Calgary land owner traced

Press, 9 May 1980, Page 1

Calgary land owner traced

The owner of land worth $lBO,OOO in a Canadian city has been found. The Calgary City Council in Alberta had been “■ying to trace Roderick Mackenzie, who owned eight hectares of land standing in the path of Calgary’s proposed expressway. Mr Mackenzie gave his last address on the land title document, dated 1960, as Dunedin, New Zealand. . After the story appeared in New Zealand newspapers yesterday it was found that Mr Mackenzie had died in the 19305. The law firm trying to trace him has found that his closest surviving relative, a sister-in-law, lives at Matamata. The relative lives with her daughter, Sister H. Mackenzie, who runs the Braeside Private Hospital in Matamata. Sister Mackenzie said her brother was negotiating with Calgary

city officials for the sale of the Mr Roderick Mackenzie managed the Excelsior Hotel, now known as the Excelsior Guest House, in Dunedin from 1900 to 1915.

For a while yesterday Mid-Canterbury people thought they knew the man the Calgary officials were looking for. The president of the Mid-Canterbury branch of Federated Farmers is Mr Roderick Mackenzie, and the co-incidence is even more striking because he comes from Canada, and his father ran a ranch about 250 km from Calgary before World War I.

“A lawyer telephoned me to ask if I was the Roderick Mackenzie who used to live in Canada. I said that 1 was, because that is an accurate description of me,” Mr Mackenzie recalled. “I only wish the man was me.”