MR. COMMISSIONER MACKENZIE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXIV, Issue 60, 22 February 1902, Page 2

MR. COMMISSIONER MACKENZIE.

«— : — •- The Wellington Free Lance in a reseat issue says: —Mr James Mackenzie, the new Commissioner of Lands for Tar*-, naki, knows something about' land. He has been iu the civil service for thirty-fire years, and can spin; you gome rare old yarns about the early days. He saw the light in, Edinburgh in 1849, bur. left that town wilh his parents in 1858. He brought along . his accent, which is it'll in working; order. Otago district scfco lis where' the,youthful idea began to eproutyand the Dunedin High School turned him . out the finished artiole. Although the said High School was not in any especial favour, through religious dissen- . sioos, etc., it turned out a good many \ of our best known men. Mr H irry Bell (Bell, Gully, and Company), Judge . Edwards, and Mr Tom Hislop wore , all contemporaries of Mr Mackenzie's. The same school finished off Oap- . tain Moffat (s.s. Maori), Mr James Fulton, and Jndge Kettle. In 1867, " everything in the garden " . was.no. too lovely, and bush lift* had , its little crosses. Surveyor Cameron , and a party went on a West Ooaat ez- , pedition to Preservation Inlet, Wost Otigo, to survey the Martin's Bay Settlement. Cameron with orders was , shoo ing ki-ka in the busb, and was . accidentally very seriously wounded. , Mr Mackenzie and others brought the j wounded man in through the denee , bush on a dark night over cliff*, oreeks, and other impediments, and put to sea , in an open boat for the Bluff! For four days and four nights they battled \ with the waves in Foveaux Straits, \ and at last arrived at Riverton. From there they carried their wounded i j mate tq Invtrorgill. Their B[il -ntlid j devotion, however, did not have its , reward, for the p or fellow died on t reaching his destitution. Like Mr , Kensiogton, Mr Mackenzie has been . kspt in the rear through a faulty! , system, and, like him, too, he bag long r service in the office (twenty-two years) . and long service in thn field (thirteen , years). He tells a Lance man that it , is almost breaking bis heart to leave the lovely home home at Karon, where e ha has twenty-two seres, a house of , fourteen rooms, prime Jercey stank, f and the finest garden anywhere in the p dist'ict. He has bean in Kareri for . twenty-five yeaie, but a quarter of a j oentury ago a four-roomed cottage stood on the ground that the proa, nt , mansion occupies. Also in tbosi I days there were not nine Mackenk zies junior, or the Kelburne tram, or r any road worthy of the name. Karori I roads have received much attention , from the jolly surveyor, and the, fran- , way, too. He has been on the school , committee for ten years. F<ot i», Jjfo Mackenzie has cammed a heap of inci- [ dent iqto his fifty-two years of life. s His early adventures, snd his long- , de'ayed promotion, do not saem to have soared his genial disposition. Courtej ous, kindly, and above all, t-mieently ) practical, he goes a step higher with the go >d wishes ef all the service.' a . hoist him. I