PROVENANCE

Ross Sutton Collection

Third prize, Kelliher Art Award 1970

The saga of James MacKenzie, a Scottish shepherd who arrived in the country around 1850, provides New Zealand with a Robin Hood or Ned Kelly cycle of folk-tales. What is known about MacKenzie is sparse, what has been attributed to the man makes up a rich tapestry of legend.

It is certain that MacKenzie removed a thousand sheep from a run in Canterbury and was caught driving the flock towards Otago. He was convicted of sheep stealing and sentenced to five years in Lyttelton jail. After escaping several times he was freed within a year, the authorities found him an expensive embarrassment and he was ordered to leave the country. It has been claimed that MacKenzie was duped into taking the sheep, that he discovered a pass into a realm of rolling foothills known only to the Maori, that his dog, a remarkable collie with whom the shepherd could work wonders, innocently identified her master in the dock and was later hanged as a witch; that she survived to breed a line of 'super' sheepdogs; that she understood only Gaelic and that MacKenzie returned to spirit her away.

It does appear that MacKenzie claimed title to a block of land vaguely described as bearing north-west from Timaru and midway between the sea and the west coast of the Middle Island. Whatever the truth of the MacKenzie myth, the broad basin of the Tekapo River proudly bears his name. Its shallow valleys and gentle slopes with tussock and snowgrass cover grow excellent Merino wool but power pylons will soon march across the land, bringing electricity from hydro projects planned for the lakes on the mountainous fringe of the MacKenzie Country.

Text: The Kelliher, 67 Award Winning Paintings of the New Zealand Landscape and it's People, Richard King, Orakau House 1979

ILLUSTRATED

plate 47 The Kelliher, 67 Award Winning Paintings of the New Zealand Landscape and it's People, Richard King, Orakau House 1979