10 May 1985 Bledisloe Medal Citation - Colin James McKenzie

The 1985 Bledisloe Medalist - Colin James McKenzie - is a third Generation McKenzie. Each generation of this family has left its mark on New Zealand. In 1854, his grandfather captained the “ Highland Lass" bringing his clansmen to Waipu out of Nova Scotia where they had migrated from Scotland thirty years earlier. His father, John M. McKenzie, took a law degree at Auckland, but following the horrors of soldiering in the first world war he became a missionary to China, subsequently returning to New Zealand he became moderator of the presbyterian church.

Jas McKenzie was brought up in Dunedin. he was educated at Otago Boys High School where he stood out in work and play as an outstanding sixth-former among some very able contemporaries. He could think for himself. He decided to take a degree in agricultural science at Lincoln College - a course of action which surprised his family, who, perhaps, hoped he would follow his two older brothers into the medical profession.

After spending a year gaining practical farming experience at Poolburn Station he came to Lincoln where he coupled gaining a good degree with student leadership.

In 1959 Professor B.P. Philpott took up the chair of agricultural economics and attracted senior degree students to his discipline. Jas McKenzie was one of them. After taking his first degree, he combined researching for the agricultural economics research unit, lecturing, and working for his masterate in economics. He wrote a first class thesis on wool prices which earnt him considerable praise. His thesis completed, he started married life with Sally Calder who had Lincoln connections being the daughter of a director of the crop research division, D.S.I.R., and niece of Lincoln's Professor J.W. Calder.

Joining treasury's land use division 20 years ago, he found that his masterate research work was in demand. The future of wool was in doubt when prices slumped in 1967 the government used his research in deciding to devalue the New Zealand dollar. His Lincoln training provided him with a quantitative approach to economics which could be applied to practical decisions. He also had a grasp of the nature of the farming industry. This made him the obvious candidate from treasury to be seconded to the wool marketing study group.

During the next two years he was caught up with updating the work of the agricultural production council aimed at boosting farm production. Later he provided economic analysis for many of the agricultural recommendations which came from the two national development conferences.

In the early 1970s Jas McKenzie worked in the internal economic division of treasury on economic forecasting and macro-economic policy. He spent two years lecturing at Auckland university, returning to treasury in the mid-'70s. He was promoted rapidly through treasury's senior management positions – divisional director in 1976, assistant secretary in 1979, and deputy secretary in 1980.

During this period he oversaw major developments in economic policy that have reduced the protection the government gives to the non exporting sectors. This is important to farmers and other exporters because they have to pay higher prices for their inputs. The move away from import licensing and special cost subsidies for agriculture towards more even-handed policies like altering the exchange rate to encourage those who are efficient at earning or saving foreign exchange is a policy Jas McKenzie has been recommending and which is now being adopted.

As well as this major contribution to the evolution of domestic economic policy, Jas McKenzie has represented his country in a number of important economic and trade discussions with crucial implications for the agricultural industry in New Zealand. He has made a valuable contribution to the international debate on economic policy. This was recognised by OECD governments when, in 1982, they elected him chairman of the premier OECD working party devoted to macroeconomic and structural policy issues.

Last year he was appointed to the special position of economic advisor to the treasury so that he could remain at the centre of economic policy formation.

In the mid-fifties the college council decided that Lincoln should develop the field of agricultural economics. It is now a major component of the college's teaching and research. its graduates are well established in this and related disciplines and in recognising the contribution of Colin James McKenzie to agriculture with the award of the Bledisloe Medal, the college says “ well done “ to him and his contemporaries and those who have followed the track he cut .