Hail Sir Douglas: Knight and Patriot

NZ Truth, Issue 1149, 8 December 1927, Page 8

Hail Sir Douglas: Knight and Patriot

A KNIGHT and the son of a knight, he is one of the blue blood squat-

ters of Hawkes Bay. Yet the spare upright figure of Sir Douglas McLean would surely negative any suggestion that he is one of the idle and indefinite rich. The fires are still bright within him, though the sheen of youth may have long since dulled. He was born m Wellington when the capital city was a straggling settlement, with the waves lapping the now throbbing thoroughfare of Lambton Quay. Admitted, as a barrister-at-law m the historic Middle Temple, he soon abandoned litigation m favor of the free and open broad acres. Perhaps he found the finesse and subtlety of law not to his ingenuous taste, or maybe he abhorred a lifetime of poring over dismal tomes.

At any rate, as a man of the land, he has proved anything but a laggard. His stud farm at Maraekakaho is a

model of efficiency and scientific management. Prizes galore and championships innumerable have been annexed by his aristocrats of the woolly, bovine and equine species. The war period knew him as a tireless and unobtrusive friend to the lads m the trenches.

Yet. withal, he is the type that merely takes such jobs as a simple duty m life. The blare 'of trumpets repels him. A very early New Zealander himself he loves the pow-wows of the splendid old-timers when they foregather for a crack of the past. Thus is he to be frequently found presiding over gatherings of the Early Settlers' Association.

A strenuous athlete m his younger days, he set the pace as a long-distance exponent of hig-h wheel cycling. He once endured a term as a. member of Parliament. Apparently that ,was enough.