John McKenzie

Sir John McKenzie (6 October 1839 – 6 August 1901) was a New Zealand politician. He served as Minister of Lands and Agriculture in the Liberal Government of John Ballance.

Early life McKenzie was born in Ardross, Scotland, the son of a small tenant farmer, and while young saw the hardships caused by the Highland Clearances. When he was five-years-old in May 1845 the McKenzie was woken before dawn by his father and walked on a 16-mile journey to a small Presbyterian church at Croick. En route (despite his age) McKenzie witnessed the former inhabitants of the nearby Glencalvie estate huddled together in a graveyard after they had been evicted from their homes by an exploitative landlord. This is something he never forgot and the memory would shape the attitudes and actions of his life subsequently.

As a teenager McKenzie was farming with his father was farming at Baldoon where they also hired two further employees regularly. He commenced a typical rural apprenticeship, starting out as a shepherd before progressing incrementally to run a croft and eventually operating a leasehold farm of his own. While still relatively young he fathered a daughter (Johan McKenzie, who was born on 23 June 1859) out of wedlock which made his social life awkward. He would later publicly accept sole custody for his daughter and gave her his surname to partially removed the stigma of her illegitimacy. Soon after he married Ann Munro, a widow six years his senior, 23 May 1860 at Dingwall shortly before they emigrated to New Zealand. This situation lasted until Ballance was elected a permanent Leader of the Opposition in 1889.

He served as Minister of Lands from 1891 to 1900 in the Liberal Government. He was also Minister of Agriculture (1891–1900), Minister of Immigration (1891–1896) and Commissioner of Forests (1893–1900). He oversaw many land reforms, favouring small family farmers and the opening up of land for closer settlement. There were four things in particular he achieved during the government; he incorporated a graduated land tax into Ballance's Land and Income Assessment Act 1891, including the lease-in-perpetuity tenure (or 999-year lease) as a major feature of the Land Act 1892, purchasing the Cheviot Hills estate in 1893 and introducing the state's right of compulsory purchase under the auspices of the Land for Settlements Act 1894. and died of bladder cancer only six weeks later on 6 August 1901.

A second memorial was erected in the North Canterbury town of Cheviot to recognise his role in breaking up William "Ready Money" Robinson's large Cheviot Hills estate into smaller farms and the town.