(1864–1938).

Poet, journalist, and social reformer.

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

Jessie Mackay was born in a sod hut in the Rakaia Gorge on 15 December 1864. She was the second child of Robert Mackay, a Highland Scotsman who emigrated in 1863 and managed successively the Double Hill, Raincliff, and Opuha Gorge sheep runs in Canterbury, and William Aker's properties in the Manawatu. Jessie was educated at home until she attended Christchurch Normal School and Training College. She taught first at Kakahu Bush school, near the Raincliff homestead from 1887 till 1890, when an attack of pneumonia forced her resignation.

Her first book of poems, The Spirit of the Rangatira, was published in 1889 in Melbourne and was prefaced with a hope for “a dawning of the national spirit” in New Zealand. Later, while she was living at home, she became a well-known worker in the suffragette and prohibition movements, and her second volume, The Sitter on the Rail (1891), contained many satirical and political poems. After a visit to Australia she taught school again, at Ashwick Flat during 1893–94, but in 1898 she moved to Dunedin, where she contributed articles and poems to the Otago Witness.

She went back to Christchurch in 1902 to teach “classes for ladies” at Inveresk School for the next two years, but her most important post came in 1906 as lady editor of the Canterbury Times. Here she continued to advance the feminist cause and advocated the international rights of the world's “little peoples”. It was also her most prolific period as a poet. In 1908 From the Maori Sea appeared, followed next year by Land of the Morning, which contains her best work, and in 1911 by The Poems of Jessie Mackay.

About this time she became a vegetarian, and when the Canterbury Times ceased publication in 1917 she moved to a house in the Cashmere Hills, Christchurch, where with her sister Georgina she stayed for the rest of her life, writing poetry and newspaper polemics against vivisection, blood sports, and alcohol. She was a delegate to the Gael Race Conference in Paris in 1921. More poems, entitled The Bride of the Rivers, came out in 1926; a reforming booklet, The Girl of the Drift, in 1928; and her last poems, Vigil, in 1935. She was awarded a Civil List pension in 1936 and died at Christchurch on 23 August 1938. In that year the Jessie Mackay Memorial Award for Verse was established by the PEN society.

Jessie Mackay was a genuine humanitarian, a thin, grey, fragile woman, with intense eyes, low-toned speech, and a slow smile, but her reputation as a poet is not high today. Some of her poems are in Scotch dialect and others make use of Maori legend, yet her genuine lyric gift was often marred by archaisms and jagged rhythms. Nevertheless her personal example and work inspired later writers and helped to crystallise a spirit of nationalism in the eighteen nineties.

by Phillip John Wilson, M.A., Author, Wellington.

• A Voice in the Wind, MacLeod, N. F. H. (1955)
• New Zealand Literature – a Survey, McCormick, E. H. (1958)
• Evening Post, 3 Sep 1938, “Jessie Mackay, Poet and Crusader”, Mulgan, Alan.

(1831–1912).

Explorer, Magistrate, and Government Agent in the Waikato.

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

James Mackay was born in 1831 in Scotland, the eldest son of James Mackay (1804–75) who is, perhaps, best remembered for his “scene” with Sewell in the first New Zealand Parliament. He was a cousin of Alexander Mackay (1833–1909), the Commissioner for Native Reserves in the South Island and, later, of New Zealand. In 1845 he sailed with his parents in the Slains Castle for Nelson where his father had purchased land. Mackay worked on his father's farm at Wakapuaka until 1853 when he took up 1,500 acres on his own account in the Collingwood district. Two years later, because his holding was overstocked, Mackay determined to seek a large grassy plain which local Maoris said lay to the north-west of Takaka. Accordingly he explored the territory between the headwaters of the Aorere, Heaphy, Karamea, and Anatoki Rivers and furnished the Provincial Council with a map and report of his journey. In 1857 he travelled from Golden Bay to the mouth of the Buller and, from there, explored the district around Ahaura, Totara Flat, and Mawheraiti, on the Upper Grey, before returning to Nelson via the Grey's mouth. When gold was discovered at Collingwood, Mackay did a little mining, but, because he understood the Maori language and customs, he soon found that he had to mediate in disputes between the natives and the miners. Early in 1858 his father induced McLean to give him a regular appointment as Assistant Native Secretary and Warden of the Collingwood Goldfield. A year later he accompanied his cousin to Marlborough where they concluded the Kaikoura Purchase. Mackay was then sent to the West Coast and instructed to purchase the territory lying between Kahurangi Point and Milford Sound – about 7,500,000 acres in all. For part of the time he was accompanied by Rochfort, the Canterbury surveyor. The negotiations were protracted, particularly in the matter of native reserves, and Mackay was obliged to visit Auckland in order to consult Gore Browne. In February 1860 he returned to the West Coast and, before proceeding to Bruce Bay, met the Maori owners at Okarito. On 21 May 1860, at Mawhera (Greymouth), he purchased the land mentioned in his instructions – including the whole of Westland and the West Coast portion of Nelson Province – for £300. About this time the Nelson Government voted Mackay a bonus of £150 for defining the overland track through the Rotoiti district to the West Coast. Towards the end of 1860, with John Lockett, he explored the Tasman Range country and discovered Mount Peel and the Diamond Lakes. In 1862 Mackay, accompanied by the Knyvett brothers, blazed the saddle track from the upper Aorere to the mouth of the Heaphy. From there, where he left his companions, he walked to Westport in one day – a distance of 70 miles. This was Mackay's last exploring expedition on the West Coast.

On the outbreak of the Waikato War Mackay was transferred to Auckland. Almost immediately he was sent to Thames where he intervened, singlehanded, to disarm the Ngati Maru and prevent them from joining the rebels. During the latter part of the war he acted as interpreter with the Imperial forces and was placed under arrest by Colonel Greer when he insisted on explaining to Waikatos, who came to surrender, that their lands had been confiscated. Mackay was given the task of resettling those rebels who surrendered after Orakau. He also visited Wiremu Tamihana at Matamata to explain FitzGerald's view that it was neither Maori nor European custom to investigate the causes of a war after hostilities had ceased. In May 1864 Mackay was appointed Civil Commissioner for the Hauraki district. There he negotiated mining agreements with the various tribes, and despite strong opposition from the remnants of the Maori Land League, prepared the way for the proclamation of the Thames Goldfield. In June 1867 he was appointed Warden at Thames, and his capable administration enabled the field to be governed with less friction than was the case of earlier New Zealand goldfields.

In 1869 Mackay intended to contest the Auckland Superintendency with Gillies, but withdrew in favour of Williamson. He represented Thames in the Provincial Council from 1869 to 1873 when he accepted the position of Government Agent in the Waikato. After Timothy Sullivan's murder (April 1873), the native situation in this district became explosive and McLean sent Mackay into the King Country to negotiate with Tawhiao, Rewi, and Ngapora for the surrender of the murderers. He approached his task cautiously and, while he was not successful in obtaining the murderers, did much to ease the tension between the two races and prevent the situation from deteriorating into war. Mackay's efforts in this connection won wholehearted approval from the Government, settlers, and Maoris alike and he was very handsomely rewarded for his services.

In 1875 Mackay was urged to come forward as a candidate for one of the Auckland parliamentary constituencies, but was dissuaded by McLean. After the election, however, he filed a petition to unseat Sir George Grey, who had been returned by two constituencies. As a result of this Mackay had to wait until the Grey Ministry was defeated before he received another Government appointment. From 1879 until 1881 he was Warden and Resident Magistrate at Greymouth, when he retired to Auckland. In 1887 he contested the Coromandel seat unsuccessfully against Cadman. About 1896 Mackay moved to Paeroa, where he ran a small miners' and real estate agency until his death.

In 1863, at Nelson, Mackay married Eliza Sophia Braithwaite. He died at Paeroa, in rather straitened circumstances, on 10 October 1912, leaving one daughter.

Mackay, whose “huge frame and outstanding presence made him a prominent figure”, rendered important service as an explorer, administrator, and Government Agent. Sir Arthur Dobson considered him the “peer of the West Coast explorers”, while Haast also thought highly of him. As the first warden appointed to any New Zealand goldfield, Mackay used his experiences of the Collingwood rush to avoid similar difficulties at the Thames. It was in his relations with the Maoris, however, that he made his most valuable contribution. He understood Maoris and their language intimately and this, together with his impressive presence, his immense personal courage and unfailing diplomacy, served the Government well in many very difficult situations. It was because his personal star was so closely tied to McLean's that Mackay ceased to play an influential role after 1881.

In July 1942 James Thorn unveiled a Government memorial plaque to Mackay at Paeroa. Mackaytown, in the same district, commemorates his name.

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

• McLean Papers (MSS), Turnbull Library
• Armed Settlers, Norris, H. C. M. (1956)
• Nelson Evening Mail, 31 Dec 1955, 4, 7, 10 Jan 1956.

(1841–1917).

Geologist.

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

Alexander McKay was born on 11 April 1841 in the village of Carsphairn in northern Galloway in south-west Scotland. He came from Calvinistic shepherd stock, though his father, William Sloane McKay, was a joiner and wheelwright. He attended school until 11 years of age, after which he became a cowherd during the summer and, when not helping his father, attended school during the winter. At an early age he realised the significance of stratification in rocks and prospected for lead ores in the Rhinns of Kells Range. Departing from Glasgow on 3 July 1863 in the Helenslea, he landed at Bluff. After goldmining in Otago and in the Wakamarina Valley, Marlborough Province, he went to Australia and worked on the New South Wales and Queensland diggings, returning to New Zealand in 1866. For the next four years he was prospecting in the south-west part of the Mackenzie Country, where he met Canterbury's Provincial Geologist, Julius von Haast. Haast engaged him as an assistant in 1870, and in 1871 employed him to collect, for the Canterbury Museum, fossils from the saurian beds in the Waipara River. In 1872, with the assistance of McKay, Haast excavated the Sumner Cave near Christchurch.

McKay was appointed Fossil Collector to the Geological Survey of New Zealand in 1873, was promoted to Field Geologist in 1876, to Assistant Government Geologist in 1885, and became Mining Geologist to the Mines Department in 1892. Subsequently he became Government Geologist and kept this post until his retirement from the Public Service in 1906. He died in Kelburn, Wellington, on 8 July 1917.

In the course of his field work McKay covered nearly the whole of New Zealand, and his papers in Reports of Geological Explorations, VIII-XXII, are still basic sources of information. Where later geologists have argued, McKay's original reports generally have survived critical examination. As a field geologist he was careful not to suppress observations discordant with theory. For example, in his report on the 1888 Glenwye Earthquake, he observed that two fence lines were horizontally offset by 8 and 9 ft, an observation not in accord with the concept of purely vertical faulting held by geologists at that time. Only during the last 20 years has the concept of horizontal fault movement become accepted universally, and McKay was therefore almost certainly the first geologist in the world to have recorded such lateral displacement.

His outstanding contribution to New Zealand geology lies in the field of structural geology. During his 1884–85 and 1888–89 explorations in the Middle Clarence and Awatere valleys, he found the “Cretaceo-Tertiary” rocks resting on the much older greywackes of the Kaikoura Ranges, and bounded on one side by long faults. McKay concluded that the Kaikoura Ranges did not exist when the younger rocks were deposited and that these ranges were of relatively young (post-Miocene) date. Subsequently he extended this theory of mountain building by block faulting to other parts of New Zealand, notably Central Otago. His work received little attention at the time, but is now accepted as substantially correct. Another of McKay's theories, only recently revived, concerns the origin of the serpentine and dunite rocks forming the well known “Mineral Belts” of Nelson and Otago. McKay considered these rocks to be altered submarine lavas, a view now widely supported by New Zealand geologists.

His lasting contributions to New Zealand geology have been commemorated by the Geological Society of New Zealand in the establishment of the McKay Hammer Award for the best annual publication on New Zealand geology.

McKay married twice: first, at Dunedin in 1868, to Susannah Barnes; and, secondly, at Wellington in 1907, to Adelaide Doutson. He had two sons by his first marriage.

(NOTE – Alexander McKay, geologist, is sometimes confused with Alexander Mackay, a surveyor and explorer in Nelson and Westland.)

by Geert Jan Lensen, New Zealand Geological Survey, Lower Hutt.

• Alexander McKay's Memoirs (MS), Turnbull Library
• Memoirs of James Park (MS), Hocken Library
• Transactions of Royal Society of New Zealand, Vol. 50 (1918), (Obit).

(1900–60).

Plastic surgeon.

Archibald McIndoe was born in Dunedin on 4 May 1900, the son of John McIndoe, founder of a successful printing firm, and of Mabel, née Hill, well known in her own right as singer and artist, and sister of Alfred Hill, composer and musician. He was educated at a Dunedin primary school, at the Otago Boys' High School, and the University of Otago. As a medical student he was usually in the upper third of his classes and won the medals in clinical medicine and clinical surgery in his final examinations in 1923. In his fifth year as a medical student he carried out a survey of the effect of environment on the health of the inhabitants of a substandard housing area, in which he revealed his deep interest and sympathy with the individuals and particularly the children exposed to unfavourable conditions.

After graduation he held a house surgeon appointment at the Waikato Hospital in Hamilton and then secured the first fellowship at the Mayo Clinic granted to New Zealand. He held this fellowship from 1924 to 1928, graduating M.Sc. at the University of Minnesota in 1927. McIndoe was then appointed an assistant surgeon at the Mayo Clinic, in which position he served for three years, when he decided to move to London. Under considerable financial difficulty he took his F.R.C.S., England, and came under the influence of a relative, also a New Zealander, Sir Harold Gillies, who was at that time creating the new speciality of plastic surgery at St. Bartholomew's Hospital. McIndoe became his assistant at St. Bartholomew's and joined him in partnership in private practice as a plastic surgeon. McIndoe had found his niche. He quickly became a leading figure in his speciality, receiving many appointments to London hospitals.

In 1938 he was appointed a consultant in plastic surgery to the Royal Air Force and on the outbreak of war he became surgeon in charge of the now famous plastic and jaw injury centre at the Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead. McIndoe soon went from strength to strength in his speciality; and in his remarkable “Guinea-pig Club” he brought into play all his powers of enlisting the full psychological cooperation of his patients in their rehabilitation. Before long he had won international recognition for his work.

He was a member and a vice-president of the Council of the College of Surgeons, and a former president of the British Association of Plastic Surgeons, an honorary fellow of the American College of Surgeons, and an honorary M.D. of the University of Uppsala. He was knighted in 1947.

McIndoe was a natural leader of men and an inspiring teacher. He had an amazing facility for inspiring confidence and friendship and a great warmth of personality. From his youth he had developed a love of music and was a fine pianist.

He was twice married and had two daughters. He died suddenly in London on 12 April 1960.

by Charles Ernest Hercus, KT., D.S.O., O.B.E., U.D., M.B. CH.B.(N.Z.), M.D., D.P.H., B.D.S., F.R.C.P., F.R.A.C.P., F.R.A.C.S., Emeritus Professor, University of Otago.

• McIndoe – the Plastic Surgeon, McLeave, H. (1961)
• Dominion, 16 Apr 1960, 23 Apr 1960 (Obits)
• Evening Post, 16 May 1960.

(1802–64).

Lawyer and secretary of the Otago Association.

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

John McGlashan, the eldest son of John McGlashan and his wife, Mary, was born on 2 November 1802 in Cannongate, Edinburgh, where his father was in turn an auctioneer, furniture dealer, valuer, and warehouseman. After four years at the Edinburgh High School, McGlashan attended classes at Edinburgh University and was articled to Andrew Crombie, a solicitor. In 1824 he was admitted to membership of the Society of Solicitors at Law. An academic lawyer, he was unsuited to general practice, while the early onset of deafness was a severe handicap. In 1830 he was appointed a member of the Faculty of Admiralty Procurators. In the following year he published his first legal handbook and was appointed Commissioner for Proofs of the Sheriff Court of Edinburgh, a position he held for 21 years. From 1832 to 1839 he was public examiner of the Society of Solicitors.

McGlashan was a devout adherent of the Free Church and supported the proposed church settlement in Otago. He accepted the position of secretary of the Otago Association in October 1847, the appointment being retrospective from August 1847 to April 1848, when he hoped to lead the second party of emigrants and receive a legal appointment in the colony. His secretarial duties comprised the administration of the business affairs of the Association and the promotion of the scheme through circulars, lectures, and the Otago Journal, which he compiled and distributed. The Edinburgh Committee was intended to direct Association policy, but their activities were negligible and all initiative rested with McGlashan. His task was difficult as financial recession affected land sales, Church support was negative, and the widely publicised dissensions within the settlement discouraged a number of potential emigrants. McGlashan endorsed the scheme of a class settlement restricted to lowland Scots of Free Church persuasion and, despite its limited success, adamantly opposed any modification. After the collapse of the New Zealand Company he sought a charter from the British Government to protect “the exclusive class character” of Otago, but his lack of statesmanship prejudiced the already difficult negotiations.

In 1853 McGlashan and his family sailed in the Rajah for Otago, where he was hailed as its founder with Burns and Cargill. In January 1854 he was appointed to the joint offices of Provincial Solicitor and Treasurer. The following year he won the Western District seat in the Otago Provincial Council and held it for eight years, being Provincial Secretary and Solicitor, and also Secretary of the Board of Education from 1855 to 1861. When deficiencies in the public funds occurred during Macandrew's Superintendency, McGlashan was suspected of involvement and obliged to resign office. The investigation revealed him guilty only of inefficient administration and in 1862 he was reappointed Provincial Solicitor and Registrar of Deeds. The following year he contested the Waikouaiti seat unsuccessfully against Vogel.

McGlashan married Isabella Macewen in 1826, by whom he had three sons and seven daughters. He died on 2 November 1864 from injuries received in a riding accident, leaving unfinished his codification of the Provincial Ordinances.

His wife's name is commemorated in the Dunedin place name, Balmacewen.

McGlashan lacked the qualities of greatness. Zealous but unbusinesslike, dour and inflexible, he was unsuited to the role of statesman for the Association. Religious convictions and economic necessity combined to keep him at his post as secretary while his frequent attempts to secure the promised legal or civil service appointment in the colony suggest that he realised his limitations as an administrator. His best work was done in legal codification and his major publications form a valuable contribution to the codification of Scottish law. His religious convictions were deep and sincere, and, as the first Clerk and Procurator of the Otago Presbytery, he provided valuable assistance to Burns and Bannerman in the work of establishing the Church of Otago on a sound basis.

by Gloria Margaret Strathern, B.A., DIP.N.Z.L.S. formerly Librarian, Hocken Library, Dunedin.

• McGlashan Papers (MSS), Hocken Library
• McGlashan Papers (MSS), Otago Early Settlers' Association Collection
• History of Otago, McLintock, A. H. (1949).

(1788–1864).

Timber trader and Additional British Resident in New Zealand.

Thomas McDonnell was born in County Antrim, Ireland, in 1788. He joined the Royal Navy in 1804 and served at Walcheren, in the attack on the French fleet in the Basque roads, and in the blockade of American ports, before retiring with the rank of Lieutenant about 1815. He then entered the East India Company's service. During a visit to Sydney in January 1831 he purchased Sir George Murray and the Hokianga property where she had been built, and on 30 March sailed in her for New Zealand with his family, servants, and a party of settlers. For the rest of the decade his Te Horeke establishment was the principal timber-trading station on the Hokianga.

In July 1835 he returned to Hokianga from a visit to England with the honorary appointment of Additional British Resident. In the following December he captured the crew of the schooner Industry and sent them in irons to Hobart to stand trial for the murder of their captain at sea. This was the one conspicuous achievement of McDonnell's brief and stormy term in office (he resigned in July 1836), throughout which he was at loggerheads with Busby whom he sought to embroil in his feud with White, the Wesleyan missionary. Both European and Maori sections of the Hokianga population took sides in the numerous alarums and excursions that characterised that affair, from which neither of the principal antagonists emerged with any credit.

In either late December 1835 or early January 1836 McDonnell entered the Kaipara in the schooner Tui and, announcing that he acted by authority, declared the harbour tapu and claimed extensive timber rights. A few months later he considerably extended his Horeke boundaries and also acquired a large area of timber land at Motukaraka. In all these undertakings he was supported by the strong arm of Te Taonui. Nene, formerly White's ally, also joined the McDonnell faction when the ex-missionary departed for England on a visit in early 1837. It was this formidable alliance of McDonnell, Te Taonui, and Nene that gave de Thierry's colonising venture its coup de grâce in November 1837.

In 1839, on a further visit to England, McDonnell disposed of his lands to the New Zealand Company, but the deal later fell through. On yet another visit, in 1844, he gave evidence before the House of Commons Select Committee on New Zealand. He is often credited with having visited many parts of New Zealand (or with having circumnavigated both islands), but the improbability of his having done so is suggested by his highly inaccurate “Chart of New Zealand, from Original Surveys”, which was published by Wyld in 1834.

McDonnell's capacity for keeping the Hokianga on the boil in no way declined during the forties and fifties. Disputes with his fellow settlers (one of whom dubbed him “McDiddle”) alternated with furious dissensions with those tribes from whom he had made his 1836 purchases, or with whom he had subsequently had business dealings. Prolonged investigation of his land claims (during which he “insulted every magistrate ever stationed in the north”, to quote one of the many officials who suffered at his hands), revealed to the full the violent antipathy existing between McDonnell and many of the Hokianga tribes, and in 1858 he was granted land in the Whangarei district. This he quickly disposed of and retired to Auckland and, later, to Onehunga where he died on 13 September 1864, aged 75, from the effects of a fall from his horse. Colonel Thomas McDonnell was his oldest son; Spofforth, the “demon bowler”, a grandson.

by Ruth Miriam Ross, School Teacher and Authoress, North Auckland.

• O.L.C. files (MSS), British Resident's Papers, (MSS), National Archives
• George Hawke Journal (m/fm), Turnbull Library
• Historical Narrative … de Thierry, C. P. H. (MSS), Auckland Public Library
• Busby of Waitangi, Ramsden, E. (1942)
• Daily Southern Cross, 14 Sep 1864 (Obit)
• Great Britain Parliamentary Papers 556 (1844).

(1898– ).

New Zealand High Commissioner in London.

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

Thomas Lachlan Macdonald was born in Invercargill on 14 December 1898 and educated at Southland Boys' High School. During the First World War he served as a purser on Union Steamship Co. vessels and was in the First New Zealand Expeditionary Force 1918–19. After his discharge he went on the land, farming at Tapanui. He served in the Second World War from 1940 to 1943. In 1938 he entered Parliament, representing Mataura and, from 1947, Wallace. In the National Government he was Minister for Rehabilitation (1949–54), for Defence (1949–57), for Civil Aviation (1950–54), and for External Affairs and Island Territories (1954–57). He was appointed High Commissioner in London in 1961 and made K.C.M.G. in 1963.

(1906– ).

Literary critic.

A new biography of McCormick, Eric Hall appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

p>Eric Hall McCormick was born at Taihape on 17 June 1906 and was educated at Wellington College, Victoria University College, and Clare College, Cambridge. For a time until 1931 he was a school teacher, then a librarian, but after short terms on the staff of the Dunedin Public Library, the Hocken Library, and National Archives, he became editor of Centennial Publications in 1939–40. He was in the Middle East and Italy on war service till 1945 and in charge of Army Archives till 1947. In that year he was appointed a lecturer in English at Auckland University College but in 1951 he relinquished this to devote himself to literary and historical research. In 1962 he was invited to give a series of lectures at Leeds University on New Zealand literature. His publications include Letters and Art in New Zealand (1940), Works of Frances Hodgkins (1954), The Expatriate (1954), Eric Lee-Johnson (1956), New Zealand Literature (1959), Tasman and New Zealand (1959), and The Inland Eye (1959). In 1963 he edited New Zealand or Recollections of it, by Edward Markham.

(1883– ).

Artist.

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

Thomas Arthur McCormack was born in Napier on 27 April 1883 and educated at the Marist Brothers' School, Napier. As an artist, he was practically self-taught and his decorative and calligraphic style, reminiscent of Chinese brushwork, has evolved naturally. McCormack has taught at the Technical College, Wellington, Solway College, Masterton, and has given private tuition, but his reputation has been built up as a painter in water-colour rather than as a teacher. He has exhibited extensively in New Zealand and overseas. A comprehensive collection of his work has been acquired by the National Art Gallery, Wellington, and he is represented in all other New Zealand art galleries and in many private collections. A retrospective exhibition was arranged by the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts in 1959. He was awarded the O.B.E. in 1956.

(1873–1935).

First woman member of Parliament.

A new biography of McCombs, Elizabeth Reid appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

Elizabeth Reid McCombs was born at Woodend, Kaiapoi, on 4 November 1873, the daughter of Daniel Henderson. She was educated at the Christchurch West School and at the Christchurch Girls' High School. Soon after leaving school she began to take a lively interest in social and political questions. She was secretary of the Canterbury Children's Aid Society, and a member of the executive of the Canterbury Progressive Liberal Association. In 1903 she married James McCombs who was member of Parliament for Lyttelton from 1913 to 1933, first as a Social Democrat and, later, as a member of the Labour Party.

Mrs McCombs was an ardent prohibitionist and was president of the Canterbury section of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, as well as being Dominion treasurer of the union. She took an active part in local government, being elected to the Christchurch City Council in 1921 and remaining a councillor till shortly before her death. In 1927 she was made chairman of the Electricity Committee and proved an excellent administrator, reducing the cost of electricity to the consumer. She was also elected to the North Canterbury Hospital Board (1921) and the Tramways Board (1927).

In 1928 she contested unsuccessfully for Labour the Kaiapoi seat, and in 1931 the Christchurch North seat. On the death of her husband in August 1933 she was returned for the Lyttelton electorate by a large majority as the first woman member of Parliament. In Parliament her main interests were the status and welfare of women and children. Her health unfortunately deteriorated, and she died at Christchurch on 7 June 1935.

Mrs McCombs was a good speaker and a conscientious worker in all the causes in which she was interested. She had two children – a daughter and a son, Terence Henderson McCombs, who succeeded her as member for Lyttelton and who was Minister of Education from 1947 to 1949.

Press (Christchurch), 8 Jun 1935 (Obit).

by James Oakley Wilson, D.S.C., M.COM., A.L.A., Chief Librarian, General Assembly Library, Wellington.