Oliver Duff was a New Zealand writer, and editor. In 1939 he was founding editor of the New Zealand Listener, a widely read magazine with a national monopoly on publishing radio and television programs.
Background
He was the 10th of 13 children of English-born William Duff and his Scottish wife, Margaret Shepherd. His parents had kept a general store at Waitahuna since the goldrush of the 1860s, but by the time of Oliver's birth, trade was receding to the larger town of Lawrence. While he was still a small child the family moved to a large farm, which they called Gowan
Braes, on tussock hills at Edievale, and the farming routines became embedded in Oliver's consciousness as the ideal life.
Duff remarried in 1946 to Ngaire Asquith Shankland, shortly before his retirement.
Duff died at his home on 2 March 1967, survived by Ngaire and the children of his first marriage.
Education
He received his secondary education at Lawrence District High School and Otago Boys' High School.
He received his tertiary education at Otago and Canterbury Universities. At the age of 18 he volunteered for the South African war. On his return to New Zealand he sought to offer humanitarian service through the Presbyterian ministry. He was awarded a scholarship in 1903 by the Synod of Otago and Southland to study for a university degree, a prerequisite for ministerial training, and spent two years studying for a BA.
Career
In 1905 he withdrew from training for the ministry. Instead, he taught in technical schools in Nelson and Invercargill before completing his BA in 1914.
In 1916 Duff made a decisive change of occupation by joining the staff of the Sun, an enterprising daily newspaper in Christchurch. In 1920 he became editor of the Timaru Herald, where he earned a reputation for the clarity and wit of his editorial writing, and in 1923 he returned to Christchurch as editorial assistant on the Press.
Influenced by writers such as Emerson and Thoreau he dropped out and became a journalist. He worked on a number of papers including the Sun in Christchurch, The Timaru Herald (as editor), The Press in Christchurch, as editorial assistant (under Michael Cormac Keane) then editor. At The Press he worked with writers such as Ngaio Marsh, M. H. Holcroft and Walter D'Arcy Cresswell. He resigned over his coverage of the Christchurch tramway strike, which the owners thought too sympathetic to the unions.
In 1932 he resigned, typically on a point of principle, when the paper's proprietors tried to interfere in his
coverage of the Christchurch tramway strike, which they thought too sympathetic to the unions.
In 1938, J. W. Heenan, under-secretary of internal affairs, appointed him editor for the forthcoming centennial publications. His contribution was New Zealand Now.
Early in 1939 Duff was appointed founding editor of the New Zealand Listener.