea, Pacific cables, the Dardanelles Royal Commission (where he felt constrained to present a minority report), and war graves administration. He was made a K.C.M.G. in 1916 and in 1920 was the first New Zealander to be made a G.C.M.G.

Mackenzie was appointed to the Legislative Council in 1921 and reappointed in 1928. He died in Dunedin on 14 February 1930. He had married Ida Henrietta Nantes, of Geelong, Victoria, in 1884 (five sons and two daughters). A son, Clutha, blinded in the war, became director of the Institute for the Blind, Auckland.

In addition to his parliamentary services Mackenzie all his life took a full part in local affairs, from the days of his Balclutha mayoralty to his later residence in Dunedin. He was Mayor of Roslyn 1901–02, and served on the Otago Education Board for many years, the Otago High Schools' Board, and the Otago Hospital Board.

His early life as a surveyor left Mackenzie with a deep interest in the natural life of this country and a love of those untouched fastnesses of which many still remained in the South Island. In 1881 with Professor J. H. Scott and James Allen, he travelled through from Lake Wakatipu to Martins Bay by the Harris Saddle. In 1885 with John Sharp and W. S. Pillans (a companion also on later expeditions) he explored the Tautuku Forest in the Catlins district, Otago. In October 1888 he led a party exploring inland from Milford Sound in an attempt to estimate the height of the Sutherland Falls. Quintin McKinnon met the party after discovering the McKinnon Pass and inspired Mackenzie to make the return west to east crossing from Milford to Lake Te Anau, both crossings being made hazardous by early season avalanche snow. Mackenzie's later explorations were in the difficult country between Manapouri and the West Coast sounds, which he visited in 1894 and 1896, discovering several passes. In 1907 he did further work in the Te Anau – Wakatipu area. In 1888 Mackenzie led the party searching for Professor Mainwaring Brown in the Manapouri area and in 1892 took part in the search for his former companion, Quintin McKinnon. In 1898 Mackenzie was elected to the fellowship of the Royal Geographical Society.

Sir Thomas Mackenzie was a modest, hardworking man who made his way by diligence and businesslike methods. His political career was based as much on administrative ability as on his power as a speaker, although he could always marshal facts effectively. He reached the highest office briefly and almost by accident but did not disgrace it. His work as wartime High Commissioner was the most valuable phase of his career.

by David Oswald William Hall, M.A., Director, Adult Education, University of Otago (retired).

• History of Otago, McLintock, A. H. (1949)
• Exploration of New Zealand, McClymont, W. G. (1959)
• New Zealand Parliamentary Guidebook, Russell, G. W. (1895)
• Evening Star (Dunedin), 14 Feb 1930 (Obit).

(1888–1960).

Rugby player and administrator.

Norman Alexander McKenzie was born on 24 May 1888 in Carterton and was educated in the Wairarapa. The family moved to Hawke's Bay when he was in his teens and he spent the greater part of his subsequent life in that district, where he became one of the leading figures in rugby football. Throughout his career he was an officer of the Post and Telegraph Department and at the time of his retirement in 1946 was mail-room supervisor at Napier. But it was not as a public servant that he will be remembered. The ruling passion of his existence was rugby football, with occasional seasonal lapses into enthusiasm for the sport of cycling. While still making his way towards the representative honours which he won both in the Wairarapa and in Hawke's Bay, he studied slavishly at the principles, laws, and administration of the game and, when his playing days were over, in 1916, he slipped easily and naturally into the successive positions of coach, selector, and provincial and national administrator. He was a representative player for nine years, Hawke's Bay sole selector for 30 years, a North Island selector for 11 years, and a New Zealand selector for 10 years. He was a life member of the Hawke's Bay and New Zealand Rugby Unions, and represented New Zealand on the International Rugby Board in Scotland in 1954. Two years earlier he had been awarded the O.B.E. for his contributions to rugby, cycling, and the Order of St. John, of which he was a firm and active supporter.

McKenzie was a vigorous and likable personality, but nothing did him greater credit than the selflessness he displayed towards rugby football when his active participation in the game was finished. He had an uncanny eye for latent talent in the young and never stinted the encouragement he was prepared to give. He was still one of the great figures of the game when he died in Napier on 28 March 1960 in his seventy-first year.

In 1912 McKenzie married Margaret Callender, by whom he had one son and two daughters.

by Ronald Jones, Journalist and Script Writer, New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation, Wellington.

• Evening Post, 29 Nov 1960 (Obit).

(1876–1955).

Importer and philanthropist.

A new biography of McKenzie, John Robert Hugh appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

McKenzie was born at Yarrawalla, Victoria, on 5 August 1876, the son of Hugh McKenzie, a Victorian Customs official, and Susan, née Smiley. He was educated in Melbourne, where at 14 he entered business in Jacob Hart and Co. McKenzie served in the Boer War with the 3rd Victorian Bushmen, and in 1900 established his own business as a fancy goods importer, having branches in Melbourne and Hobart. He moved to Christchurch in 1903, where he opened his first store and laid the foundation for his later Dominion-wide chain. On 24 July 1918, at the Presbyterian Church, Roseneath, Wellington, McKenzie married Annie May, daughter of Samuel Henry Wrigley, of Wellington, by whom he had two sons.

In 1927 he bought the Roydon Lodge property near Christchurch, and established there a famous trotting stud. He served on the board of the New Zealand Trotting Association (1925–50) and headed the trotting owners' list on five occasions. In 1938 he founded the “McKenzie Youth Education Trust” (£10,000), “for the betterment, education, or physical development” of boys in poor circumstances in Wellington and Christchurch, the fund being administered by the local Rotary clubs. In 1953 he increased this to £30,000, extending its application to Auckland and Dunedin, and in 1954, when the trust had distributed nearly £50,000, he increased the fund by £1,000,000. He gave 100,000 in 1940 to establish a trust to aid disabled war veterans, the Plunket Society, children in need of special vocational training or medical treatment, and any other charitable or educational purposes selected by the trustees. He later endowed two scholarships in memory of his son who was killed in an air crash, and built the “Don McKenzie Memorial Hall” at Sockburn. McKenzie was created K.B.E. in 1950, and died while on a visit to London on 26 August 1955.

It will probably never be known exactly how much money Sir John McKenzie gave away during his lifetime; the “Crichton Cobbers' Club”, Christchurch, received £10,000; and many RSA, Rotary, and boys' clubs received substantial gifts, as well as kindergartens. Such grants seldom had any publicity; Sir John preferred anonymity.

by Bernard John Foster, M.A., Research Officer, Department of Internal Affairs, Wellington.

• Evening Post, 27 Aug 1955 (Obit)
• Press (Christ-church), 29 Aug 1955 (Obit).

(1838–1901).

Minister of Lands, 1891–1900.

A new biography of McKenzie, John appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

John McKenzie was born on Ardross estate, Ross-shire, Scotland, in 1838, the second of 10 children of John McKenzie, a tenant farmer, and of Catherine, née Munro. He was reared in a strict Presbyterian atmosphere, attending a tiny parish school on the estate. McKenzie was deeply moved by the misery he witnessed among tenants from the neighbourhood, caused by Highland landlords' consolidating their holdings in large estates. Some of his near relatives suffered in this way and were forced to emigrate to Canada and the United States. Many years later McKenzie related how, when once walking home with his father, he came upon a number of dispossessed tenant farmers who had been forced to camp in the local cemetery because there was nowhere else to go. This brought home to him, for the first time, the evils of uncontrolled landlordism. It was a lesson never forgotten.

Economic necessity associated with his father's large family obliged him, at an early age, to seek work away from home, and he became a shepherd on a nearby estate. At last, despairing of making a living in Scotland, he decided to emigrate to Otago, the recently formed Scottish settlement in New Zealand. On 23 May 1860, the day his ship, the Henrietta, sailed from Glasgow, he married Annie Munro, the daughter of a Ross-shire tenant farmer. He arrived in Dunedin, where he secured employment as station manager on Johnny Jones's Puketapu Station in the Shag Valley.

The Otago Provincial Government then had a scheme whereby special districts required for close settlement could be proclaimed as “hundreds” and the land put up for sale in small lots. Part of the Palmerston district was so proclaimed in 1865, and McKenzie put his savings into 80 acres which he began to farm on his own account. In the same year he embarked on his public career, becoming clerk and treasurer of the Bushey Road Board, and secretary of the local school committee. McKenzie felt the Otago “hundreds” system, well intentioned though it was, was liable to considerable abuse. This led him to contest the Waikouaiti seat for the Provincial Council in 1868 and, although he was unsuccessful, his forthright exposition of the “lands for the people” principle made his views widely known. He contested Waihemo against John Douglas in 1871, when he was returned and held the seat until the abolition of provincial government in 1876. In the Provincial Council he stoutly championed Donald Reid's stand on the land question against the Superintendent, Macandrew. He was a member of the Waikouaiti County Council, and while there strongly advocated the formation of Waihemo County, of which he subsequently became first chairman. He also sat on the Otago Education Board (1883–92) and on the Land Board.

McKenzie's known opposition to the Otago Province's land policy, and his stinging denunciations of “dummying” in the Otago wastelands, led to his election, on 9 December 1881, as an independent for Moeraki in the House of Representatives, and he continued to represent this area until his retirement. In the House, McKenzie remained almost a silent member until the debate on the Land Bill, when he delivered a maiden speech which for sincerity and forcefulness has scarcely been equalled in parliamentary annals. He served as whip to the Stout-Vogel combination in 1884, and his grasp on all phases of the land question so impressed John Ballance, himself a former Minister of Lands, that when he formed his Ministry on 24 January 1891, he entrusted to McKenzie the Lands and Agricultural Portfolios. The land question confronting the new Minister was very grave. Most attractive lands near the populous centres were included in large estates, owned by wealthy settlers, land companies, speculators, or absentee landlords. The dearth of suitable lands for small settlement meant that intending small farmers must either select holdings at considerable distance from their markets, or move to colonies where conditions were more attractive. Usually they chose the latter, and it was estimated that in 1890 new settlers were leaving New Zealand at the rate of 1,000 a month. Loopholes in existing legislation served to perpetuate land aggregation through such devices as “dummyism” and “rigged ballots”. Inflated land values forced prospective smallholders to use most of their capital to buy land, with the result that little was left for stocking and improvements. Capital was available to the smallholder, but this was controlled by finance companies and moneylenders, who charged exorbitant interest for their services, so that the poor settler stood in imminent peril of losing his all.

McKenzie brought several preconceived notions to his post. New Zealand was a country for small farmers. Land ought not to be alienated in large holdings by private owners; instead, the State should retain ownership and permit all who wished to use it. The State must prevent financiers from exploiting needy farmers. Finally (his greatest article of faith) the Government was morally bound to use whatever means it could devise to encompass these ends. McKenzie tackled his problems with characteristic energy. In 1892 he forced his first Lands for Settlement Act through Parliament against bitter opposition. This opened rural Crown lands on an optional tenure, the selector choosing either to buy his holding for cash (with seven years to pay), or to take up a licence which permitted “occupation with right of purchase” on generous conditions, or to accept the “lease in perpetuity” (the famous 999 years' lease), at an annual rental of 4 per cent of the capital value of the land at the date of selection. In all cases strict conditions were set as to residence and minimum improvements. Crown lands were classified, and the size of holdings of each class fixed, as also were the form of holdings permitted in each class. Lessee's rights were protected by concession of the absolute right to renewal when the lease expired. These provisions effectively prevented absentee landlordism and land aggregation, but did not affect existing holdings. To meet the demand for land, land boards were empowered to report upon private holdings suitable for subdivision, and owners were then given an opportunity to offer the land, or be persuaded to sell. If the estate were large, the latter arrangement invariably involved the unwilling owner in an all night argument smoothed by a bottle of whisky, with the Minister of Lands, which ended, equally invariably, with McKenzie's departure near dawn with a duly signed “voluntary” offer to sell. But the system did not bring in sufficient land; consequently, after the successful Cheviot subdivision in 1893, McKenzie obtained power to compel owners to sell. Thereafter progress was easier and, by 1900, 324,167 acres, at a total purchase price of £1,523,926, had been subdivided under the Act. In 1894 he introduced his Government Advances to Settlers Act, which was designed to meet farmers' capital needs, by making loans available, on security, at reasonable interest rates. The scheme was financed by a £3,000,000 Government loan on London, and this money was lent to farmers for approved purposes. It proved an immediate success, and had the effect of reducing interest rates charged by local lenders. The Government Advances to Settlers Office services were so much in demand that, by 1900, 7,448 individual loans totalling £2,179,440 had been granted.

McKenzie created the important Agriculture Portfolio as we know it today. Through it he encouraged scientific methods and the dissemination of information on all aspects of agriculture. With this in mind, he appointed lecturers and specialists to encourage farmers to apply the new techniques.

In 1899 McKenzie's health broke down and it became known that he had an incurable cancer. He resigned his portfolios and seat in the House of Representatives on 27 June 1900. He accepted a nomination to the Legislative Council on 17 May 1901, but was unable to take his seat. The Government recommended him for knighthood during the Duke of Cornwall and York's visit to New Zealand in 1901. The Royal Train stopped between Oamaru and Dunedin, opposite McKenzie's homestead. McKenzie, a dying man, entered the Royal Carriage where the Duke conferred upon him the accolade of K.C.M.G. Sir John died on 6 August 1901, at Shag Point, and was buried at Palmerston, Otago.

“Hon. Jock”, or “Red McKenzie”, as he was affectionately known to colleagues, opponents, and people alike, was one of the most popular men of his era. His philosophy, gathered in the hard school of experience, was simple and is perhaps best summed up in the closing couplets of a poem he quoted before the crucial division on the Lands for Settlement Bill 1894:

“Yet millions of hands want acres,
And millions of acres want hands.”
 

In his youth he had witnessed the misery caused by the Highland enclosures, and all through life he strove to prevent similar conditions arising in New Zealand. It is to him in large measure that we owe the fact that New Zealand is not a land of great landowners and peasant tenant farmers.

A quiet and unassuming man, McKenzie revealed hidden fire when called upon to defend his beloved land policies, and many a critic retired shamefaced before “Hon. Jock's” uncanny knack of making criticism rebound against the critic. Steadfast in all his views, McKenzie threatened to resign in 1897 when he felt the moral rights of innocent Maori owners were being imperilled by the involved and unjust litigation about the Horowhenua Block. Even though his land laws have often been amended in detail, their broad outline survives to this day, an enduring tribute to Sir John McKenzie who was probably the greatest Minister of Lands and Agriculture to enter public office in New Zealand.

by Bernard John Foster, M.A., Research Officer, Department of Internal Affairs, Wellington.

• History of Otago, McLintock, A. H. (1949)
• New Zealand Notables – second series, Burdon, R. M. (1945)
• History of Land Legislation and Settlement in New Zealand, Jourdain, W. R. (1925)
• Evening Star (Dunedin), 1 Nov 1893, 7 Aug 1901 (Obit)
• The Times (London) 7 Aug 1901 (Obit).

(c.1820–?)

Sheep drover.

James McKenzie, a Scot, who was imprisoned on a charge of stealing 1,000 sheep from the Levels Station, South Canterbury, in 1855, has become such a legendary figure that it is now almost impossible to disentangle fact from fiction. Writers have so exercised their imagination in embellishing and embroidering the few known facts about the man and his exploits that both have assumed an importance out of all proportion to their significance. McKenzie was a native of Invernessshire who emigrated to Australia about 1849, earned money transporting supplies to gold diggers; he then came to New Zealand with the object of taking up land. Disembarking at Nelson, McKenzie worked his way south to Mataura, Southland, where he purchased two working bullocks and equipment, and sought employment. He was then about 34 or 35 years old, but the date and place of his birth, and his parentage, have never been established. Apparently McKenzie made journeys north to “obtain” stock. In March 1855 a mob of about 1,000 sheep was found to be missing from Levels Station, South Canterbury. The sheep were tracked westward through the low passes to the plains beyond (now the Mackenzie Country), and on 4 March McKenzie was overpowered by the overseer from Levels, J. H. C. Sidebottom, and two young Maoris. But McKenzie broke away in the darkness and reached Lyttelton, where he was arrested and charged with the theft of the sheep. On 12 April he was sentenced to five years' imprisonment, but he was unconditionally pardoned on 11 January 1856 after spending only nine months in prison. During that time he twice escaped – on 10 May and 19 June, but on each occasion he was quickly recaptured. An attempt to escape on 1 September failed.

The only documentary information about McKenzie consists of his signed petition to the Governor, Colonel Thomas Gore Browne, in which he relates brief details of his life, his engagement by an unknown man to drive sheep from Canterbury to Otago, and other events leading up to his arrest; a long covering letter by H. J. Tancred, sheriff of Lyttelton, who was convinced that there had been a miscarriage of justice and that others were involved in the theft; a minute by J. E. FitzGerald, Superintendent of Canterbury, supporting Tancred's letter; and McKenzie's pardon. A letter written by Sidebottom containing details of his discovery of McKenzie with the sheep has been lost, but it was printed in the Lyttelton Times of 17 March 1855. It was not until 45 years later, during the Canterbury Jubilee, when Edward W. Seager, the police sergeant who arrested McKenzie in Lyttelton, recalled the affair through the fog of years, that the legend arose. Many of the legendary tales about McKenzie concern his dog, but the only reference to this now fabulous animal appears in Sidebottom's letter to the Rhodes Brothers. The MacKenzie Country, though of different spelling, is named after McKenzie, though he was not the discoverer of that region, as reputed. McKenzie was a nervous, excitable type, and close confinement undermined his health. Nothing is known of the man after he paid his passage and sailed for Australia from Lyttelton in January 1856.

by Oliver Arthur Gillespie, M.B.E., M.M. (1895–1960), Author.

• Mackenzie of the Mackenzie Country, Beattie, H. (1946)
• Old Christchurch in Picture and Story, Andersen, J. C. (1949)
• South Canterbury, Gillespie, O. A. (1958).

(1895– ).

Worker for the blind, author.

A new biography of Mackenzie, Clutha Nantes appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

Clutha Nantes Mackenzie was born on 11 February 1895 at Balclutha, Otago, New Zealand, the son of Sir Thomas Mackenzie and Ida Henrietta, née Nantes. He was educated at Waitaki Boys' High School and served with the Wellington Mounted Rifles in Egypt and Gallipoli, being blinded in action in 1915. After a term in the New Zealand House of Representatives as member for Auckland East (1921–22), he became director of the New Zealand Institute for the Blind (1923–38) and representative in New Zealand of St. Dunstan's Hostel for Blinded Soldiers. From 1939 to 1940 and again from 1942 to 1948 he was St. Dunstan's representative in India and from 1943 to 1947 held an appointment from the Government to report on blindness in India. He represented St. Dunstan's in the United States (1940–42). In 1947 he reported for their respective governments on blindness in China and in Malaya. In 1949 he was appointed to UNESCO to aid in the solution of World Braille problems, holding this position until 1951. He has served on United Nations missions to report on blindness in Turkey (1950); Ceylon, Singapore and Indonesia (1952); India (1953); and Pakistan (1953–55). He was chairman of the World Braille Council (1952) and, since then, has been a member of the Executive Council of the World Council for the Welfare of the Blind. In 1953 he served on the Royal Commonwealth Society for the Blind Preparatory Mission to East Africa. For the World Council he undertook missions to Egypt, Uganda, and the Aden Protectorate in 1954. From 1955 to 1956 he was director of the Uganda Foundation for the Blind and, in the following year, visited Ethiopia. In 1956 the United Nations appointed him Director of the Uganda Rural Project, a position he held until 1958. In 1960 he was commissioned by United Nations to write on The Rural Training of the Blind of Emergent Countries. In addition he has published Tales of a Trooper (1920) and World Braille Usage (1954).

In 1935, for his services to the blind in New Zealand, Mackenzie was created Knight Bachelor; and in 1947 he was awarded the rare Kaisar-i-Hind Gold Medal for his services in India.

(1902– ).

RAF (retired).

Sir Andrew McKee was born at Oxford, Canterbury, New Zealand, on 10 January 1902 and was educated in Christchurch. He joined the RAF in 1927 and achieved a distinguished war record. He spent 1945–46 with the Mediterranean Allied Air Force, 1946–47 as Senior Air Staff Officer, MEAF, 1947–49 as Commandant, OATS. From 1949 to 1951 he was the first commandant of the RAF Flying College. After a period as Senior Air Staff Officer with Bomber Command he was appointed Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Transport Command, which position he held till his retirement in 1959. Since then he has lived in Belmont, near Wellington, New Zealand, where he is deputy chairman of the National Airways Corporation and a director of Air New Zealand.