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Don, Alexander
Full NameDon, Rev Alexander
Date of Birth22 January 1857Date of Death2 November 1934Biographyborn 22 January 1857 Ballarat Victoria Australia, son of John Don, a miner
wife Amelia A. Warne, of Bendigo Victoria born 21 November 1860 married 14 April 1883 died 20 March 1937
He left school at age 10, having passed Standard 6 (Form 2 / Year 8) and took odd jobs in mining industry at Bendigo. His Bible class leader advised him to qualify for teaching, and at 15 he passed the entrance examination; he began as pupil teacher at Bendigo. While teaching 1873-1879, he devoted himself to entomology, taught Sunday School, was Precentor (lead the singing) in Church; he was a member of the Board of Management of the Young Men's Christian Association, later Secretary.
Hearing the Rev John G. Paton speak on the New Hebrides Mission (1877) he offered his services as a Missionary to the New Hebrides (Vanuatu); he was advised to go to Otago (Australian Presbyterian Church had Mission in Northern part of New Hebrides, and the New Zealand Presbyterian Church in the Southern part). After some correspondence he was appointed Second Assistant at Port Chalmers School in 1879. At Port Chalmers he took part in cricket, football, sprinting, field sports, taught music at school and wrote regular articles for the Australian and New Zealand press.
At that time the Church was looking for a young man to go to China to learn the language and then return to work among the Chinese immigrant miners in Otago gold fields. As there hadn’t been an opportunity to go to the New Hebrides (the Church unable to support additional men) he offered to go to China and learn the language to return and work among the Chinese in New Zealand. He went to the Canton area and was there sixteen months; then he had an attack of yellow fever, and had to return to New Zealand.
His health restored, he entered the Theological Hall in 1881 for one year.
He was then stationed at Riverton, 1882.
Ordained Lawrence, Clutha Presbytery, 21 April 1886
Missionary to the Chinese, 1 May 1889
There was a large Chinese community in the district. He toured the gold fields regularly, mainly on foot, or in a gig. On eighteen tours he walked 16,000 miles. Later he was stationed at Dunedin; then at -
Palmerston North, 28 May 1913.
From 1879 to 1913 he was the sole Missionary to Chinese in New Zealand (Anglicans and Baptists had clergy who helped as a sideline). Don was conservative in outlook (the common stance at the time) but over the years he warmed to the Chinese and supported them more and more in political and social issues and activities as the years passed.
Appointed as Foreign Missions Secretary by the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand General Assembly 16 December 1913
Moved to Dunedin, April 1914, retired 31 March 1923.
Moderator of the General Assembly 1907; author of ‘Light in Dark Isles’, ‘Peter Milne of Nguna’, ‘Memories of the Golden Road’ (History of the Presbyterian Church in Central Otago).
‘He had an extraordinary capacity for work, untiring industry , businesslike detail and methodical habits and a passion for meticulous accuracy in detail. A man of faith and vision devoted to the Chinese. His inland tours among the Chinese miners, visiting small settlements in the gullies of Central Otago were an annual part of his work, giving him the idea of visiting villages in Canton, and led to the foundation of the Canton Villages Mission, an undertaking hardly possible without the experience and proposal by Mr Don.
He began and edited for many years the Outlook “Knots and Puzzles” [children’s Bible knowledge competition], a valuable work in encouraging young people to have an accurate knowledge of the Bible. He was the Church’s delegate to the National Conference of China April 1922 at Shanghai, and to the General Assembly of the Church of Christ in China.’
Retired to Ophir in Central Otago.
Died 2 November 1934 suddenly on the train on his way to Dunedin carrying with him the newly completed manuscript of his book on the History of the Presbyterian Church in Central Otago which he was taking to the publishers.
The manuscript went missing and his son-in-law, William J. Bennett, ably finished the book using Don’s copious original notes.
Interred in Southern Cemetery, Dunedin.
Date of Birth22 January 1857Date of Death2 November 1934Biographyborn 22 January 1857 Ballarat Victoria Australia, son of John Don, a minerwife Amelia A. Warne, of Bendigo Victoria born 21 November 1860 married 14 April 1883 died 20 March 1937
He left school at age 10, having passed Standard 6 (Form 2 / Year 8) and took odd jobs in mining industry at Bendigo. His Bible class leader advised him to qualify for teaching, and at 15 he passed the entrance examination; he began as pupil teacher at Bendigo. While teaching 1873-1879, he devoted himself to entomology, taught Sunday School, was Precentor (lead the singing) in Church; he was a member of the Board of Management of the Young Men's Christian Association, later Secretary.
Hearing the Rev John G. Paton speak on the New Hebrides Mission (1877) he offered his services as a Missionary to the New Hebrides (Vanuatu); he was advised to go to Otago (Australian Presbyterian Church had Mission in Northern part of New Hebrides, and the New Zealand Presbyterian Church in the Southern part). After some correspondence he was appointed Second Assistant at Port Chalmers School in 1879. At Port Chalmers he took part in cricket, football, sprinting, field sports, taught music at school and wrote regular articles for the Australian and New Zealand press.
At that time the Church was looking for a young man to go to China to learn the language and then return to work among the Chinese immigrant miners in Otago gold fields. As there hadn’t been an opportunity to go to the New Hebrides (the Church unable to support additional men) he offered to go to China and learn the language to return and work among the Chinese in New Zealand. He went to the Canton area and was there sixteen months; then he had an attack of yellow fever, and had to return to New Zealand.
His health restored, he entered the Theological Hall in 1881 for one year.
He was then stationed at Riverton, 1882.
Ordained Lawrence, Clutha Presbytery, 21 April 1886
Missionary to the Chinese, 1 May 1889
There was a large Chinese community in the district. He toured the gold fields regularly, mainly on foot, or in a gig. On eighteen tours he walked 16,000 miles. Later he was stationed at Dunedin; then at -
Palmerston North, 28 May 1913.
From 1879 to 1913 he was the sole Missionary to Chinese in New Zealand (Anglicans and Baptists had clergy who helped as a sideline). Don was conservative in outlook (the common stance at the time) but over the years he warmed to the Chinese and supported them more and more in political and social issues and activities as the years passed.
Appointed as Foreign Missions Secretary by the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand General Assembly 16 December 1913
Moved to Dunedin, April 1914, retired 31 March 1923.
Moderator of the General Assembly 1907; author of ‘Light in Dark Isles’, ‘Peter Milne of Nguna’, ‘Memories of the Golden Road’ (History of the Presbyterian Church in Central Otago).
‘He had an extraordinary capacity for work, untiring industry , businesslike detail and methodical habits and a passion for meticulous accuracy in detail. A man of faith and vision devoted to the Chinese. His inland tours among the Chinese miners, visiting small settlements in the gullies of Central Otago were an annual part of his work, giving him the idea of visiting villages in Canton, and led to the foundation of the Canton Villages Mission, an undertaking hardly possible without the experience and proposal by Mr Don.
He began and edited for many years the Outlook “Knots and Puzzles” [children’s Bible knowledge competition], a valuable work in encouraging young people to have an accurate knowledge of the Bible. He was the Church’s delegate to the National Conference of China April 1922 at Shanghai, and to the General Assembly of the Church of Christ in China.’
Retired to Ophir in Central Otago.
Died 2 November 1934 suddenly on the train on his way to Dunedin carrying with him the newly completed manuscript of his book on the History of the Presbyterian Church in Central Otago which he was taking to the publishers.
The manuscript went missing and his son-in-law, William J. Bennett, ably finished the book using Don’s copious original notes.
Interred in Southern Cemetery, Dunedin.
Relates to
Don, Alexander. Presbyterian Research Centre, accessed 25/03/2026, https://pcanzarchives.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/637
