1919.] New Zealand Institute Science Congkess. 233 
in Australasia, and one of the first, if not the first, in the British Empire. 
From this time on to the present, year by year, Dr. Cockayne has 
published botanical papers, some eighty-eight in all, dealing with ecology, 
evolution, plant-distribution, and, more latterly, taxonomy, this chiefly in 
regard to the splitting-up of aggregate species into their varieties. Not 
only has he thus made notable contributions to knowledge, but he has 
profoundly influenced the younger botanists of New Zealand in the direction 
of ecology, and by his encouragement and advice has started many an 
amateur in the path of research. 
In 1903 Cockayne was made an Honorary Doctor of Philosophy by 
the University of Munich for his botanical investigations. Other honours 
which have come to him are the Corresponding Fellowship of the Botanical 
Society of Edinburgh (1905), the Fellowship of the Linnean Society (1910), 
the Fellowship of the Royal Society (1912), the Hector Memorial Medal 
and Prize for Botany (1912), and the Hutton Memorial Medal (1914). 
In 1903 Dr. Cockayne, in order to devote all his time to pure science, 
sold his New Brighton property, giving the contents of his garden to the 
Christchurch Beautifying Association. At the present time many of the 
plants adorn the banks of the River Avon. The same year he visited the 
New Zealand subantarctic islands ; the Chatham Islands he had explored 
botanically in 1900. 
In 1907 Dr. Cockayne was engaged by the Department of Lands and 
Survey to make a botanical survey of Kapiti Island. This was followed 
by similar but more elaborate surveys of the Waipoua Kauri Forest, the 
Tongariro National Park, Stewart Island, and the dune areas of New 
Zealand—this latter largely an economic research. Regarding the dune- 
area report Mr. A. E. Carey and Professor F. W. Oliver, F.R.S., state that 
it “ is a model of what such a document should be. It is undoubtedly 
the fullest and most informing account of the. subject available in the 
English language.’ 5 * 
As already stated, Dr. Cockayne’s connection with the New Zealand 
Institute commenced in 1895. He was for many years a member of the 
Council of the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury and twice President 
of that body, in which capacity in 1912 he presided at a large gather¬ 
ing in the Art Gallery, Christchurch, in celebration of the jubilee of the 
Institute, and delivered an address on the history of the society and the 
supreme importance to the State of research in pure science. Since the 
reorganization of the New Zealand Institute in 1904 Dr. Cockayne has 
represented the Nelson Institute on the Board of Governors ; and in 1918 
he was elected President, a position he still holds. He was also for three 
years joint editor with Dr. C. A. Cotton of the Institute’s publications. 
In public affairs Dr. Cockayne has played a part only where his 
scientific knowledge could be of value to the community. Thus for many 
years he has advocated by all the means in his power the setting-aside of 
typical areas of all the different plant-associations of the Dominion as 
sanctuaries for the indigenous plants and animals. The Waimakariri and 
Arthur’s Pass National Parks, and the reservation of much of Stewart 
Island, are largely the result of his representations to the Government. 
He was one of the founders of the Christchurch Beautifying Society, and for 
.some years honorary secretary and honorary curator. For a few years he 
was a member of the Christchurch Domains Board, and succeeded in having 
* Tidal Lands: A Study of Shore Problems, p. 83; 1918. 
