| _BIOG_EN_L |
Biography
James Lawrence Hay was born at Lawrence, Otago, on 17 May
1888, the son of Scottish parents Isabella McLean and her
husband, William Hay, a blacksmith. His father was
accidentally killed when James was seven. He was educated at
Lawrence District High School, but left at 13 to support his
family. He worked in drapery stores in Lawrence, Milton and
then Ashburton, where he became involved in the Presbyterian
Bible class movement. In 1909 he joined the staff of J.
Ballantyne and Company, the leading Christchurch department
store, and later became advertising manager for the drapers J.
Beath and Company.
As president of the Presbyterian Bible Class Union, Hay became well known for his
leadership and organising ability. After the outbreak of war in 1914 he was offered the post
of senior YMCA secretary to the New Zealand Division, and spent four years in Egypt,
France and England organising welfare services. In France he had the task of distributing
comforts to over 20,000 troops, and organising recreational and educational activities close
to the battlefields. Ormond Burton later recalled that Hay displayed ‘immense energy,
initiative, and a very great deal of imagination, plus much practical ability…. A battalion
coming out from a frozen front line was almost sure to be met at some point with biscuits
and hot cocoa’. In 1918, on the recommendation of Major General Sir Andrew Russell, he
was appointed an MBE, and then an OBE.
On 5 December 1917, at Epping, Essex, Hay married Davidina Mertel Gunn, a Christchurchborn
staff nurse who served in Egypt and England with the New Zealand Army Nursing
Service. They were to have two daughters and identical twin sons. He was appointed
general secretary of the New Zealand YMCA in Wellington in 1919, then returned to
Christchurch in 1925 as advertising manager and staff controller of Ballantynes.
Hay was impressed by post-war changes in retailing overseas, but saw little scope for
developing these trends at Ballantynes. In 1929 he welcomed a proposal to open a retail
outlet for the large Auckland manufacturing and wholesale firm of Macky, Logan, Caldwell.
A private company was formed, with Hay a minority shareholder, and a new store built in
Gloucester Street, north of Cathedral Square, then considered a retail backwater. The early
years were a struggle, but Hay’s department store soon became famous for innovative
window displays and promotions. When a circus came to town in 1933, its elephants were
hired to advertise a sale. People came to expect the unusual at Hay’s, and were rarely
disappointed.
During the 1930s depression Hay was active in relief work, including efforts to find jobs for
young people. However, in 1933 Macky, Logan, Caldwell went into liquidation. Hay’s
continued as one of its more profitable subsidiaries, but in November that year the receiver
gave Hay just 24 hours to buy the business or close. Lacking capital of his own, he
persuaded a prominent Christchurch businessman, W. H. E. Flint, to become chairman, and
successfully floated a new public company with support from shareholders throughout the
South Island.
Over the next 30 years Hay’s grew to become one of the South Island’s leading
department stores, adopting the slogan ‘the friendly store’. Customer loyalty was fostered
through a popular cash-discount stamp scheme, a birthday club and a junior league under
Edna Neville (‘Aunt Haysl’), who organised activities for children on the store’s rooftop
playground. In 1948 Hay initiated an annual Christmas parade with floats depicting familiar
nursery rhymes. The playground and parade became essential features of the holiday
seasons for generations of Christchurch children. Hay’s love of children was reflected in his
role as a radio broadcaster (‘Uncle Hamish’) during the 1930s. From its modest start in
Gloucester Street, the store steadily expanded until it took over most of the block. Branches
were later established in Greymouth, Ashburton, Oamaru and Dunedin. In 1960 Hay’s
opened Christchurch’s first suburban shopping centre at Upper Riccarton. Further land
purchases in Papanui led to the opening of the Northlands shopping centre in 1967.
James Hay held the strong personal conviction that a business which derived its success
from the support of its local community should give something back. During the Second
World War the store’s window displays were often used to promote war loans and patriotic
fund appeals. He was president of the New Zealand Retailers’ Federation (1940) and of the
Canterbury branch of the New Zealand Institute of Management, of which he became an
honorary fellow. Throughout his adult life he was a prominent member of the Presbyterian
church, and its ethic of hard work, service and self-discipline was a dominant influence. He
was an elder of Knox Church for over 40 years, a respected Bible class leader and a longserving
member of the Presbyterian Church Property Trustees.
From his early years in Lawrence as a cornet player in the local brass band, Hay developed
a great love of music. He was chairman of the Christchurch Civic Music Council (1944–63),
and patron or president of the Royal Christchurch Musical Society, the Christchurch Civic
Orchestra Foundation, and the Addington Railway Workshops and Woolston brass bands. He
was made an honorary FTCL in 1968. He was also awarded the silver medal of the
Canterbury Society of Arts for his support of the arts in general and his role in establishing
Hay’s Art Competition.
Elected to the Christchurch City Council in 1944, Hay twice topped the poll and served until
1953, when he was defeated in an ill-timed bid for the mayoralty. (His son Hamish was
later mayor of Christchurch for 15 years.) He was the first chairman of the Canterbury
Museum Trust Board (1948–54) and played a key role in persuading Canterbury’s local
bodies to extend the museum in 1950, putting a great deal of personal effort into fundraising.
In 1959 he established the J. L. Hay Charitable Trust, and for 18 years he chaired
a committee formed by the combined churches to raise funds for children’s homes.
In 1958 Hay turned his fund-raising skills to the building of a new town hall in Christchurch.
His objective was to provide a first-class concert hall and a venue for conferences and
community events. He became the driving force behind the project, doing more than any
other individual to generate public support for it. He lived to see the Victoria Square site
chosen and construction well advanced, but died before the building was opened in 1972.
His significant contribution was recognised in the naming of the James Hay Theatre
adjacent to the main auditorium.
Knighted in 1961 for his services to the community, he retired as managing director of
Hay’s two years later, but continued as chairman until 1967. He was then appointed
president of the company, an office he retained until his death. He supported the 1968
merger with Wright Stephenson and Company to form Haywrights, New Zealand’s secondlargest
department store chain, but in the late 1970s a complicated round of takeovers led
to the acquisition of most of its stores by Farmers’ Trading Company of Auckland. Davidina
Hay had died in 1969, and on 22 April 1970 James married Olive Musgrove (née Cowie) in
Christchurch. He died at his Christchurch home on 26 March 1971, survived by Olive, his
daughters Helen Louisson and Laurie Salas, and his twin sons David and Hamish. [1] |
1888 - 1971 (82 Jahre)
[1] 