Masterful by nature, he relished the situation in which he found himself. Increasingly he became an initiator of policy, not just an executant of the instructions of others.

Mackay held a variety of offices over the years—between 1863 and 1868 he was an assistant secretary of the Native Department, Civil Commissioner, Resident Magistrate, and, without official sanction, acted both as a goldfields warden, and 'paymaster and a sort of agent of the Provincial Government on the gold field'.130 Some of these posts he held concurrently; sometimes his official function ran 'notoriously' in tandem with his private business interests (R.J. Creighton complained in the House in 1869 that Mackay was said to conduct his 'thriving' business as 'a private agent in the acquisition of Native lands' out of his Civil Commissioner's office in Thames).131

Convenience to superiors of Mackay's wilfulness

By occasionally acting as a law unto himself,132 Mackay could annoy his superiors at provincial and general government levels. But as Hutton has further pointed out, the Crown did not necessarily honour what Mackay had promised. Yet, from the Maori point of view, the damage usually had been done; the objectives of the Crown had been achieved by methods which its Ministers could ex post facto disown. In that respect Mackay's wilfulness could have a positive convenience for the Crown or for the Auckland provincial administration to which the central government had delegated extensive powers on the goldfield.

Instances of sharp practice

In what Mackay wrote to his political masters, he not only feigned to be an 'obedient servant', but also assumed the high moral ground.133 And this was even more marked in what he wrote for posterity and in his hindsight speeches to the Maori people.134 The reality was that he could be devious in his tactics and resort to questionable practices if such suited his purposes.

(a)   Opening of Waiotahi

The best known example of this, and one which Mackay regarded as a personal triumph, was his use of his powers as magistrate to force open the forbidden Waiotahi Block, mistakenly supposed by diggers—who were constantly trespassing upon it to prospect—to be the richest on the Thames field. Three days before (31 August 1867) he had written to his provincial superintendent, Williamson, warning him that 'This land will take some further time to arrange owing to the conflicting interests of the natives'135. How Mackay came to speed up his timetable is best given in his own words:

130 J.C. Richmond, Minister of Native Affairs, NZPD, 1868, Vol. 3, p. 100.

131 R.J. Creighton, 3 June 1869, NZPD, 1869, Vol. 5, pp. 22-23.

132 Hutton, '"Troublesome Specimens"', pp. 26, 110.

133 See, for example, James Mackay, evidence before Royal Commission on Native Lands, 16 March 1891, in AJHR 1891, G1, pp. 39-40.

134 See, for example, J. Mackay, Our Dealings with Maori Lands, Auckland, 1887.

135 Mackay to Superintendent, 31 August 1867, ACL A208/611.

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