The life of a woman loved and despised

Reynold Macpherson could not have chosen a better life to record for posterity than that of his grandmother, Margaret L Macpherson.

Born in Leeds in 1895, she began making her contribution to the Far North in 1928, when she was appointed editor of Col Allen Bell's The Northlander newspaper in Kaitaia, founded in opposition to the Northland Age, a position she held until it closed on 1933. She died in Kaitaia in 1974, and is buried in the town's public cemetery.

First and foremost a writer/journalist by trade, she went on to work all over the world, but her place in the Far North's history was continued by her family, notably son Guy, Dr Reynold's father, who inherited much of his mother's tenacity, courage and vision.

His grandmother had been a complex woman, Dr Macpherson told last week's book launch. She was both loved and despised; she deserted some of her children but showed extraordinary lifelong devotion to her first-born.

"She was an extraordinary woman," he added.

"She made some tough decisions in her life, and I felt for her, but I also felt for those who suffered as a result of some of her decision-making.

"She was austere, ascetic, very hard to get to know and not easy to love. Her grandchildren were terrified of her."

Painstaking research and the book that resulted had gradually revealed her personality, however, including an ability to adapt to changing times and environments. She left the publication Maoriland Worker,' sufficiently left-leaning to be fairly labelled communist, to write for and edit The Northlander, where she was employed by progressive, development-promoting capitalist Allen Bell, very much part of the establishment, whose target was the Far North's conservative descendants of missionaries.

Throughout her life Margaret held true to her passionate belief that women, children and families deserved better than was often their lot in New Zealand, however. Many of the reforms she espoused have become reality over the last two generations, but early last century she was a pacifist radical, who, for example, argued for admission of women to the police and the judiciary, while never losing sight of more mundane issues such as inflation and its effect on mothers and their children.

Her mind, however, remained open, as evidenced by the fact that she was raised as a Quaker, converted to and campaigned for Islam, took a lifelong interest in spiritualism and died a devout Catholic. But for a young Reynold Macpherson she was a distant, glamorous and terrifying grandmother.

Robin Shepherd last week described Dr Macpherson's 14th book as a scholarly, well-researched history as well as a family story, albeit not without controversy.

"I have already heard one family member dispute some of the facts in these pages," he said, although it transpired that the critic had not actually read the book.

Margaret was portrayed as an intriguing character who was always true to her values but had the ability to accept change in attitudes and understandings, while challenging what constituted a mother and housewife.

"She and her family have certainly left their mark of this community," Mr Shepherd added, "and I regret that I never met her, although she lived here in my time."