The time that has elapsed between the death of the principal founder of the New Zealand Institute, and the publication in the Transactions of the Institute of this appreciation of his work makes it clear that, in the perspective of the years, instead of sinking he rises in his position among great scientific workers.

James Hector was born in Edinburgh on the 16th March, 1834. His father was a conveyancer of note and Writer to the Signet, a friend of Sir Walter Scott, for whom he was wont to transcribe and translate old manuscripts. His mother was a niece of Dr. Barclay, founder of the Royal College of Surgeons' Museum, Edinburgh, and the teacher of Owen, Knox, Ballingall, Campbell, and a host of other surgeons and anatomists of renown.

Hector received his early training at the Edinburgh Academy and High School. At fourteen he entered his father's office, which he left on being articled to an actuary, with whom he stayed three years, at the same time attending classes at the University and School of Arts. Quite early he manifested a strong inclination towards chemistry and natural science. In November, 1852, he gave up all office-work and matriculated at Edinburgh University as a medical student, the medical course then offering the only avenue to scientific study. So it was with Owen, Huxley, and many another. Medical student though he was, and earnest as a student of medicine, he felt most strongly the spell of geology, and under its influence he developed the instincts of exploration and adventure that were to play so important a part in his later work. Every summer holiday he spent in long walking excursions in the Highlands of Scotland, in England, or in Ireland. The resourcefulness that he developed, the habit of quick and accurate observation, the general value of his student work, attracted the attention of his teachers. While attending Balfour's classes in botany he was selected by his professor to give to the Botanical Society an account of the geological and physical features of the ground gone over in excursions. There being no Chair of Geology in the university, he attended extra-academic lectures on geology, mineralogy, and palaeontology delivered by Macadam, Rose, and Page. He took the degree of M.D. in 1856. It is interesting to note that he handed in a graduation thesis on “The Antiquity of Man,” the title chosen by Lyell in 1863 for one of his famous books.

For a short time after taking his degree Hector acted as assistant to Sir J. Y. Simpson, and that was the only definite medical appointment that he ever held, hearing always the insistent call of science, especially of geology.

In March, 1857, Hector was selected by Sir Roderick Murchison, Director-General of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, to be surgeon and geologist in the Government expedition to the western part of British North America, and in this work he spent four arduous and adventurous years. The leader of the expedition was Captain John Palliser, and it is of interest to take his account of the main objects to be achieved:—

“Her Majesty's Government, being anxious to obtain correct information with respect to the facilities or difficulties of communication between the Canadas and the country west of Lake Superior and north of the 49th parallel, determined, early in the year 1857, to send out an expedition to examine the present route of travel, with a view to ascertain whether it could be either shortened or rendered less formidable by any reasonable outlay, and whether if such an expenditure of capital were devoted to that object there was any prospect of a result favourable to emigration or agriculture commensurable with the sacrifice.

“The Government was also desirous of obtaining information relative to a large belt of country until now almost unknown—namely, that comprised between longitude 97° W. and the Rocky Mountains, and ranging from the 49th parallel of latitude to the North Saskatchewan.

“In addition to both these motives, the Government wished to ascertain whether any practicable pass or passes available for horses existed across the Rocky Mountains within the British territory, and south of that known to exist between Mount Brown and Mount Hooker in latitude 54° 10′.” (This was the only pass then known, and horses could not cross it.)

The bulk of the scientific work fell on Hector. Not only did he share to the full the arduous work of the expedition as a whole, but when the rest of the party went into winter quarters Hector was accustomed to take a man or two, and, with Indian guides, to make long excursions on snow-shoes, and with dog-sleighs, sleeping in the snow and learning to know all parts of the territory, under the severe, almost arctic, conditions of winter, the temperature being often 50° below zero. He walked over one thousand miles in this fashion, living on pemmican or on any chance game, and often being on the shortest of rations.

He discovered and explored five different passes over the British Rocky Mountains. One of these is the famous Kicking Horse Pass, through which the trans-continental railway now runs. In his first report Palliser thus refers to the discovery: “Dr. Hector followed the Bow River right up to the main watershed of the continent, then followed it until he reached a transverse watershed which divides the waters of the Columbia and those of the Northern Saskatchewan on the one hand from those of the Kootanie and South Branch of the Saskatchewan on the other. There he found the facilities for crossing the mountains so great as to leave little doubt in his mind as to the practicability of constructing even a railroad connecting the plains of the Saskatchewan with the opposite side of the main chain of the Rocky Mountains.” The names Kicking Horse River and Kicking Horse Pass were given by members of Hector's party on account of his having been kicked in the chest by his horse, an accident that nearly cost him his life. He lived to see the railway that crosses the Divide by the pass that his courage and endurance had discovered.

These two brief quotations from the report must suffice to show the magnitude of Hector's share of the work of the expedition. During the winter of 1857–58 he mapped the whole of the North Saskatchewan, from Carlton to Rocky Mountain House, a distance of nearly 9° of longitude. In his charge was the making of the maps, geographical as well as geological.

Before returning to England Hector made a geological examination of Vancouver Island, and of the goldfields of British Columbia and California, as well as of some of the mines of northern Mexico.

On his return to England he received the gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society. He received also, again at the instance of Sir Roderick Murchison, two offers of appointment: the first as Geologist at Kashmir, holding also the position of Political Agent, with large emoluments; the second as Geologist to the Provincial Government of Otago, with no extravagant emoluments. There is no need to say which Hector chose.

Arrived in New Zealand, he at once set about making a thorough exploration, especially from the point of view of geology, of the mountainous districts and the sounds of the province, work that was accomplished with great difficulty and hardship. In 1864 he was commissioned to make a tour of the colony in order to determine how its resources could best be demonstrated at the Exhibition, the first of its kind in New Zealand, to be held in Dunedin in the following year.

In 1865 he was appointed Director of the Geological Survey Department of the colony. With the small staff of assistants that could be afforded, he rapidly pushed on a geological survey of the country. Recognized as the adviser of the Government on practically all scientific matters, he had, unfortunately, to devote much time to work that hindered that which he had most at heart. Whilst the work of administration and advice was most efficiently done, he was still able to find time for an immense amount of most useful original scientific research. We may be pardoned if we give a high place to the founding of the New Zealand Institute, in 1868, among the achievements of this period of his life. From the foundation of the Institute he was for thirty-five years its Manager, and the Editor of its Transactions, doing this and much more as a labour of love, and so establishing a high tradition in its service. The Transactions, the reports of his Department, parliamentary papers, bulletins—all show the results of his untiring industry. It may safely be said that, among all the able workers that New Zealand has had, none has a greater volume of achievement, and few have reached as high a standard.

When the first Senate of the University of New Zealand met, in 1871, Sir James Hector was one of its members; in 1885 he was elected Chancellor, holding that office until his retirement in 1903. In this office he was able to render much service to the cause of higher education in New Zealand.

An idea of the high esteem in which his scientific work was held may be had from the fact that the following honours, among others, were conferred upon him:—

In 1857 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Physical Society. In 1860 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and of the Geological Society, London. In 1866 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London. In 1874 he received from the German Emperor, by permission of the New Zealand Government, the Order of the Golden Cross.