A PIONEER.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 17, 31 October 1940, Page 4

A PIONEER.

SIR JAMES HECTOR, SCIENTIST.

HIS DAUGHTER IN ASHBURTON.

INTERVIEW WITH THE

“GUARDIAN.”

The daughter of one of New Zealand’s great scientists, the late feii James Hector, is at present in Ashburton, staying with Mr and Mrs W. Jewell, 86 Alford Forest Road, while on her way to Dunedin to visit her son who married Miss Mary Jewell, bho is Mrs Sax by, and her son, who is in the Department of Agriculture in Dunedin, is following his illustrious grandfather in research work. In an interview with a “Guardian” reporter last evening Mrs Saxby recounted some of her father’s activities, notably his work in the Rocky Mountains of U.S.A. where ho carried out valuable exploration work. , During his stay in New Zealand Sir James carried out geological and other surveys in the Rangitata district where ho made notable discoveries. Research in the Rockies. During investigations for a highway through the Rocky Mountains to make way for the Canadian Pacific Railway, his horse, becoming frightened, kicked him in the chest and members of his party gave him up for dead, so severely was he injured. They even went as far as to commence digging a grave for him, says Mrs Saxby, when one of the party, a doctor, noticed signs of life. Sir James beckoned the doctor over and peremptorily ordered the premature operations to cease. The highway, now famous, became known as “Kicking Horse Pass.” Work in New Zealand. Sir James Hector, before he arrived in Otago in 1861, had already distinguished himself as a geologist and explorer. A graduate in medicine, of Edinburgh, he had from 1857 to 1860 1 acted as surgeon and geologist for the Royal Commission which, under Captain Palliser, delineated the boundary between the United States and Canada across the Rocky Mountains. To commemmorate a great part he played in Western Canada as an explorer and geologist, the Canadian Government, after his death, erected a striking monument at the highest part of the Rocky Mountains crossed by the Canadian Pacific Railway. His travels in Canada well fitted him for the pioneering work which he after’wards undertook in New Zealand, first as Provincial Geologist of Otago, and after 1865, as Director of the first Geological survey of the Dominion. Ho was an able geologist and a capable administrator. Pattern for Geologists. He is mentioned in J. K. Elder’s book, “The Pioneer Explorers of New Zealand,” as the man who laid the foundation upon which the modern New Zealand geologist must build, and who as an 'explorer, well deserves a place in the distinguished company of such men as Diffenbaeli, Brunner, Hoclistetter and M’Kerrow. Sir James Hector died in Wellington in 1907.