# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/M'Kenzie, John

​M'KENZIE, Sir JOHN (1836–1901), minister of lands in New Zealand, born at Ardross, Rossshire, Scotland, in 1836, was son of a farmer. After education at the parish school he worked on his father's farm. In 1860 he emigrated to Otago, New Zealand, and became working manager of the Pakitapu station near Palmerston. Then he farmed on his own account in the Shag valley. In 1865 he became clerk and treasurer to the local road board, and secretary to the local school committee. In 1868 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the provincial council of Otago, but in 1871 he won the seat for Waihemo, which he retained until the abolition of the provinces in 1875. In 1881 he became a member of the House of Representatives for Moeraki, and in 1884 he was promoted to be junior whip under the Stout-Vogel combination. When John Ballance [q. v. Suppl. I] became premier in 1881 M'Kenzie received the portfolio of lands and immigration, which he held until his retirement in 1900. He was identified with the liberal policy of purchasing large estates, cutting them up, and settling small farmers upon them. His efforts were strongly opposed at the time, but his scheme proved substantially successful. In the years following the death of Ballanco in 1893, when Richard John Scddon [q. v. Suppl. II] began his long tenure of the premiership, M'Kenzie was the most respected member of the cabinet. He introduced his first repurchase bill in 1891. It was passed by the legislative council in 1892 shorn of its compulsory clauses. A certain amount of land was bought under this Act, notably the Cheviot estate in 1893. In 1894 M'Kenzie induced both houses to pass his Lands for Settlement Act, which gave him power to compel unwilling owners to sell. He made many voluntary alterations in this Act during his term of office, and introduced a consolidating and amending Act in 1900. In 1894 he devised a scheme for helping the unemployed to get on to the land by setting them to clear forest land and prepare it for cultivation. While thus engaged the men gained both capital and experience, and when the land was cleared they were allowed to lease it on favourable terms. M'Kenzie also instituted a successful system of advancing loans to settlers on the security of their farms. The question of land tenure was keenly debated at this time, and in order to maintain the custom of not selling Crown lands he compromised with the opposition in 1892 and introduced the 'lease in perpetuity' (lease for 999 years), under which the tenant escaped periodical revaluations. In 1896, his health having given way, he went to London for a serious operation. He came back in 1899, and returned to his parliamentary duties, but his illness continued, and he retired from office on 15 June 1900. In 1901 he was appointed a member of the legislative council, and in June of that year the duke of York (afterwards King George V), then visiting New Zealand with the duchess, made him K.C.M.G. On 6 August 1901 he died at his home at Heathfield, Bushey, New Zealand. A memorial cairn was erected to his memory at Bushey. He left a widow, two sons, and three daughters.
[Mennell, Dict. of Australas. Biog.; W. Peraber Reeves, State Experiments in Australia and New Zealand, 2 vols. 1902; Gisborne, New Zealand Rulers, 1897 (portrait); Otago Daily Times, 7, 8, and 10 Aug. 1901; Lyttelton Times, 7 and 8 Aug. 1901; private information.]
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