SOME NEW ZEALAND NATURALISTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3334, 6 February 1918, Page 53

SOME NEW ZEALAND NATURALISTS.

By G. M. Thomson, F.L.S,

XLII.—FREDERICK WOLLASTON HUTTON, F.R.S.

Captain F. W. Hutton was born at Gate Burton, in Lincolnshire, England (of -which parish his father, the Rev. H. F. Hutton, was rector), in November, 1836. His school education was commenced at Southwell Grammar School, with the object of entering the navy: Failing, however, to obtain a nomination before the age of 14, and being still bent on going to sea, he became in 1861 a midshipman in the Alfred, one of Messrs Green and Co.'s ships trading to Calcutta. Whatever j anticipations such a life may have held out to a young and vigorous spirit, the reality appears to have proved less fascinating ; and, seeing no career open to him in this direction, young Hutton left the sea, and settled down for a while to study in King's College, London. But unsettled times were at hand, officers and soldiers were in demand, and the quiet of a university life was exchanged in 1856 for a commission in the Twenty-third Royal Welsh Fusiliers. At the close of the same year he went out to the Crimea, in time to see the end of the war. But hardly were affairs settled in the Black Sea when the Indian Mutiny broke out, and to India Lieutenant Hutton went, serving there from 1857 to 1859. He was present at the relief of Lucknovf under Sir Colin Campbell, and in many other engagements, for which he received a medal and clasps. < . During these years of active service he had not neglected to cultivate his observational faculties, his attention being chiefly directed to geology, a science which, together with, mineralogy, he had, studied under Professor Tennant, at King's College. In 1860, after his return to England, he entered the Staff College at Sandhurst, and passed through it with distinction. Thenceforth his interest in scientific studies developed- rapidly, and in the same year (1860) he was elected a FelloAv of the Geological Society of London. During his residence at Sandhurst .lie had increased his practical knowledge of the science by accompanying the officers of the Geological Survey over parts of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. In 1863 he was appointed brigade major at the Curragh, under the Hon. Sir Alexander Gordon j and in the following year was placed on the. Quartermaster-general's staff in Dublin by Sir G. Brown, then Commander-in-Chief in Ireland. Before this period he had commenced his contributions to scientific literature with a review on the " Origin of Species," published in the Geologist of April and May, 1861, and a lecture on ■ ' The Use of Geology to Military Officers" to the United Service Institution, which appeared in its journal for 1862. In the Ibis of July, 1864, appeared his paper on " The Birds Inhabiting the Southern Ocean," which we may consider as his first original contribution to scientific knowledge. This would seem to show that when on his way to and from India he had taken keen observation of the life to be seen from boardship, and many years later he returned to the subject when considering the flight of the albatross and other sea birds. "A Sketch of the Geology of the Island of Malta" came out in the ''Geological Magazine for April, 1866: but he had made a geological map of the island three years previously. These essays showed that the mind of the author was become more and more engaged in scientific work, and orobably impatient of the drudgery and routine of his official duties, and it was to satisfy this craving after a more congenial mode of existence that the which altered the rest ,1 of his life was made.*

New Zealand, then as now, presented itself as a country in every way attractive to English colonists, but above all to one with tastes for geology and natural history it was of surpassing interest as offering an almost untouched field. Turning his thoughts therefore abroad, it was to this colony that Captain, Hutton resolved to come, and accordingly, having sold out of the army in 1865, he left the Old Country in the following year for Auckland. At "that period, as so many knew to their cost, the manufacture of phormium fibre was the industry which attracted most attention in the colony ; and, having settled in the Waikato, Captain Hutton tried his hand at it. But the adventure proved very unfortunate, and, being compelled to turn his attention to some other work, he accepted occupation from the Geological Survey Department. Early in 1867 he was employed to make a geological survey of the Lower Waikato district, his work being published in pamphlet form by the department. This pamphlet may be said to have laid the groundwork of his most important geological researches in New Zealand, for his. name is more specially identified with the Tertiary rocks than with those of earlier, date. It was, however, published hurriedly, and in 1870 he revised hie classification of the rocks in a paper read before the Auckland Institute, and published in Volume 111 of the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute. During the year 1868 he was employed to report on the Thames goldfield, and called attention to the interesting fact, that the rocks in Avhich the auriferous reefs occur belong to a series of submarine volcanic tufas'resting unconformably on the slates which form the framework of the Cape, Colvillo Peninsula. This submarine outburst he considered marked the commencement "of volcanic _ activity in early Tertiary times, and which has Tasted almost continuously to the present day. In this same year (1868) he began that series of writings and publications which marked his work throughout. The first volume of the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute contained five short papers by him, two ornithological on the

birds of the Great Barrier and Little Barrier Islands, and five geological —(viz., " Notes on the Basin of To Tarata, Rotomahana," " Description of Arid Island, Hauraki Gulf" (written in association with Mr T. Kirk), and " On the Geology of the Island of Patiki." The Proceedings of the Auckland Institute, also printed in the same volume, contain a valuable paper " On the Mechanical Principles Involved in the Flight of the Albatross," in which he shadowed forth the idea of the modern' aeroplane, and a " Description of the Wangape Hot Springs." The width of his thought and interests is shown by the only unpublished paper of the series, '" On Sinking Funds," which was considered by tho editor to be a valuable contribution to an economic problem, but which could not be printed in New Zealand in those days because there were no typo suitable for the algebraical formulae involved. The series ot papers commenced in 1868 continued till his death, and numbered 181 in the Transactions alone.

In 1871 Captain Hutton was appointed Assistant Geologist, and removed to Wellington ; and in this position he remained for nearly three years, when he received the appointment of Provincial Geologist of Otago and curator of the Museum in 1873, and took up his residence in Dunedin. During these years of his connection with the Geological Department ho made sonie very extensive reconnaissance surveys in the north-east portion of the South Island, and also in Southland. He also described the Tertiary fossils which had been collected up to that time, and attempted to subdivide the Tertiary systems by the percentage of recent forms. But these geological labours only represent a portion of the active work of these first years of Captain Hutton's colonial life. Immediately on coming to New Zealand he had commenced to make observations on the zoology of the country. His earlier work was chiefly confined to the vertebrate fauna, -and his strong bias for systematic work is shown in the zoological publications of the Survey Department. Thus in 1871 his catalogue, with specific diagnoses of the birds of New Zealand, was issued, followed in the next year by a catalogue of the fishes, together with papers in tho Transactioiis on the bats and lizards. In this year, also, he contributed a long paper on the Chitonidce to the Wellington Philosophical Society; but it was not till 1873 that his "Catalogue of the Marine Mollusca" was published, and just 'shortly before that of the "Tertiary Fossils." Sertularians, Echinodermata,. and other groups of animals all received more or less attention, and a very excellent work was all along being done in the way of making collections for transmission to specialists in Europe. During the time that Captain Hutton held the position of Provincial Geologist of Otago he published a geological map of the province, and also, in conjunction with Mr G. H. F. Ulrich, afterwards professor of mineralogy and mining in the University of Otago, brought out a work on the Geology of Otago.' In this he brought up an account of his palseontological researches to date. On the. abolition of the provinces, in 1876, Captain Hutton's office of Provincial Geologist came to an end; but so strong was the feeling in Dunedin and Otago generally to retain his services that he, was appointed to the newly-established chair of natural science in the local university. After holding this for four years he was appointed to the professorship of biology in Canterbury College, but resigned this in 1893, l and became curator of the Canterbury Museum, a position he held for the rest of his life. While in Dunedin he published an excellent little manual for students, entitled "Zoological Exercises," which was not, however, as extensively adopted as it deserved to be. This is because, as now, the average student does not go to the university to acquire knowledge, but to get a degree; and a book like Hutton's was written for the man who Avas desirous to learn, but was of little use to the one who wanted stuffing like a Christmas turkey. Captain Hutton's chief characteristic as a teacher was his power of imparting enthusiasm and love for study to his students. He had that zeal for the diffusion of knowledge and for the increase of scientific research that made him an unselfish worker. When he had accumulated material which he was not able to work up himself he was always* ready to hand it over, together with his notes and drawings, to any competent worker who would undertake to do.it. This is the true unselfish spirit which characterises every truly scientific mind; but it is not as common as it ought to be. Fortunately Hutton's example has been followed by many of those who came after him in New Zealand, and is one reason why so little hostile controversy has tarnished scientific work in this country. There has been lots of difference of opinion, but little acrimony. In his methods of teaching he showed considerable originality, and naturally being of a systematic turn of mind himself, he attached more importance to classification and systematisation than was fashionable at the time under the Huxleyan regime. From some practical experience of both modes of teaching, the writer is of opinion that Captain Hutton's method is, on the whole, the best fitted for giving students an interest in their work, as Huxley's plan of teaching biology largely ignores the value of classification as an aid in instruction. Someone has said very*truly that man is $ classificatory organism. When in Dunedin Captain Hutton, as secretary and afterwards president of the Otago Institute, raised that body into a better position than it had ever occupied before. In Canterbury he also helped to put a good deal of enthusiasm Into the Philosophical Institute. Ho was an active participator in the establishment of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, and was elected president at the Hobart meeting in 1901. He was elected a corresponding member of

the Zoological Society of London in 1872, and a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1892. On the reconstitution of the New Zealand Institute in 1903 he was elected the first president. In addition to the papers contributed to the Institute Transactions, he wrote many other " valuable papers to other societies, and several books. He wrote altogether .13 (official catalogues and reports, some efght papers in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, a "Class Book of Elementary Geology" in 1876, "Darwinism and Lamarckism, Old and New," in 1879, and the "Index Fauna Novre-ZealandiV in 1904. He was, with Mr James Drummond, the. joint author of "Nature in New Zealand" in 1902 and "Animals of New Zealand" in 1904. In 1902 he published "The Lessor; of Evolution," a series of essays, which at the time of his death he had enlarged and almost rewritten. This was printed for private circulation, hut deserves to be more widely read. His last article, written while he was in England—which he revisited in 1905, after an absence of 39 . years,—on "What is Life?" appeared in the Hibhert Journal. Hutton maintained . life to he something immaterial and independent of matter, which, however, itV required in order to display itself. He was an original thinker, and a vigorous w'brker. During the return voyage from England he fell ill, and died, when near Capetown,' on October 25, 1905, .and was buried at sea. Captain Hutton was a warm friend and a generous co-worker. He abhorred all sham and humbug, and was too warm a , critic for many of his confrere's ; bat though often involved in controversy, he was a strenuous, but thoroughly fair; fighter. The writer" considers that no one, in «r out of New' Zealand, has done more for the scientific advancement of the country than Captain F. W. Hutton.