MENZIES, JAMES ALEXANDER ROBERTSON (1821-88) was born at Rannoch, Perthshire. His father belonged to a branch of the clan Menzies and his mother was a Robertson of Struan. Menzies displayed with pride an ornamented rapier said to have been given by Prince Charles to a cadet of the house of Robertson. He was educated in Rannoch, and studied at Edinburgh University, where he entered at the age of 14. He took his diploma of the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh, at the age of 19. For some years thereafter he practised at Rannoch, taking an interest in village and countryside. In 1849 he was elected a member of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland.

In 1853 Menzies sailed for Port Phillip, and thence to New Zealand, arriving in Wellington (Dec 1853). A few months later he accompanied Mantell on his overland journey from Otago to Southland to settle with the native owners for the purchase of the Murihiku block. They walked through south Otago, reaching the Bluff by way of Henderson's bush, Oteramika, and returned to Dunedin along the beach, crossing the Mataura river at Toetoes. Menzies inspected carefully a run near Wyndham, and at a later date came back to Mataura and took up 38,000 acres. This he carried on until 1866, when the government resumed the run for closer settlement. Menzies then reduced his holding to 8,000 acres, and purchased the freehold of Dunalister, near Wyndham. He and Mieville were the only two station holders in the district.

Menzies did not practise medicine in New Zealand, but was often called upon in cases of emergency. He had a disposition for retirement and, owing to the remoteness of his run, it was imperative that he should refrain from public affairs. He did, however, accept the offer of a seat in the Legislative Council (made to him in 1857, and confirmed in 1858), and he remained a member of that body for 30 years, never seeking admission to the elective chamber. As early as the fifties he championed Southland against the dominance of the town voters and the neglect of the Provincial Council. The grievances were real and, from being merely a stern critic of the Otago administration, Menzies became head and front of the movement for the separation of Murihiku and its erection into a new province. With this in view he gave the new provinces act (1858) his warm support in the Legislative Council. The goal was reached in Apr 1861. Menzies then moved into Invercargill, and personally guaranteed to the Oriental Bank the sum necessary to enable the new province to proceed with the election of its first Council. He was elected for Mataura, and when the Council met on 3 Aug was chosen without opposition as the first Superintendent.

The atmosphere of controversy in which Murihiku won her independence was not favourable for careful and judicious government. Nor was the temperament of some of the provincial politicians such as would help to compose longstanding differences of opinion. The sittings of the Council were at times marked with great acerbity, and the attempt of the executive at one time and the Council at another to harness the Superintendent to a course of conduct in which he did not concur made for disharmony. A man of wide culture and stainless reputation, Menzies lacked business capacity. In the desire to prove that the province was well able to provide itself with facilities and amenities which it sought in vain from Otago, the Government anticipated its means and embarked upon ventures far beyond its resources for many years to come. Extensive borrowing was resorted to for harbour works and railways for which the province was scarcely ripe.

At the moment when Southland broke off from Otago the gold discovery at Gabriel's Gully brought a great influx of miners and wealth. Southland's hope of participating in this prosperity was doomed to be disappointed. The goldfields were beyond her boundaries, and Dunedin merchants had a firm hold of the distributing business. Invercargill had no hope of breaking into the charmed circle. Menzies was urged by his executive to appoint a gold receiver for the province at Queenstown and to establish an escort to Invercargill, but he spurned the proposal as an unfair intrusion upon the domain of the mother province. The condition of Southland by the expiration of the first Provincial Council was sufficiently deplorable. In eight months the revenue showed a deficiency of £46,000. The liabilities of the province were £379,553, and the new Council (elected in Nov 1864) was told by a committee: 'The province is in a prostrate condition, and unable to meet its engagements without the assistance of the General Assembly.' The Council was disposed to hold Menzies responsible for its straits, and day after day it declined to re-elect him Superintendent. Eventually (on 13 Jan 1865) Menzies gave his casting vote in favour of J. P. Taylor. He himself sat in the Council as member for Invercargill. At the general election in 1867 he was defeated (being sixth on the list of eight candidates), but he was again returned at the elections in 1869.

By this time it was obvious that Southland had no alternative but to return to the fold of Otago. The mother province was willing, but the die-hard element in Southland resisted doggedly, and Wood, the Superintendent, had a difficult task to steer the reunion proposals through the Council. Southland as a province ceased to exist in 1870. Menzies was amongst the members elected to represent the extinct province in the Otago Council, and he sat for Mataura until the provinces were abolished. He might have made his mark in wider politics if his energies had not been wedded to Southland. In that championship he was single minded, and he could see little virtue in those who differed from him. At one time he moved in the Legislative Council to have the name 'Invercargill' changed as being distasteful to the inhabitants. With a quaint naivete he confessed that, having made the personal acquaintance of the veteran Superintendent of Otago, he found him by no means a monster, but a man of broad views and human kindness, by whose friendship he was honoured. Menzies was a man of unblemished honour, infinite charity, and inexhaustible sympathy. A political opponent once said of him: 'No mean action, no dishonest thought could have found harbour in his mental calibre. Indeed, his very chivalry of soul militated in great measure with the successful compass of the position of superintendent. His misfortune was that he did not understand business.' A tall, stalwart, commanding figure, generally distinguished by some remnant of Highland garb, Menzies continued to take his part in public life. In 1879 he turned the first sod of the Edendale-Toetoes railway. He was a member of the Bluff harbour board, of the school commissioners of Otago, and the Southland education board. He was a strong supporter of the Caledonian Society and for many years president, and it was chiefly owing to his foresight that a fine park was reserved for the town of Wyndham. A Presbyterian of the old school, he maintained throughout life the Scots habit of family worship. He was a strong supporter of the Sunday school, in which he taught for many years, and he felt almost as a personal injury the education act of 1877 which made education in the colony secular. In his last Parliament he carried to its second reading a bill to enable school committees to introduce Bible-reading. It was thrown out by a small majority. Still he persevered and moved a resolution, which was defeated by one vote. In a memorial sermon preached at Wyndham after Menzies' death, the Rev Robert Wood said: 'This divine movement lay near his heart. On the day he died he requested that the report of the discussion of this question in the Legislative Council should be read to him - a discussion in which he himself had taken a leading part - and when this was done he thanked God that he had been permitted to take part in this work and prayed that it would be carried on till success was won.' Menzies married (1865) Letitia Anne, daughter of Dr Featherston, Superintendent of Wellington. He died on 18 Aug 1888, and his widow on 27 Mar 1929.

Cycl. NZ., iv (p); Otago and Southland P.C. Proc.; NZ.P.D., 20 Aug 1888; Saunders; Beattie, ii; A. Mackay; Ross; Roberts, Southland; McIndoe; Rusden; Otago Witness, 28 Mar 1898; Otago Daily Times, 21 Aug 1888, 9 May 1930 (p).

Reference: Volume 2, page 43

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