Man of Secrets

Book excerpt: Donald McLean. The hard-tempered Scot whose policies shaped New Zealand's colonial-age race relations, and gave rise to grievances that echo into the twenty-first century. The government official who used his position to get land for his personal ventures - and provoked war between Maori along the way. The man who, rumour insists, used his power as our Minister of Defence to order the shooting of his own illegitimate son - the right-hand man of religious leader Te Kooti. McLean's role as the powerhouse behind some of the most heated land controversies of settler-era New Zealand is well known. But the man behind those deeds has remained largely hidden. Man of Secrets, an absorbing new biography by Matthew Wright, goes behind the public persona, revealing the private Donald McLean. A man dogged by his upbringing, wrestling with his insecurities - a devout and fearful man who felt himself inadequate before God and who never recovered from the loss of his young wife.