The Hector Memorial.

Progress, Volume IV, Issue 6, 1 April 1909, Page 187

The Hector Memorial.

When Sir James Hector died the Dominion woke up to the greatness of the services he had performed during a long life of unusually industrious usefulness. But this outburst of memory was followed by a relapse into the ancient forgetfulness. Hence it is that the effort to found a memorial worthy of the man who was rightly described as the greatest scientific intellect that ever came south of the Line, is a comparative failure. This is by no means well. Vouched for by the eminent Sir Roderick Murchison, Sir James Hector made his first record, and so good was that record — in the Rocky Mountains of Canada and the Province of Otago — that one of the greatest of geologists (Sir Charles Lyell) selected him out of all the men of his time for the chair of geology Avhich he founded in Edinburgh University. Preferring the Dominion of New Zealand, Sir James Hector accepted the position of Chief of the Geological Department of New Zealand. Presiding over the geological survey and taking stenuous part in the same, he found time to establish all the scientific departments of the country, the analytical, meteorological and the rest. In all these branches he collaborated and still he cared for the Museum, which he founded, arranged, catalogued, and brought to a high state of perfection. He moreover founded the

New Zealand Institute, presided over its meetings for many years, edited its "Transactions" and was personally liable for their scientific accuracy and regular publication. He was Chancellor of the New Zealand University for twenty years, and the eminent service he rendered to that institution is admitted by all who are qualified to judge. His advice on all scientific matters was ever at the disposal of the Government, and of the local bodies : in the sanitary department nothing was ever done without reference to Sir James : the things referred to him by the public were enough to keep ordinary men going all the time. Hi's numerous writings testify to the wide range of his knowledge as well as the accurateness of his mind; and the honours he held showed the appreciation of the scientific world consistently extended to him. The work he did, so varied and so wide, represents a service to the country simply incalculable. He was withal modest with the modesty that is never absent from true greatness. Shall the memory of such ■<\ man not live for ever in the country which he preferred to all others, and for which he did so much? Six Committees are now appealing for a favourable answer to that question. The response should be not only favourable, but generous. It should be substantial enough to both perpetuate a memory which ought to be unfading and to encourage the generations that are coming to follow a great example.