SIR THOMAS MACKENZIE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20490, 15 February 1930, Page 10

SIR THOMAS MACKENZIE.

By the death of Sir Thomas Mackenzie there is removed from the public life of the Dominion a notable figure. It is natural to think of his political career as his chief title to remembrance, for he played a very active part in Parliament and came to the highest post there; but the national interests that absorbed so much of his virile attention and energy covered a range wider than politics, and his devotion to them all entitles him to very grateful recollection as his name passes to the growing list of men honoured for the work.they have done and laid down. Although not a New Zealander born, he spent practically the whole of his long life either in this country or in serving it elsewhere. It was dear to him, and through all the changes of his life there was maintained an ardent loyalty to it. He did a great deal to make known to others the scenic and industrial attractiveness of Otago, and in many ways proved his eagerness for the development of the whole Dominion. His thorough knowledge of commerce was of considerable service at some stages of that development, and for such a post as that of High Commissioner he was eminently qualified by more than this and kindred knowledge, for to his deep loyalty to New Zealand's interests was added always a breadth of outlook enabling him to see the relation of those interests to international affairs. In this characteristic envisaging of things in a wide relationship is the explanation of some happenings in his political career. Though he came to leadership of a party, he was not destined long to bo a leader. It may be said that circumstances removed him from this eminence, but it is probable that, in any event, the same motives that led him earlier to hold party allegiance in less regard than considerations of general good would have told against sectional chieftainship. This deduction may be mistaken as a speculation, but it accords closely with his manifest independence of spirit and his enthusiasm for general rather than parochial progress. How deeply ho impressed other men of strong Imperial purpose—by his insistence on a broad national outlook no less than by his vigorous assaults on them in New Zealand's interests, as Lord Milner once put it —some pf them have admiringly acknowledged. When an effort is made to sum up his service, this faculty for the larger view must be ascribed to him as of outstanding valuo and merit. Ho did much personal spade-work in the younger days of colonial enterprise, and carried into larger opportunities the same conscientiousness and zest for toil. In the hurly-burly of political campaigning it was easy for opponents to find occasion of complaint, for he spared them as little as he spared himself. Now, as his death stills all such criticism and imposes the duty of appraising the good in him, it must be acknowledged on all hands that he mensures well and is to be accounted worthy of high honour as a capable and devoted servant of his country and his time.