Frederick Wollaston Hutton. xliii 



with references of all animals hitherto recorded from New Zealand. A 

 survey of the pages of this work will give some idea of the number of the 

 animals that were described by himself, while the numerous congratulatory 

 letters on the completion of this work that were publicly presented to him 

 at a meeting of the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury in May, 1904, bear 

 eloquent testimony to the value placed upon his work by those best qualified 

 to judge. More recently, under the title ' Animals of New Zealand/ he 

 has published a beautifully illustrated account of the air-breathing vertebrates 

 of New Zealand. 



But Captain Hutton was not content with merely naming and describing 

 new species : no one knew better than he that this work, valuable though it 

 was, formed only the preliminary statement of the problems presented by 

 the phenomena of animal life, and these problems he never lost sight of. 

 To the particular problems of the origin of the New Zealand fauna and flora 

 he specially devoted himself, and brought to bear upon it all his wide 

 knowledge as a zoologist and his experience as a geologist. His contribu- 

 tions to the solution of this complex problem have made his name known 

 throughout the world as a recognised authority on all matters connected with 

 the geographical distribution of animals and plants. It was from their 

 bearing on this question that he took such a keen interest in the results of 

 the various Antarctic expeditions that have recently returned from their 

 fields of observations, and even after his arrival in England, he contributed 

 an important article to ' Nature ' on the Antarctic continent. 



But he attacked even wider questions still. One of his very first contribu- 

 tions to scientific literature was a review of Darwin's ' Origin of Species ' in 

 the ' Geologist ' in 1861 — a review which gained from Darwin an appre- 

 ciative letter, of which Captain Hutton was justifiably proud — and throughout 

 his career Captain Hutton returned from time to time to the more philo- 

 sophical questions underlying the whole of natural science. Some of his 

 articles on these subjects were issued a few years ago in book form under the 

 title of ' Darwinism and Lamarckism.' A later work, ' The Lesson of Evolu- 

 tion/ which contains his presidential address to the Australasian Association 

 at Hobart in 1902, and kindred essays, attracted much attention not only 

 from naturalists but from thinking men in general. 



Captain Hutton naturally took a keen interest in the welfare of the 

 various scientific societies in New Zealand. As honorary secretary and 

 president of the Otago Institute in years past, he did much to establish it on 

 a firm and permanent, basis. During the whole of his stay in Christchurch 

 he was a most active member of the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, 

 acting as secretary, treasurer, and on several occasions as president. He was 

 secretary of the Australasian Association for the meeting in Christchurch in 

 1891. Later on he was president of Section D (biology), and in 1902 he was 

 president of the Association itself, on the occasion of its meeting in Hobart. 

 On the retirement of Sir James Hector as manager of the New Zealand 

 Institute, about three years ago, Captain Hutton was prominent amongst 



