|
Ranald McIntyre got in
touch to say he'd just read an account of Sir James Hector and
wondered why I didn't have something about him on the site. I
didn't have an answer for him so he scanned in the article and sent it
over to me and so here it is for you to read here and thanks to the
Daily Mail for providing the article :-)
Click
here to read the .pdf file
After this went out I got an email in...
I read with interest
the article in the newsletter about Sir James Hector this week. He
certainly left a great contribution to New Zealand. His biography is
on the DNZB site and his papers on the Royal Society of New Zealand
webpages of our National Library.
In recognition of his
work the RSNZ gave an annual prize for science called The Hector
Medal
We also have a
dolphin named after him called Hector's Dolphin.
The gentleman James
Stewart C.E. ( which I sent you a brief biography about and you put
up on your website) had a lot to do with Sir James Hector - both as
fellow RSNZ members and later Trustees on the Board of Governors.
They were also in the party which went straight after the Tarawera
Eruption to assess the damage. (I have attached the chapter that I
have included on Tarawera Eruption
in the biography I am writing on James Stewart C.E. At the end of
the chapter you will see the references which go into extensive
detail on the aftermath explorations which include that of Stewart,
Hector and Smith. The photographs belong to us - a family
collection and were left to my grandmother and father by James.- I
have given New Zealand National Library - Alexander Turnbull a copy
of the chapter for historical records.)
It was Sir James
Hector who closed Te Wairoa Road because of the fragility of the
area after the eruption. Both men saw an incredible devastation and
this was extensively reported in the New Zealand newspapers at the
time. These can be accessed on our National Library Papers Past
website.
I think that many
countries of the world were so fortunate to have the Scots settle as
they were the explorers, geologists, engineers, railway builders and
inventors.
Hectors papers and
writings are awesome and one can learn so much and were left so much
by this gentleman.
PS The biography is
progressing well. The research has been a mammoth task and now the
pages are coming together. I hope to complete it by March of 2008 -
which I think would be an appropriate time - 140 years since the
beginning of the Auckland Institute RSNZ.
See also
Publishing
science - a tribute to James Hector (1834-1907)
|
