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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Otago & Southland Provincial Districts]

Analyst And Scientific Specialist — Mr. George Malcolm Thomson

Analyst And Scientific Specialist

Mr. George Malcolm Thomson , F.L.S., now in business as an Analyst and Scientific Specialist in Dunedin, was for many years Master at the Boys and Girls' High Schools. He was born in Calcutta in 1848; educated at Edinburgh High School and University, and was for three years afterwards in a merchant's office in London. Owing to the failure of the Agra Bank, Mr. Thomson's family came to New Zealand, and arrived in 1868, in Southland, where he was engaged in farming at Mabel Bush for three years. In 1871, he came to Dunedin, and in the following year joined the staff of the High Schools. Mr. Thomson has long been a student of botany and zoology, and has published several works, among others “Fern and Fern Allies of New Zealand,” issued by Wise, Caffin and Co., of Dunedin, and Robertson and Co., of Melbourne, and “An Introductory Text-book of Botany,” issued by the Government printing offices. Numerous papers from his pen on botany and botanical subjects, on “Crustacea,” on geographical distribution and on acclimatisation, have been published in the “Transactions and Proceedings” of the New Zealand Institute, of the Linnean Society of London, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Tasmanian Royal Society, and the Australian Association. Mr. Thomson was one of the founders of the Technical School in 1889, and was honorary secretary and superintendent for eleven years. He is still a member of the Board of Management. He was for many years secretary, and afterwards president, of the Otago Institute, and has been an active member of the Otago Acclimatisation Society for many years. In this latter connection, he has been the chief mover in attempts to introduce marine fishes in New Zealand seas, and is now chairman of the Marine Fish Hatchery Board. He was chief promoter and is now president, of the Dunedin city mission; honorary secretary for New Zealand of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science; president of the Dunedin Young Men's Christian Association; and was one of the founders, and formerly president, of the Dunedin Choral Society. Mr. Thomson was married in 1876 to Emma, eldest daughter of the late Mr. James Allen of Hopehill, East Taieri; his wife died in 1894, leaving four sons and one daughter.