VETERAN’S DEFEAT

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 17954, 5 December 1932, Page 10

VETERAN’S DEFEAT

ME. MCKENZIE'S CAREER A CANDIDATE AT 80 RETURN AFTER, 19 YEARS Amid the hard party warfare of the Motueka by-election, the New Zealand public has tended to overlook the part played by the veteran Independent candidate, the Hon. Roderick McKenzie. By the irony of political fortune, Mr. McKenzie, once a Minister of the Crown and a power in the land, polled so few votes that lie must forfeit his deposit. llis defeat at the age of 80 aptly illustrates two facts, namely, that the memory of the average voter is short, and that it is hard for even a notable Parliamentarian to “come back” from the wilderness after any length of time. It would be easy to cite names of other eminent New Zealand ox-Ministers who have failed to woo the voters on the strength of past triumphs. The late Sir Joseph Ward, who was a remarkable exception, had to admit himself at a disadvantage, and oiv re-entering the House said frankly that lie was jn a generation “that knew not Joseph.

GRIT AND DETERMINATION That Mr. Roderick McKenzie should contest his old seat as an octogenarian, IS years aftar ho had lost it, testifies to the grit and determination that made him famous in earlier days. His declaration after the poll that he was "quite satisfied with the result,” was also typical of the man. All 'through the years of his Parliamentary career —from 1893 to 1914—‘Mr. McKenzie stood out as a personality whom neither friends nor foes could ignore or forget. A dour Scotsman, forcible in bis modes of expression, lie always spoke to the point, and was a power in debate. lie was remembered for many hardfought contests upon the floor of the House, but for none more than the verbal duels in which he engaged with another redoubtable Scot, the late Sir Thomas Mackenzie. Both combatants used to describe the warfare as “the red Mac against the black,” Mr. Roderick McKenzie, a giant with a ruddy Viking beard, representing the lighter hue. Their frequent clashes were among the most entertaining passages-at-arms that occurred in the earlier years of the century. A climax arrived in 1912 when Sir Thomas formed his short-lived Ministry, in which Mr. Roderick McKenzie, who had served under Sir Joseph Ward since the latter’s acce-ssion in 1906, would have neither part nor lot. When Sir Thomas’ Government was nearing its end in the early morning of July 6, 1912, Mr. McKqnzie was one of those who administered the coup-de-grace. Nobody who heard it can have forgotten i the vigorous language in which lie then dealt with some of the leaders of tho j Liberal Party. | Having denounced those whom he deemed responsible for tho downfall of Liberalism, Mr. McKenzie could not bring himself to vote either way upon Mr. Massey’s no-confidence motion. His historic speecli was the last of its kind that he was to deliver, for in the general election of 1913 he lost his seat to a Reform supporter, Mr v It. P. Hudson, bv 600 votes, and his Parliamentary career was over. In his second defeat 19 years after, ho is entitled to all the honors of war.