Mr Duncan Mackay Was Leader In Education

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30391, 16 March 1964, Page 10

Mr Duncan Mackay Was Leader In Education

Mr Duncan Mackay, acknowledged as one of the wisest men in New Zealand education over several decades, died in Christchurch during the week-end. He was best known as a former principal of the Christchurch Teachers’ College but his influence . was felt in every sphere of education. A genial man, beloved by his students and associates, Mr Mackay also had a tough streak. He was uncompro-

raising in his principles, a strict disciplinarian, and was often called upon to handle difficult situations. Whatever task was set him, he accepted it without hesitation and with resolution. Mr Mackay was a Scot, born in Inverness, and worked as a boy on the estate of the Duke of Sutherland. As a young man in New Zealand, he worked on farms in Southland. He never forsook his love of the land and of nature. After three years’ pupil teaching, Mr Mackay enlisted and served in France during the First World War. At the Armistice he was in the New Zealand contingent which visited France as the guest of its Government. After the war he was in New Zealand’s original “pressure cooker course” for teachers (one year at the Dunedin Training College), graduated bachelor of arts, and later took a master of arts degree and diploma in

education at Canterbury University College. Mr Mackay then had four years general teaching, 10 as a manual training supervisor and agricultural instructor in Taranaki and then for another 10 as an inspector in the same province. In 1943 he was appointed principal of the Christchurch Teachers’ College (he was an instigator of the change from Training College) and shepherded it through its period of greatest development—the rehabilitation of teachers from the services, emergency schemes to encourage recruitment, and big advances in the status of teachers. In gratitude his students presented the college with stage furniture on his retirement in 1955 and named its field station at Coopers Creek “Mackay Lodge.” As his career was ending, Mr Mackay embarked on other activites of at least equal value. He was a member of the Canterbury University Council during the planning for the move to Ham, he was a member of the Christchurch Post-prim-ary Schools’ Council when most of its new high schools were founded, he was a member and former chairman of both the Cashmere High School Board and the Rangi-ruru School Board for many years. He was also caUed in as a member of the Consultative Committee on Teacher Training and many syllabus revision committees, and many other advisory groups. In every one of these bodies, Mr Mackay was known as the member who usually spoke last but then pulled every debate down to earth and moved the necessary action.