James Scott Maclaurin

James Scott Maclaurin

I would assure Mr Maclaurin that I am very much pleased to learn that one of our university colleges has turned out of its roomy and well-fitted halls a native-born New Zealander who has entered the wide and fascinating field of original research among the physical sciences.

William Skey, the old master analyst, acknowledges the arrival of his young challenger and ultimate successor. From Transactions of the New Zealand Institute, 28 (1896), p716

James Scott Maclaurin was born in Unst, the northernmost of the Shetland Islands, and emigrated to New Zealand with his family when he was 10. He had the best available education at Auckland Grammar School and then began work as assistant to a chemical analyst. Auckland University College was just being established and, in 1888, after it began offering science degrees, James and his younger brother Richard both enrolled. James, fitting his studies around his work, did well, but Richard excelled. By 1891, Richard had won honours and a scholarship to Cambridge, and he went on to brilliant careers in both mathematics and law and ultimately as president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

James Maclaurin graduated BSc in 1892 and began working for honours, studying the new cyanide process being developed to extract gold from low-grade ores. Many chemists, including the government’s colonial analyst, William Skey, were investigating this, but Maclaurin’s experimental analysis of the process was widely regarded as brilliant. It won him first class honours and, in 1895, the award of an 1851 Exhibition Scholarship to undertake two years’ research anywhere in the world. It was worth £150 a year (about twice the average male income), but Maclaurin, being recently married, felt he could not give up the security of his existing position, and declined the scholarship. It was taken up by the next best candidate, Ernest Rutherford, who went to Cambridge and became a Nobel-prize-winning physicist.

In 1901, after William Skey died, Maclaurin was appointed to succeed him as colonial analyst. It became his life’s work, building up the Colonial (later Dominion) Laboratory and extending its role far beyond the traditional analysis of mineral samples. In particular, Maclaurin led the development of analytical and investigative techniques to help ensure the safe use and storage of dangerous goods, and the purity and safety of foods and drugs. For instance, when analysis suggested that much of the milk supplied by vendors was contaminated, stale or watered down, Maclaurin introduced methods for testing, notably the simple freezing-point method for detecting added water in milk.

When Maclaurin was appointed in 1901, there was just one other chemist at the Dominion Laboratory. By the time he retired in 1930, the laboratory had 32 chemists plus support staff and he had became New Zealand’s leading chemist, after more than three decades of applying science for the public good.  

By Ross Galbreath

Medals and awards

FCS 1897, FNZI 1926

Further reading

James Maclaurin biography – Dictionary of New Zealand Biography website

Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand 1868-1961 online

Four articles by Maclaurin, published in the Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand, are available online:

Articles by James Maclaurin – Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand website

W G M Hughson and A J Ellis, A History of Chemistry Division, DSIR, 1981

Permission of the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga O Aotearoa, must be obtained before any reuse of this image

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