HOCKEN, THOMAS MORLAND (1836-1910) was the son of the Rev. J. Hocken, of Stamford, England. Educated at The Grove, Yorkshire, and at Durham University and Dublin, he qualified in medicine (F.R.C.S. Eng., 1860; L.S.A.) and spent two years as a surgeon on the steamer Great Britain trading between England and Australia. In 1862 he settled in Dunedin and began to practise, being honorary surgeon at the Dunedin hospital and the benevolent institution and for 22 years coroner. He took a great interest in such social movements as the Patients' and Prisoners' Aid society and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Hocken's claim to recognition arises out of his interest in New Zealand history and his lifelong collection of literature relating to it. For many years he was collecting books, maps, manuscripts and prints with such care and persistence that his library before his death constituted a body of published books and original source material unique in New Zealand. He devoted special attention to Samuel Marsden and secured from the Church Missionary Society and other sources a remarkable collection of documents relating to him. At an early stage he began to read papers on New Zealand history and to contribute to the press, the proceedings of the Otago Institute and the transactions of the New Zealand Institute.

In 1898 he published his first important book Contributions to the Early History of New Zealand (relating to the foundations of Otago province). In 1901 he visited England and examined the papers of the New Zealand Company and of the missionary societies and other archives. He then devoted himself closely to the compilation of his Bibliography of the Literature Relating to New Zealand (1909) a patiently compiled volume which has since been the standard work in that sphere of research. Another volume, lectures on the Early History of New Zealand, was posthumously published in 1914, with a memoir by Sir George Fenwick. In 1896 Hocken offered his library to Otago University to form the nucleus of a New Zealand historical collection. It was subsequently housed in the Hocken wing of the Otago Museum, where its treasures have been of great service to the student and the historical researcher.

Hocken was a member of many learned societies, including the New Zealand Institute, the Royal Geographical Society, the Royal Historical Society and cognate bodies in foreign countries. In 1884 he was elected a fellow of the Linnaean Society in recognition of his contributions to science. He contributed frequently to the proceedings of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science. He was the first lecturer in surgery at Otago University and was a member of the council of that institution from 1883. A few months before his death (which occurred on 17 May 1910) he succeeded to the position of vice-chancellor. Hocken's report on the papers of the New Zealand Company was followed a few years later by the transfer to the New Zealand Government of all documents regarded by him as being of insufficient value to be retained in the principal collection of records (which is in the Public Record Office in London). Though of secondary importance from the archive point of view, they form a valuable and interesting source for historical research. They include duplicate copies of most of the despatches from the Company's agents in New Zealand and are especially rich in loose papers, drafts of despatches and notes of proceedings in the hand of Edward Gibbon Wakefield.

Hocken, op. cit.; Fulton; Fenwick, cit supra.

The Press, 3 Apr, 20 Aug 1909; Otago Daily Times, 23 May 1910.

Reference: Volume 1, page 217

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