Obituary. xi 



GEORGE HOGBEN, 1 853-1 920. 



George Hogben, whose death occurred on the 26th April, 1920, will be 

 remembered for two things : as being one of the most eminent educationists 

 the Dominion has produced, and as being the outstanding pioneer of 

 seismology in the Southern Hemisphere. 



Born in Islington, London, in 1853, the son of a Congregational 

 minister, he was educated at the Congregational School, Lewisham, Kent 

 (now Caterham School), from 1864 till 1868, and at the University School, 

 Nottingham, where he held a scholarship from 1869 to 1871. (In the 

 interval he was a pupil-teacher in a private school for boys.) He then 

 entered the English Civil Service, and attained the high position of junior 

 auditor in the Accountant and Controller-General's Department. He left 

 the Service to enter at Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1877 and 

 M.A. in 1881, after fighting the battle of the non-conformists with the 

 sectarian conservatism of the old university. He was Mathematical Scholar 

 and Prizeman at St. Catherine's College, Cambridge, with the added dis- 

 tinction of Exliibitioner of the Goldsmiths' Company. While at Cambridge 

 he rowed on the Cam three years for his college, and proved himself a good 

 exponent at cricket and football, besides achieving the distinction of being 

 president of the College Debating Society. After graduating with first-class 

 mathematical honours, he took post-graduate work in physics. He entered 

 the teaching profession as mathematical and science master at Oldenham 

 Grammar School, to which appointment he went immediately after leaving 

 Cambridge. 



In 1881 he was selected by commissioners in England as mathematical 

 and science master in the Christchurch Boys' High School. , Five years 

 later he was appointed by the North Canterbury Education Board to the 

 position of Inspector of Schools, and he held this post till 1889, when 

 he was appointed headmaster of the Timaru Boys' High School, where he 

 remained for ten years. During all this time he had taken a keen interest 

 in all matters pertaining to education^ being for three years president of 

 the North Canterbury Educational Institute, and in 1886 president of the 

 New Zealand Educational Institute. 



In 1899 he was appointed to the position of Inspector-General of 

 Schools under the New Zealand Education Department, and he held this 

 post until his retirement in 1915. During his tenure of office were carried 

 .out very many important educational reforms, for most of which he was 

 directly responsible. It has been said by a teacher who was much 

 associated with him, especially in the fixing of the scale of salaries of 

 primary-school teachers, and in the drawing-up of the teachers' super- 

 annuation scheme, " No other man who has ever been associated with 

 the administration of the education system of this Dominion has left a 

 deeper and more permanent impression upon it, nor can any other man 

 of his time lay claim to have done more to further the cause of educational 

 progress than did the late George Hogben." His plans were all most 

 carefully thought out and most thoroughly presented ; he would justify 

 and defend his schemes with skill and vigour, but would accept his 

 occasional defeats with unfailing good spirit. The same teacher has said 

 of him, ■■' He was a 'hard fighter, but a fair fighter, and was absolutely 

 without vindictiveness." This w^s, indeed, one of the most charming 

 features in his character. 



