DE. L. COCKAYNE, C.M.G.

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 127, 3 June 1929, Page 10

DE. L. COCKAYNE, C.M.G.

Dr. Leonard Cockayne, C.M.G., Ph.D., F.R.S., F.N.Z. Inst., F.L.S., the distinguished botanist, was born in Derbyshire in 1855, being the youngest son of the late Mr. William Cockayne, merchant. Educated privately and at private schools, he entered Owen's College, now Manchester University. In 1879 he left. England fpr Australia, where he took up school teaching, and in 1881 he came to New Zealand. From 1881 to 1885 he was on the teaching staff of the Tokomairiro District High School, afterwards taking up farming near Christchurch. He started a private experimental station between 1882 and 1884, introducing thousands of orchard'trees, shrubs, and herbs. Since 1888 he has devoted all his time to reI search on the flora and vegetation of New Zealand, and has explored botanically most parts of the Dominion, including the Chatham and sub-Antarctic islands. From 1906 onwards Dr. Cockayne made important botanical surveys for the Laud and Survey Department, and made reports on reclamation of sand dunes, Kapiti Island, the Waipoua kauri forest, the Tongariro National Park, and Stewart Island. He was a member of the Eoyal Commission in Forestry in 1913,.0f the Caw thron Commission, 1919, and of the Pastoral Commission in 1920. He was also a member of the Board of Governors of the New Zealand Institute, of the CawI thron Institute, and of the Kapiti Island | Board. He was formerly a member of the Christchurch Domains Board; honorary secretary and curator of the Christ church Beautifying Society (honorary life member since 1903), and twice pre sident of the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury. In 1918 he was engaged by the Department of Agriculture to carry out researches with a view to im proving tussock lands ' and regrassing experiments in Central Otago. He investigated the cause of yellow-leaf in flax for-the Fax Millers' Association In 1925 he was engaged in the economic study of beech forests for the State Forest Service. Among the honours held by Dr. Cockayne are: Hon. Ph.D., Munich University (1903 1, Lord Kelvin being the only other Englishman then enjoying the honour); corresponding member of the Botanic Society, Edinburgh (1905); Fellow of the Linneaen Society (1910); Fellow of the Eoyal Society (1912); Hector Medal and Prize for Botany (1912); Hutton Memorial Medal (1914); president of the New Zealand Institute, 1918-19 (original fellow 1919); corresponding member of the Horticultural Society of Mass., U.S.A. (1921);- first honorary member of the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury (1923). He is the author of "New Zealand Plants and Their Story" (two editions); "The Vegetation of New Zealand," "The Cultivation of New Zealand Plants," and about 120 memoirs and shorter papers dealing with floristie, ecological, and economic botany, experimental morphology of plants, evolution, plant distribution, and the life histories of species (in scientific publications of New Zealand, Australia, Great Britain, and U.S.A.). On Bth November, 1928, it was announced that the Royal Society had awarded the Darwin Medal to Dr. Coctjayne for research in ecological botany. The Darwin Medal is the world's highest award made on behalf of biological science, and Dr. Cockayne is the twentieth recipient of the distinction, having the honour of being the first in the Southern Hemisphere to whom it has come. In January, 1928, the General Council of the Association for the Advancement of Science (Australia) awarded Dr. Ctfckayne the Mueller Medal for Besearch for his researches in Neiv Zealand botany. This was only the second occasion on which it had been conferred on a New Zealander Professor Chilton having been similarly honoured some years before when he was bracketed eqiyil with an Australian.