Mackenzie and His Dog (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Draw up your chair and I'll pour out a beer, While I sing you a song of a Scots mountaineer." "He had a fine sheepdog... he learned to find sheep that no one had lost!" While "Mac" is in a bar, the sheep steals sheep; Mac is captured and the dog shot
AUTHOR: Words: Joe Charles
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (recording by Les Cleveland, Canterbury Ballads of Joe Charles, Part I)
KEYWORDS: sheep travel thief dog New Zealand humorous
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1855 - the disappearance of the sheep and McKenzie's capture. He is sentenced to five years, but the sentence is commuted after nine months and he returns to Australia
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook, pp. 52-53, "Mackenzie and His Dog" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Joe Charles, _Black Billy Tea: New Zealand Ballads_, Whitcoulls Publishers, 1981, pp. 15-16, "Mac and his Dog" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "McKenzie and His Dog" (subject)
NOTES [559 words]: The John/James McKenzie of this song should not be confused with Sir John McKenzie (1839-1901), who spent about twenty years in the New Zealand parliament and in some liberal governments; Sir John was a generation younger and did not arrive in New Zealand until 1860.
Ell. 154-155, has an entry on "Mackenzie, the 'Sheep Stealer'": "A Robin Hood-lke glamour surrounds the exploits of James McKenzie (now spelled Mackenzie), who was said to have stolen 1000 sheep from George Rhodes of the Levels and driven them to the huge high-country basin that was named after him. A Highland drover who spoke Gaelic as his first language, McKenzie discovered his 'country' in the infant days of settlement in Canterbury (though his pass was known to others). McKenzie was apprehended by Rhodes' overseer James Sidebotham and two Maori, Taiko and 'Seventeen,' on March 4, 1855, but espcaped the same night. The memorial on the spot describes McKenzie as 'the freebooter.' Tried and sentences to five years' imprisonment, McKenzie made several escapes from the Littleton gal before he was pardoned five months later."
McKenzie claimed he was helping someone by the name of James Mossman watch over stolen sheep. There seems to be no evidence that Mossman existed.
Ell continues, "In allowing a pardon, the Provincial Superintendent accepted that McKenzie's silence in defence was born of the Gael's incomprehension of the English language in which he was tried. McKenzie's story has inspired many local legends, as did his dog which was said to have a prodigious memory for mustering instructions, allowing the dog to take sheep long after McKenzie had move on to some other place of safety." A writer named James McNeish wrote a novel Mackenzie [1870] and an attempt at a defense called The Mackenzie Affair.
NewZealandEncyclopedia, pp. 337-338, opens its entry on McKenzie by saying McKenzie "is a legendary figure in NZ history, whose date and place of birth and ultimate fate remain unknown.
"The Mackenzie Country, Mackenzie Pass and the Mackenzie River are all named after the shepherd (despite the difference in spelling). It is believed McKenzie was born in Inverness-shire, emigrated to Australia during the 1840s and then came on to NZ with the object of taking up land in Southland."
It was in 1855 that about a thousand sheep disappeared from Levels Station at Timaru. The rest of the story mostly matches Ell's, although in this account, the overseer is called J. H. C. Sidebottom. After his pardon, it is thought McKenzie returned to Australia.
"McKenzie's physical stamina, his stockmanship and his apparently remarkable dog companion have been romanticised over the years, until he is now established as part of NZ's folklore." The entry closes with a picture of McKenzie's dog but has no photo of McKenzie!
For some reason, McKenzie seems to have exerted a peculiar obsession among New Zealand songwriters. In addition to this and the song indexed as "McKenzie and His Dog," Harding, p. 74, lists a Bob McFarlane song "The Legend of Mackenzie," which I assume is about him; and on p. 75 cites a Michael Wall/Julie Collier song "McKenzie," and a "McKenzie Song" that was recorded at least four times, by Kathryn Tate, Mike Harding, Martin Curtis, and Pioneer Pog 'n' Scroggin Bush Band. P. 82 has "Sheep Stealer McKenzie," sung by Dusty Spittle. - RBW
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