MACKAY, JESSIE (1864-1938), the eldest daughter of Robert and Elizabeth MacKay, was born at Rakaia Gorge in Canterbury. Her father for many years managed Raincliff and Opuha stations, and was afterwards in charge of the Manawatu Land Co.'s property in the North Island. Educated in her own home, she had obtained a good grounding in the English classics before she entered the Normal School in Christchurch. During her teaching service she was in charge of the schools at Kakahu Bush (1887-90) and Ashwick Flat (1893-94). In 1889 her first book of Ballads appeared, to be followed in 1891 by The Sitter on the Rail, a volume especially interesting because, polemical as well as poetical, it revealed first her own peculiar blend of inspiration. For 10 years she was lady editor of the Canterbury Times. In 1908 was published another book of verse, From the Maori Sea, and in 1909 appeared her most considerable collection, Land of the Morning, which contains poems which will stand to her name in a New Zealand renascence. It contains also songs such as "For Love o' Appin" which is worthy of inclusion in any Scottish anthology. "The Burial of Sir John McKenzie" is a striking tribute to a great land reformer, the Gracchus of New Zealand. Both were inspired by the memory of the evictions of the Scottish crofters; and the one by enactment, the other by song, strove to save this young country from like abuses. In 1926 appeared a small gift volume, Bride of the Rivers, and in 1935 another volume of greater merit called Vigil. Her poems are included in anthologies here and overseas.

A fine humanitarian, Jessie MacKay worked for many causes, for women's rights and for small nationalities. Her vigorous, trenchant articles won her a wide public. She was sent as delegate in 1921 to the Irish conference at Paris. She toured through France, Germany, England, Scotland and Ireland and met many of the leading minds of the day. In 1935 her admirers here and overseas presented her with a testimonial of their esteem. In 1936 the State, acting on wise suggestions, raised literature to the status of a national service by granting her a pension and placing her on the civil list. In an autobiographical sketch which she wrote for an Australian paper, she spoke of the busy thirties in which "the new century found me a city dweller, heading on to be a journalist of sorts, thanks to two large-hearted editors—Samuel Saunders of the Lyttelton Times and William Fenwick of the Otago Witness. No need to rehearse how A. G. Stephens gave me a foothold in Australia ere I knew I had one in New Zealand, nor how the slender sheaf of verse gathered then was finally bound up into Land of the Morning in 1909 and a tiny Melbourne booklet of the following year. And there is less than no need to name this and that claim and cause of a battle-weary age, going far to stifle the small silvery call that poets hear: that would be nearer a story of endings than one cares to think upon." Of her causes perhaps the dearest to her was that of prohibition. A year or two before her death she wrote passionately: "How willingly I would give up my little bit of fame if my causes might prosper." To the very end she worked for Scottish home rule. She, foretelling world-events, dubbed herself Cassandra, and indeed there was something vatic in her gift. Something native leapt into our literature at her coming. She represents the period of transition, when New Zealand first became country-conscious, and we are fortunate in the gift and in the integrity of such a pioneer.

E.D.

Annals N.Z. Lit.; Acland; E. M. Dunlop in N.Z. Herald, 11 Jun 1904; Star-Sun, 23 Aug 1938 (p); The Press and The Dominion, 24 Aug; J. Cowan in N.Z. Railways Magazine, 1 Jan 1937.

Reference: Volume 2, page 14

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