OUTSTANDING FIGURE PASSES

Evening Star, Issue 21932, 19 January 1935, Page 12

OUTSTANDING FIGURE PASSES

DEATH OF PROFESSDR MACMILLAN BROWN TEACHER. ADMINISTRATOR, AND WRITER OF NOTE An outstanding figure in the University life of the dominion, both as a teacher and as an administrator. Professor John Macmillan Brown, Chancellor of the' University of New Zealand, died yesterday at Christchurch at the advanced age of nearly eighty-nine years. During that long span he could justly claim to have used a tremendous amount of human endeavour in the studies which attracted him most, the result of his researches, especially in anthropology and ethnology, attracting attention in most parts of the world. Born at 'lrvine, Scotland, in 1846, the late Professor Macmillan Brown went to both Glasgow and Edinburgh Universities. At Glasgow University he was induced by Edward Caird to try for a mathematics scholarship at Balliol College, Oxford, and, though his natural bent was rather towards classics

and English, he duly won the scholarship. That scholarship was worth £7O for three years, and Caird, having decided that his pupil was capable of better things, induced him to enter for the Snell Exhibition, worth £l2O a year for three years at Balliol. Macmillan Brown, therefore went to Oxford, where he came under the influence of JoWett. the famous master of Balliol, whom ho described as the greatest influence on his life. Through Jowett he met Matthew Arnold and Swinburne, who were frequent visitors to the master. After he left Balliol Macmillan Brown spent some time on a geological survey of Scotland, and in 1874 he came to New Zeaand as professor of classics at Canterbury College. At that time he said he would be back in Scotland in two or three years, as he had been offered positions as leader writer on several London newspapers, as well as positions in Canada, India, and Japan. However, he was not desinted to leave the country. The work of the chairs of classics and English, both of which he occupied, was trying and strenuous, and in his fourth year he was told that he was overworking himself and was offered an assistant. He agreed to relinquish the classical side, but to his teaching of English h© added that of political economy and history. He recalled those years as particularly strenuous ones, when he was working sixteen to eighteen hours a day regularly, getting to his bed at about midnight and rising again for the day’s work at 6 o’clock.

Becoming a member of the Senate of the University of New Zealand in 1876, he held that position to the time of his death, i being a prominent figure in discussions of academic problems at all meetings of that body. He had been Chancellor of the University for the last twelve years. He was a member of the University Commission of 1878 to 1882, the result of which was practically the foundation of the present university. His great affection for the institution' which he did so much to bring into being was retained through many years, and it was distressful to him that he was forced to give up his teaching in it. It was in 1896 that insomnia compelled him to resign. In 1903, finding his sleeplessness due to reading by . artificial light, he began to follow the sun, and took up the study of the peoples in and around the Pacific, a work which he continued to follow ever after. “My eyes made it necessary to follow the sun, so that I could read as much as possible,” he once remarked. “I travelled a lot in the Pacific, and gradually began to take up the study of the peoples of the Pacific —I became, in fact, an anthropologist.” So keenly did he apply himself to this new study, that ho amassed a volume of knowledge which attracted attention far and wide. During a period of thirty years he travelled over the Pacific Ocean, visiting most of the islands, including Easter Island (1921-1922), investigating their ethnology, the people and their beliefs, and writing an article once a fortnight for the ‘ Sydney Morning Herald,’ and another once a fortnight for a syndicate of papers in New Zealand. He later went all through Japan, China, Korea, and the Malay Archipelago, investigating the races, their origins, customs, and beliefs, and writing articles for the above papers. Travelling from Buenos Ayres, Macmillan Brown went north through all the American countries of ancient civilisation, examining the ruins in Bolivia, Peru, Central America, Yucatan, and Mexico, and at a later date journeyed -through the north-west regions of North America, going up the Yukon to Dawson, all round the Queen Charlotte Islands qnd Vancouver in pursuit of his anthropological investigations. For a short time, pending the filling of a vacancy following the death of Professor Gilray in 1920, he took the English classes at Otago University, with as much enthusiasm for his subject as he had shown in earlier days. The deceased was the author of a manual of English literature, and of various studies of great English books. Two of the most important of his publications were ‘ Limanora ’ (a Utopia), and ‘ Riallaro ’ (a satire), the former being published in 1903 and the latter in 1901, and both being reprinted in 1931. In 1929 he received the gold medal of the Royal Colonial Institute for his book, 1 The Peoples and Problems of the Pacific,’ for the best work of outstanding imperial interest as decided upon by a specially selected committee. Professor Macmillan Brown was also the possessor of a library in relation to Pacific matters winch ‘was one nf the most complete and extensive in exisence. His ‘ Riddle of the

Pacific,’ written on Easter Island in 1924, went to a second edition in 1925, : He married, in 1887, Miss Helen Connor, one of his students at Canterbury College, who was the first woman to graduate with honours in the British Empire. From 1882 to 1894, Miss Connor (or Mrs Macmillan Brown); was principal of the Christchurch Girls’ High School, and sba died in 1903. Two daughters survive, PRO-CHANCELLOR’S TRIBUTE. “By the death of Professor Macmillan Brown the University of Neir Zealand has lost a leader whose influence went beyond academic walls r<j the community at large,” said the Hon. J. A. Hanan, M.L.C., pro-Chancellor, of the University of New Zealand, which is at present meeting in Christchurch. “ The members of the Senate regret the loss of a colleague who has had a longer association with the University than any of them, and who, indeed, taught many of them when they were students. “His reputation'as an educationist needs no emphasis. What is not realised is that in this sphere, and also in that of ethnology, illustrated by. his long-continued study of the people* of the Pacific, he had achieved a renown which kept him in constant correspondence with eminent scholars overseas. He was a wide reader, a keen and witty conversationalist, with a great fund of illustrative anecdote, and a man of unfailing physical and intellectual vigour. * r Wherever I meet his old students they speak in the highest terms of him as an able and inspiring lecturer. He possessed in an unusual degree what can only be called a magnetic personality. in addition he was kindly, and there are many to speak of the interest he took in those or his students wh<» were in difficult financial circumstances, and of the help he gave them. “ He was. the oldest living member of the Senate, and few men in New Zealand had such a knowledge of tha development of university education in New Zealand. The knowledge he gained in a long and active life was of helpful service in the deliberations of tha Senate. The University also benefited from his liberality in the endowment of prizes and scholarships. In his death many of us suffer the personal loss of a very dear friend and of a man whom to know was not only a pleasure but an honour.”