MRS. T. M. HOCKEN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 99, 29 April 1933, Page 11

MRS. T. M. HOCKEN.

Private advice has been received in Dunedin of the death at Ronseboscli, South Africa, of Mrs. T. M. Hocken. She was born in Auckland, being a member of the well-known Buckland family, of the Waikouaiti The late Dr. Hocken settled in Dunedin in 1802 and was the first lecturer in s.urgery at the Otago University, and interested himself very earnestly in the building up of that university and wound up his services to the community by presenting to that institution the greatest collection of manuscripts in existence relating to early New Zealand history, thus founding the unique Hocken Library. The Maori collection that forms the basis of tlie valuable ethnographic collection in the Otago Museum was another of Dr. Hocken's gifts. _ Mrs. Hocken played an important part in the bringing together of the material for the Maori collection and the library. Some time after her husband's death Mrs. Hocken went to England, and lived there until the close of the Great War, when she and her daughter went together to South Africa, still retaining touch by correspondence with the collections she had helped to build and making generous money gifts towards their support. Now that Mrs. Hocken has passed away several bequests by her husband will be available to the Otago University, the Anglican and Methodist Churches, the Salvation Army and the Dunedin Art Gallery, the life interest of the widow having run out.