OBITUARY. 



ALEXANDER McKAY. 



Alexander McKay was born at Carsphairn, in Kirkcudbrightshire, Scot- 

 land, in 1842, and was educated as part-time scholar at the village school. 

 He came to New Zealand in 1863, landing at the Bluff from the ship 

 " Helenslee," and for some time he followed the occupation of a gold-miner, 

 both in Otago and at Wakamarino, after which he went to Australia and 

 worked on the New South Wales and Queensland diggings. In 1866 he 

 returned to New Zealand, and for the next four years was engaged in 

 exploring and prospecting the south-west part of the Mackenzie country, 

 conducting his explorations alone and at all seasons of the year. It was 

 during this period that he first became acquainted with Dr. (afterwards 

 Sir Julius) von Haast, then Provincial Geologist for Canterbury. Later, 

 in 1870, while engaged in prospecting for coal at Ashley Gorge, he again 

 met Dr. von Haast, who engaged him as an assistant in prosecuting some 

 geological surveys which he was carrying out for the New Zealand Govern- 

 ment. After exploring the central mountain regions of Canterbury and 

 the Shag Point coalfield the party returned to Christchurch, and Mr. 

 McKay was further employed to collect from the saurian beds of the 

 Waipara Eiver, North Canterbury, for the Canterbury Museum. In 1872 

 he carried out the excavation of the " Moa-bone Cave " at Sumner under 

 Dr. Haast's directions. Towards the end of that year, Dr. (later Sir James) 

 Hector, noting the fine saurian collections in the Canterbury Museum, 

 engaged Mr. McKay to make a collection of similar remains from Amuri 

 Bluff for the Colonial Museum and Geological Survey. On the conclusion 

 of this work, in March, 1873, Mr. McKay came to Wellington, and shortly 

 afterwards was appointed a permanent officer in the Geological Survey, 

 remaining in this employment until the suspension of the Survey in 1893. 

 After that date he held the appointment of Mining Geologist to the Mines 

 Department, and subsequently of Government Geologist, until his retire- 

 ment from the Public Service in 1906. He died at Kelburn on the 8th 

 July, 1917. 



The geological work carried out by the Survey under Sir James Hector 

 did not include much mapping or detailed field-work, but consisted chiefly 

 of geological reconnaissance and exploration of unknown localities, together 

 with reports on individual mines or small mining districts. Mr. McKay 

 was employed at first largely in fossil-collecting ; but at a later date, as 

 his colleagues Hutton, Cox, and Park dropped out of the Survey, the 

 greater part of the exploration fell to his share. As a fossil-collector he 

 had a keen eye, but he had rather too high an estimation of the power of 

 a palaeontologist to reconstruct a whole specimen from fragments, and in 

 consequence a considerable proportion of his collections are now being 

 found to be of doubtful utility. It was unfortunate that his collections 

 were not examined and described at once, for with his undoubtedly great 

 aptitude for collecting, and his memory for species, he would have been 

 quick to acquire that special knowledge which is essential to the finest 

 work. His collections were apparently looked over by Sir James Hector, 



