THE LATE DR. MACDONALD.

Otago Witness, Issue 1894, 22 May 1890, Page 29

THE LATE DR. MACDONALD.

The intelligence! of the death of Dr Macdonald, late rector of the Otago Boys' High School, has excited one common feeling in the community — a feeling of sympathy with Mrs Macdonald and her young family, and of regret that one so largely endowed with those qualities that are serviceable to the commonwealth should have been all too soon deprived of health, strength, and life. Dr Macdonald arrived in Dunedin in November, 1878, nearly 12 years ago, having been appointed to succeed Mr William Norrie in the rectorship of the Otago Boys' High School. Dr Macdonald was at that tin\e 38 years of age, and from his brilliant career a^s a teacher in Scotland great things were expected from his appointment to the Otago Boys' High School— au expectation largely realised, but partly frustrated by his unfortunate illness. Dr Macdonald began his career as a teacher very young. At the age of 13 he was appointed pupil teacher in Free St. Paul's District Schools. On completing his apprenticeship he acted as tutor in Larcbfield Academy, Helensburgh, prior to his entering the Edinbnrgh University as a student, where Prufessar Blackie was so impresbed with hia capacity and teaching power as to make him bis assistant. Dr Macdonald graduated in 1867, and in the same year was appointed classical master in the Royal High School of Edinburgh, at that time the Eton of Scotland — a position to which few have been appointed without years of probation in less important posts. His career in the Edinburgh High School was, on the evidence of men well qualified to judge and speak, that of an unusually skilful and successful teacher. But Dr Macdonald's energy was sufficient for more than the duties of his class room. He threw himself into the business of the Educational Institute of Scotland, and in 1874, when his age could hardly entitle him to expect the honour, was appointed president of the Institute. If the teachers of Scotland had at any time occasion to send a representative to stir up members of Parliament and move them to take action in the right direction for education in Sootland, Dr Macdouald was the man selected to go up to London on the Institute's mission. Besides his work in connection with the Educational Institute he discharged duties of secretary for the Higher Class Public Schoolmasters' Association as for the Inverness, Nairn, and Ross Club ; was president of the Watt Club in 1876 ; and was examiner for bursaries offered by various Scottish bodied. In addition to such multifarious bueineßß he acted blbo aB editor oE the " Educational

News," the most important education organ in Scotland. In short, quite outside the comparatively narrow field of his class room, Dr Macdouald was felt to be a eocial power in Edinburgh ; and very genuine regret was felt when it was known thai he had made up his mind to accept a scholastic appointment in New Zealand. The University of Edinburgh, usually chary with its degrees, conferred upon him bhe degree of LL.D. in such distinguished company as Professor Lister and the late Mr J. R. Green, the accomplished historian. In presenting Mr Macdonald, Professor Mackay said " that it was rarely the Senatus Academicus recommended f or|the degree of LL.D. a schoolmaster, but in the present cabe they did so because of the position Mr Macdonald had occupied in his profession, and the efforts he had made to promote the interests of education." Two banquets were given in Dr Macdonald's honour before he left Edinburgh, at one of which Dr Morrison, Rector of the Free Church Normal School, Glasgow, said : " The moment the news of this (Mr Macdonald's) appointment was flashed across the country, the first feeling was one of surprise that such a man as our friend, occupying, as he does, one of the most important scholastic appointments in the country, and who might fairly look forward to any— the very highest— appointment at Home, should have thought of leaving Scotland for New Zealand. . . . When Mr Macdonald was comparatively a very young man, his rare busiuess habits, his equally rare capacity for work, his calm judgment, his practical sagacity, his remarkable power of clear and logical statement, and his knowledge of men, rapidly brought him to the front. . . . He threw himself into the affairs of the institute with that tremendous energy of his which sweeps all obstacles before it, and with that firmness of purpose and resolution which knew nr turning back but held straight on until it had reached its end. From being rather an insignificant association, exercising no strong influence on scholastic affairs, the institute has become a powerful body, able to make its voice heard and considered worthy of recognition by the Government of the country. No man has done more to bring about this change than Mr Macdonald, who has laboured in season and out of s>e ison to advance the interests of the institute and thereby of his brethren." Such was the opinion held at Homo of the man who came out here in the end of 1878 to take in hand the Otago Boys' High School Dr Macdonald had that personal presence and magnetic influence which at once inspire confidence ; and those who came in contact with him were made quickly to recognise his power. He threw himself heart and soul into his work with such a vivifying effect upon the school that a year or two after hia arrival the quarterly attendance reached nearly 300. This was in 1883, the highwater mark of the school, to which it has not since attained, for shortly after this Dr Macdonald's health began to fail. Although he rallied from the first attack of illness ho never became quite his eld self. Other attacks followed, necessitating change of scene, and consequently prolonged absences from the school. At length, after hoping against hope for Dr Macdonald's permanent recovery, the Board of Governors found themselves reluctantly obliged to take steps to appoint a successor, and Dr Macdonald retired from the rectorship in the early part of 1885. The skilful, careful, and affectionate attendance which Dr Macdonald has had since his retirement has been the means of prolonging his life to a period beyond what could have been expected from the severity and frequency of the shocks to which his health has been subject. To the last the visits and ministrations of his many friends were a pleasure to him, and kindled in his face the old genial light of welcome. It is a noteworthy fact that the attendant who waited upon him with a devotion and affection beyond all praise had been formerly his pupil in the High School of Edinburgh. As a teacher, Dr Macdonald's distinguishing characteristic wa.B a rare sympathy with boys. He was never tired of making allowances for them, and their progress and welfare were really things of great moment to him. His teaching was of the ener getic kind, fiery and rapid —so that in his class a boy never had leisure to be inattentive. He cannot be said to have been a severe disciplinarian, having always had a distrust of frequent punishment, and a rooted conviction that, in nine cases out of 10, when punishment is resorted to, it is the teacher, and not the pupil who ought to be punished. The instruments of stimulus and punishment that he chiefly used himself were a good humoured banter and occasionally what he himself jocularly called the " rough side of his tongue." There was nothing connected with his profession for which he had such a scorn as indolent, perfunctory, or mechanical teaching. It was not merely in connection with secondary education that Dr Macdonald held an honourable place. He was a useful member of the University Council, and held a seat on an important commission appointed to inquire into the state of higher education ; and the primary schoolmasters of the colony knew well how warm and sympathetic an interest he took in primary education — so that he was unanimously appointed first president of the New Zealand Educational Institute on its first foundation at Christchurch. Hl3 personal friends are not likely soon to forget Dr Macdonald, tor they are are not likely to meet in a lifetime roauy friends so sympathetic, generous, and disinterested. A shori time after Dr Macdonald's arrival in New Zealand, whilst he was still in perfect health, Dr Donaldson retired from tbe rectorship of the Edinburgh High School. Dr Macdouald's Edinburgh friends were urgent that he should allow himself to be put in nomination for the rectorship, and cabled to that effect; but though his appointment would have been a matter of certainty, he considered himself pledged to this colony and declined nomination. A TRIBUTE TO DECEASED'S MEMORY. After the pupils of the Boys' High School were mustered in the hall forprayers on Tuesday morning, the rector (Dr Belcher) announced to them the arrangements which had been made for them in connection with the funeral of Dr Macdonald, formerly rector of the school. Dr Bblchbr then said : The decease of a man in our midet who was head master of this tchool, whatever significance it may have to the outside world, cannot within these walls be silently passed by. That not many of the boys now in school can have listened to Dr Macdonald as a teacher is a small matter. The history of a school ij its great memories, and the influence of a school depends much upon their number and tiuggestiveness. Dr Macdonald was the first hwid master of this school under the present system of control. The old board was broken up in 1877, and the new regulations came into force in 1378. He toolc up his duties in November 1878. The average attendance in school that year was 149, and at the next ensuiug speech day he made, among other statements, the following remark :—" You may naturally expect that on my firot appearance amonn you as rrctor, I should speak of the future of ihe school. I think it wiser to leave the future to speak for itself. From what I have learned sineo I came amongst you, I believe there exists a strong and widespread feeling that the High ir'chool should overtake in still gre?ter measure the important duties assigned to it among the educational institutions of this country." Twelve yearß hgo the school was not large, and there was no sixth form. I have been told by one who know him very well, and loved him deeply— by Dr Macgregor— that hia teeliogof disappointment was keen, and his hopes Wrre never very high. He did not oome to tbis building. •

The playground was small, and there was nothing like the facilities for manly sports and games that; are now at the disposal of all. But coming out from tho Edinburgh of the Nort'i to the Edinburgh of the South— from Edinburgh tho parent oity of so many, to a place whither so many friends — for instance, Mr George Thomson, Mr John Roberts, and Mr VVilnon, wbo all went to thesame Edinburgh school together — had preceded him, ifc was impossible that he should not find many to whom, he was, to use a fine expression of Kingsley's, not so much au acquaintance as a re« cognition. Soon, therefore, finding himself among sympathetic friends and men in wliobo veins the blood born of the hills and the heather freely flows, whatever feelings of disappointment attended bis first impression were dissipated. Many matters were then undergoing readjustment, and Dr Macdonald's experience and advice were found to be of the highest value during tho course of this readjustment. He had an important share in the remodelling of university work, while his evidence, as given, before the Royal Commission on university educa« tion, seems to all singularly able and sensible. Tha school rapidly increased In numbers, so that in 1883 it reached an average which was nearly again attained in 1888. Circumstances, however, have recently sprung up which tend to check the numerical growth of the Bohool, so that although I may be allowed the luxury of hope, I do not much cherish the expectation that this average will for some time again be attained. After four years and a half of inspiring work Dr Macdonald broke down, and from thia shock he never permanently recovered. He was then, I believe, in his 44th year, but at that point, allowing for any reoovery and relapse, his ohapter of active life may be said to have cloaed. Now his life's fitful fever is over, and he ii gone. In me, who owe it that I am in this place because a strong man, still in the flower of his energies and pride of work, was stricken down by the mystorloua hand of disease, the story, as I have been told it and know it, has alwaya. on recurring to my mind, excited a thrill of sorrow and alarm. I venture to say there is not one of his many friends and admirers in Dunedin who has felt deeper regret, perhaps there are few who have deeper cause fjr regret, that his cireer was cheoked in mid course. A man of 38 or 39 may with reasonable hopes expect to do 20 years' useful and acceptable work as head master of a great school, while he cannot hope to do much that is permanently useful in less time tban that period. Here, however, i 3 a onse in which brilliant expectations were shattered with the immedintenesß and completeness of a fragile vase dashed on a marble floor. The cord is loosed, the bowl is broken, and the man is gone. It is not indeed that a man should die in middle age that is great oause of sorrow. Long life is not in itself good. Let us work hard, and pray hard, and play hard, and when the time la come— depart. Great lives have, with few exceptions, and these of recent date, not been long lives. There are and have been thousands of men who in heart and mind have died, while their bodies drag their chain wearily along for many later years— men who live on la the contemplation of their dead selves, with their heads alwaya tutned away to what lies behind. Anything is better than this, and to thiß extent our dead friend has esooped a dreaded burden. But in his case I notice that as he was at work about 10 years before the academic duties of a man begin, so at tha time his career closed his labours had extended over 30 years— a full time at a calling so exhausting, ao unremitting, and so unenvied as the teacher's, forof all professions his profession is about the last a man elects to take up, and tho first a man i» ready to abandon. It carries with it few prizes and less consideration. Rightly deemed noble, its nobleness lies in this : That its reward lies rarely in the direction of wealth or honour— but in the consciousness of good work done in ways that elude the common atandard of life, whose more precious fruit Ib always olow of growth, and oftener indicated in conduct than in knowledge. We believe our departed colleague to have been, boy and man, single-hearted and right-minded. We can see him in his boyhood bravely acquiring knowledge, under the difficulties of hie arduous and exhausting toil. We ace him in his manhood throwing himself with fi,ery energy into his work, consuming himself hi the ardour of hia duties; and if work crowded upon him as, according to that mysterious law by which to him who hath is given, it does ever In the case of a man who uses the talent of which he is but tbe steward, we have every proof (do we not see it in the affection of his friends ?) that he met every demand. Let) those, then, who profited by hia fiery zeal, and those who knew him in the calmer hours of friendly intercourae, see to it that hia memory doea not fade away. Dr Stuart aaid: Boys, I have little to add to what the rector has so well raid. I need.'scarcely tell you that I greatly admired Dr Macdonald aa a scholar and schoolmaster, and loved him as a man and Christian. He had friends because he showed himself friendly. He allowed us to know him ; and all who knew him loved him. It waa p»rhaps my weakness that I never thought of him as dead to the school, and it may be that In giving him the place nearest my heart I may have unintentionally done t)m school Borne harm. But he has passed away and entered on " the rest that remaineth." All who kL..iw him will often recall him, but this will nob diminish in any degree their interest in the school and its usefulness. Men die, but God has under his hand others to take their place aa capable, as devoted, and as efficient. Our High School, boys, is an oak which growa In all seasons, though it may not equally. The rectors come and work and pass away when their work is done, but the school takes firmer root In the soil, and as the yeara roll on raises its head higher and higher in the light and sunshine of Heaven. Let ub rejoice in its growth, and ever pray for its continued prosperity. Mr Brent said : I have really nothing to add to what has alreidv been aaid by Dr Belcher and Dr Stuart, beyond that I worked all the time with Dr Macdonald, and can therefore add my testimony that he had tho interest of the school moßt sincerely at heart, for really I never knew a greater man in two capacities— as a teacher and as a man of ability. I do not know that I can aay more, except express my profound regret that he ahould have been cut off in the prime of life. There is no need for any memorial to keep him alive in my memory, but I should be glad to see some memorial put up by the " old boya " In order to keep hia 'memory green in the school, and so that it should never be forgotten. Z

The funeral took place in the afternoon. At halfpast 2 o'clock a short service was held in Knox Church, the pulpit of which was draped in black. Immediately below the pulpit was the coffin, which was covered with a profusion of wreaths. There was a large atteudauce of mourners, including the staff and all the pupils of the High School and many ex-pupils. The service was opened by Dr Stuart, who said: Friends, allow me the liberty of two or three aentences on this occasion. We are met to pay the last tribute of respect to Dr William Macdonald. Long ago he won his spurs as a scholar, a schoolmaster, and educationist in the old land. But it is not so well known that he was as heartily devoted to the advancement of religion jib he was to the improvement and extension of education. He came among us in 1878 with an established reputation, both as an educationist and a Christian worker. As the head of the Boys' High School he was kuown and admired for his scholarship and professional ability; but in tbis church, where he statedly worshipped, he was revered and loved for his ardent faith, humility, and charity. We shall often recall, 83 we meet heie, his occasional reading of Holy Scripture and his prayers, and when we spoak of him we shall say to one another that he was " a good man, and fuli of the Holy Ghost and of faith." The Rev. K. R. M. Sutherland read the lesson, after which the Roy. J. M. Sutherland, who wna a university student under Dr Mucdonald, engaged in prayer. Tha Key. A. P. Davidson then pronounced the benediction, and the service was concluded with the "Dead March in Saul," played by the organist, Mr A. J. Barth. About 3 o'clock tbe funeral procession left the church headed by the High School pupils, followed by Dr Belcher and the teaching staff. The carriages containing the members of Dr Macdonald's family came noxt, and after them were the Reva. Dr Stuart. Dr Watt, A. P. Davidson, J. Ryley. It. R. M. Sutherland, J. M. Sutherland, A. R. Fitchett, A. North, and W. Saunders. The majority of the office-bearers of Knox Church, of which congregation tlje deceiss'd gentleman was an elder, were next in order in the procession, and they were followed by a large representation of the general public, among whom were Sir Hobert Stout. Professors Shand, Parker, Black, and Gilray, Hon. T. Dick, Messrs F. R. Chapman, J. L. Gillies. A. Barr. David White. M.A., J. W. Jago, M. Cohen, A. H. Hosb, M H R., A Wilson, M.A., D. A. M'Niooll. A. Barrett, W. Milne. W. S. Fitzgerald, A. R Ure, J. Hobin, D. Pottie, K. Ramsay, aDd others. At the prave in the Northern Cemetery the burial service was most impressively couduoted by Dr Stuart. Use Sunlight Soap for all dairy utensils.-— Advt.]