McKay Family Collection
The people in this photo are ( left-to-right ): Back row , unknown , William Osbahr , Herbert Phineas , Sinaumea Hunter , unknown , Mac McKay , unknown , unknown , Eti Eves , unknown ; next row standing , Ben Hur Yandall , Eugene Paul , William Johnston , Wilf . Fortune , Gibbens , unknown , Ali ’ i Groves , Taua ’ a ; sitting , Queenie Syddall , Sose Yandall , teacher Don Crone and Mrs Crone , Mrs Joseland and Rev . F . P . Joseland , Miss Whitmore , Emmy Smyth , Pele Groves ( later Lewis ), Therese ‘ Terra ’ Johnston ( later Tattersall ); in front , Florence Yandall , Fanua Yandall , Betty Netzler , Helen Syddall , Louisa Brunt , Henrietta McCarthy
In a reminiscence written in later years , Mac McKay described the 1920 repatriations as “ sordid .” They appeared to leave a mark .
Mr McKay launched into a highly active life in Apia , socialising , sailing , canoeing , playing cricket – and , unusually among expatriate administrators , learning to speak Samoan with a great degree of fluency . This facility with the local language was helped by a holiday stint of 10 days at Fagamalo living in a fale and mixing with the locals . The New Zealand official ‘ Resident ’ living nearby wrote a letter to Apia complaining how McKay let the side down by joining local boys and girls playing guitars and singing in the moonlight .
This photo shows Mac as a member of the LMS Young Folks Club in Apia in 1921 . The following year he met Miss Hilda Queen , of Auckland , who came to Samoa to work as a shorthand typist . They married in 1923 .
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