Mackay James Nelson Nz 1831 1912 Part 1

edmondsallan -Hello -I have tramped over some of the country he explored . The tracks had been cut and graded . I admire someone who tackled this exploration into this virgin country of our wonderful homeland many years ago .
Farmer, explorer, public servant, administrator, politician
James Mackay, who was of Scots descent, was born in London, England, on 16 November 1831 to James Mackay and his wife, Ann. He arrived at Nelson, New Zealand, on 26 January 1845 on the Slains Castle in the company of his father, a well-to-do farmer, and his cousin Alexander Mackay. On 10 June 1862 he married Eliza Sophia Braithwaite at Nelson. Their only child, a daughter, was born in 1869.

Until coming of age in 1852, Mackay helped to farm his father's land at Wakapuaka. He then took up a licence for a sheep and cattle run near Farewell Spit, and later purchased 1,500 acres. He also took part in expeditions into the rugged mountain country of north-west Nelson and the West Coast, then little known to Europeans.

Payable gold was discovered at Aorere in December 1856, and by 1858 there were some 1,300 Europeans and 600 Maori working on the Collingwood goldfields. Fluent in Maori, Mackay often mediated in the many disputes that arose. Through the intervention of his father with Donald McLean, the native secretary, and Alfred Domett, MHR for Nelson, Mackay was in 1858 appointed assistant native secretary in the Nelson goldfields district, and in 1859 resident magistrate, justice of the peace, and warden at Collingwood. A long association with McLean's Maori land policies began. It ended only with McLean's retirement in 1876.

On 3 November 1858 Mackay was instructed by McLean to purchase Ngai Tahu title to the Kaikoura block of 2,500,000 acres and the Arahura block of 7,500,000 acres. They comprised most of the future province of Marlborough and the whole West Coast from Kahurangi south to Milford. Mackay was instructed to pay £150 for each block. With his cousin Alexander Mackay he proceeded to Kaikoura, where the position of Ngai Tahu had been compromised after Governor George Grey paid Ngati Toa for the block in 1847 at Wellington. European settlers had since moved in. James used these circumstances to beat Ngai Tahu down from their asking price of £5,000 to £300. Ngai Tahu requested a reserve of 100,000 acres between the Kahutara and Conway rivers, but Mackay provided only 5,566 acres 'of the most useless and worthless description', telling the Maori that if they wanted any more they would have to buy it back from the government. Mackay duly reported these matters to McLean, presenting him with the deed of sale completed on 29 March 1859. Subsequently he enjoyed McLean's favour.

Mackay then proceeded from Christchurch to Mawhera (the Grey River) via the Hurunui Saddle. He saved John Rochfort, a Nelson surveyor, from drowning in the Taramakau River, but failed to purchase the Arahura block. On 16 January 1860 he left Nelson for the Arahura once more, on the greatest of his expeditions – to prove the inland route via the Maruia River to Mawhera. En route, near Rotoiti, he briefly joined Julius Haast. He reported: 'we followed up the spur of a hill…named by Mr Haast Mt McLean; and after a birchological pull up, we reached the summit.' He later sent Haast friendly messages regarding bush routes, signing himself 'Birchologist'. After severe privations Mackay and his Maori companions reached Mawhera. On 21 May 1860 Mackay finally completed the Arahura purchase for £300. The Maori vendors were allowed about 10,000 acres in reserves and were promised (but did not get) sole rights to the riverbed of the Arahura, because of the greenstone which lay in it. Against Mackay's wishes they obtained the Mawhera reserve, where Greymouth now stands.

In July 1863 Mackay was summoned to Auckland to assist in Grey's Waikato policy. Mackay's personal qualities were invaluable at this time. According to Arthur Dobson, as a bushman he was 'the peer of them all'. James Cowan, who knew him in later life, said Mackay was 'the perfect type of frontiersman – of powerful physique, indomitable courage and tenacity of purpose. …Mackay was a man of abundant tact when occasion called, but he had a Highland temper, and he was handy with his fists. …Whenever there was trouble in the Maori districts, in the nervous years following on the wars, the Government sent Mackay to deal with it.'

From February 1864 Mackay was employed by Grey to receive the surrender of tribes in the Hauraki and lower Waikato areas. Instead of letting him return to the South Island, Grey on 5 December 1864 appointed him civil commissioner for Hauraki, where he was expected to cement peace with the tribes. Early in 1865 he was appointed a judge of the Compensation Court and a judge under the Native Lands Act.

While at Ohinemuri in 1864 receiving the surrender of Ngati Tama-Te-Ra, Mackay learned of the presence of gold in the area. He was later instrumental in having Maori land opened up for goldmining: reluctant chiefs were plied with loans and eventually signed away the mining rights over their lands to clear their debts. As the Thames goldfields became more populous, Mackay ruled both European and Maori with an iron hand. He became known as 'The Thames Autocrat'.

On 16 December 1869 Mackay was elected to the Auckland Provincial Council, on which he served from January 1870 to October 1873. In April 1873, while on a political mission for McLean in the King Country, he narrowly escaped death, being saved by Rewi Maniapoto. For his services, Mackay received thanks from the government, a gift of £500, a piece of plate, and an appointment as commissioner for Maori affairs. Mackay received further praise when on 17 February 1875 at Hauraki, Te Hira, a leader of Ngati Maru, at last surrendered the mining rights to the Ohinemuri. Consent had been assured by Mackay's unscrupulous use of the debt system.
Till we meet again - Regards - edmondsallan

Harry C. Evison. 'Mackay, James - Biography', from the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 1-Sep-10
URL: http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/biographies/1m29/1