DUFF, Oliver, O.B.E.

(1883– ).

Journalist.

A new biography of Duff, Oliver appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

p>Oliver Duff was born at Waitahuna Gully, Otago, on 28 May 1883 and educated at Otago University and Canterbury Univ. College. For 10 years he was a school teacher after he had served in the South African War, 1901–02. In 1916 he joined the Press, Christchurch. He became editor to the Timaru Herald, 1920–22, returned to the Press in 1923, and was editor from 1929 to 1932, when he resigned. He established and conducted the North Canterbury Gazette, 1932–36, but moved to Wellington to become editor of the centennial publications which were planned by the Government to mark the centenary of the proclamation of British sovereignty over New Zealand. In 1939, however, he accepted the editorship of the New Zealand Listener, a position he held for 10 years. Latterly he has become widely known for his Shepherd's Calendar articles regularly contributed to the New Zealand Listener. A volume of these, together with his New Zealand Now (1940 and 1956) and Ourselves Today (1958), are his principal publications. He was awarded the O.B.E. in 1959.