SIR JAMES HECTOR

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22504, 23 February 1935, Page 23

SIR JAMES HECTOR

HIS UNDERGRADUATE days By Emeritus Professor J. Park. Sir James Hector, K.C.M.G., M.D., F.R.S., for over half a century occupied a foremost place in New Zealand science. As geologist and surgeon to the Palliser Boundary Commission (1857), his name came into prominence for his intrepid explorations in the Rocky Mountains of Canada. Besides this, hia . reports on the geology of the Rockies added greatly to his standing as a geologist, and he came to New Zealand with an established reputation. He organised the geological survey of Otago, and carried out much arduous exploration in Fiordland. Later he was appointed director of the first geological survey of New Zealand, manager of the New Zealand Institute, director of the Colonial Museum, head of the Meteorological Department, Time Service aud Dominion Laboratory. As vice-chancel-lor and chancellor of the University of New Zealand, he did yeoman service in the interests of higher education. His knowledge of geological science was.supplemented by a more than speak-’ ing acquaintance with botany, zoology, palaeontology and other cognate sciences. He was endowed with great physical strength, and his mental activity was far beyond that usually allotted to man. He was born in Edinburgh on March 16, 1834, and died in his seventy-third year in his home near .Wellington. A sketch of the environment in which Hector, the young undergraduate, first made contact with science is an indispensable prelude to an understanding of the impulses that culminated in the distinguished career he afterwards carved out for himself. He was fortunate in living in the transitional period between the old and new conceptions of science, and was fortunate in 'his teachers.

From the first he had a strong bent for geology, and, while attending the medical course at Edinburgh University, placed himself under Professor Robert Jameson, who, from 1804 till 1854, occupied the chair of natural history, which at that time included a systematic course of study in geology, supplemented by field excursions in the Western Islands and Highlands, where Jameson directed special attention to the gneisses and metamorphic rocks of these regions. ■ Jameson was a geologist with the inquiring philosophical mind, and a high degree possessed the faculty of imparting his own enthusiasm to his students. Many men who afterwards made their mark in the geological world, passed through his hands, and here it may be - mentioned that Jameson’s generalisations and writings are quoted to this day. . These were pioneer days in the .history of geologic science, which was still searching for the foundation which Sir Charles Lyell afterwards established in his “ Principles.” In Jameson’s time there was much controversy ' between two schools of thought—between the disciples of Werner and Hutton, the “ Neptunists ” and “ Vulcanists.” And it may not be amiss if we examine the influences that surrounded the rising generation of geologists. Werner (1749-1817), professor of geology and mining at Freiburg, taught that the organic remains found in rocks in upward succession bore a constant relation to the age of the deposits. His view was that all rocks about the Primi-. five were of aqueous deposition, including even trap rocks, which are now known to be of igneous origin. Hence arose the school of Neptunists. Jameson upheld the doctrines of Werner for 30 years, and even founded a Wernerian Society. Eventually he became converted to the views of Hutton, following m the wake of some of his own distinguished pupils. Janies Hutton, M.D. (1726-1797), based his views on a study of the processes of deposition that were everywhere in evidence. He recognised in the deposits of sand, gravel, clay and limestone the results of the of sediment, together with organic remains, under water, in river, lake or sea. He also recognised that the greater part of the dry land had at one time formed a portion of the ocean floor. Hutton also discussed the processes concerned in the consolidation of sediments, and dealt with the problems of uplift and submergence of the-land. He recognised that, while the strata must have been deposited in a'horizontal position, or nearly so, they were now found in every possible position, broken and faulted, bent and folded. Elevation of the land, volcanoes and earthquakes were considered in terms of expansion due to heat arising from subcrustal fire. Hence the name “ Vulcanists ” or “ Plutonists ” applied to the followers of Hutton.

Thus in the span of his own lifetime, Hector witnessed the emergence of geology from the depths of quaint speculation to the geologic science of to-day, which is- founded on well-attested research, supplemented by the facts of palaeontology and petrology. Jameson, after many years of uncertain groping, turned to the light and became a power*ful exponent of the New Geology. In the domain of science we often formulate questions without offering answers, and state facts without venturing on an interpretation. In geology there are many questions for which no adequate answers can be offered; and from this it may be deduced that geology is not yet an exact science; but, despite gaps and obscurities, its activities are nevertheless indispensable to material culture and the needs of modern civilisation. Sir James Hector was indeed the Nestor of New Zealand science, and we shall not see his like again, for the pioneering days, with a wealth of untouched material, are gone beyond recall.! From now onward the field of science will be furrowed by the lone worker devoting diligent months—maybe years—to some narrow and highly specialised department of research. Hector was happily- born with an aptitude for organising—rarest and most valuable of all Nature’s gifts. But, apart from this, it was evident that his teachers in his undergraduate days, among them the famous geologist Professor R. James and the no leas famous Sir J. Y. Simpson (discoverer of chloroform ), exercised a powerful influence in the moulding of his character and in the making of his distinguished career. He consecrated his life to the promotion of Natural Science, and his name will live for ever in the annals of New Zealand’s pioneering days'.