Page:Transactions NZ Institute Volume 38.djvu/11



Captain F. W. Hutton, F.R.S. (1836–1905).—Captain F. W. Hutton, who was President of the New Zealand Institute at the time of his death, was born in Lincolnshire in November, 1836, and received his earlier education at Southwell Grammar School and at the Royal Naval Academy at Gosport. After serving for some time as a midshipman he left the sea and studied at King's College, London. Soon, however, he received a commission in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, and saw active service in the Crimea and in the Indian Mutiny.

He had already devoted some attention to geology, and on his return to London in 1860 he was elected a Fellow of the Geological Society of London, and during the next few years gained further practical knowledge of this science by accompanying the officers of the Geological Survey, and in 1862 he published a paper on "The Use of Geology to Military Officers."

In 1866 he resigned his commission in the army, and came to New Zealand and settled for a time in the Waikato district. Before long he was appointed to the Geological Survey Department, and commenced his geological work in New Zealand by making a geological survey of the Lower Waikato district, and this was soon followed by reports of the geology of other parts of Auckland. In 1871, on his appointment as Assistant Geologist, he removed to Wellington, and resided there for nearly three years, when he was appointed Provincial Geologist of Otago, and took up his residence in Dunedin. Here he continued his geological work and published a geological map of Otago, and, in connection with the late Professor Ulrich, brought out a work on the geology of Otago.

He had already commenced work also at the zoology of New Zealand, where the labours of a systematist were greatly needed, and in 1871 had published a catalogue with specific diagnoses of the birds of New Zealand. This was soon followed by a catalogue of the fishes, and papers on the bats and lizards, and in 1873 his catalogue on the marine Mollusca appeared, thus laying the foundation for the large amount of work which he afterwards did on the New Zealand Mollusca.

In 1876 he was appointed Professor of Natural Science at Otago University, and had charge of the Otago Museum, which indeed he may be said to have founded, for the building was designed and all the internal arrangements fitted up under his direction, and a large part of the natural-history specimens were brought together by his exertions.

About four years later he was appointed Professor of Biology at Canterbury College, and about the time of his removal to Christchurch he published a little work, "Zoological Exercises," in which he adapted the method of instruction in natural science by Huxley to the special