Joseph Hatch ( 1837 – 2 September 1928) was a New Zealand politician who is best remembered for the harvesting of penguins and

elephant seal Elephant seals or sea elephants are very large, oceangoing earless seals in the genus ''Mirounga''. Both species, the northern elephant seal (''M. angustirostris'') and the southern elephant seal (''M. leonina''), were hunted to the brink of ...

s for their oil on the sub-Antarctic

Macquarie Island Macquarie Island is a subantarctic island in the south-western Pacific Ocean, about halfway between New Zealand and Antarctica. It has been governed as a part of Tasmania, Australia, since 1880. It became a Protected areas of Tasmania, Tasmania ...

from 1890 to 1919. Around two million penguins were killed over nearly three decades. His company, J. Hatch & Co., was based in

Invercargill Invercargill ( , ) is the southernmost and westernmost list of cities in New Zealand, city in New Zealand, and one of the Southernmost settlements, southernmost cities in the world. It is the commercial centre of the Southland Region, Southlan ...

, New Zealand, and then

Hobart Hobart ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the island state of Tasmania, Australia. Located in Tasmania's south-east on the estuary of the River Derwent, it is the southernmost capital city in Australia. Despite containing nearly hal ...

, Tasmania, where he is buried.

Early life

Hatch was born in London, England, in 1837 or 1838, and was a qualified chemist (pharmacist). In 1862 en route from Melbourne to Invercargill he saw the island with ''multitudes of penguins and sea elephants''. He settled in

where he opened a pharmacy.

Political career

In Invercargill, he became a Councillor in 1876. He was

Mayor of Invercargill The mayor of Invercargill is the head of the municipal government of Invercargill, New Zealand, and leads the Invercargill City Council. The mayor is directly elected using a First-past-the-post voting, First Past the Post electoral system every ...

in 1877–1878. He was the Member of Parliament for

from to 1887, when he was defeated by a previous holder of the position, Henry Feldwick. His ''oil factor'' trade was controversial even then, although he was an entertaining speaker and debater. He stood in the Invercargill electorate once more in the but was defeated by the incumbent,

James Whyte Kelly James Whyte Kelly (1855 – 15 December 1938) was a 19th-century New Zealand politician, initially of the Liberal Party but later an Independent Liberal. Biography Kelly was born in 1855 at Carluke, South Lanarkshire, Scotland. He became a ...

Oil trade

The Dunedin firm of Elder and Co had pioneered the sea elephant oiling industry on Macquarie Island from 1878 to 1884. Hatch's gang started with sea elephant bulls in 1887, but in 1889 with fewer bulls and the Norwegian development of a steam-pressure digestor which could extract oil from meat and bone as well as blubber and from smaller animals like penguins, Hatch realised the financial potential from harvesting the penguins on Macquarie Island. Of the four species of penguin on the island ( rockhopper,

king King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

royal Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family or Royalty (disambiguation), royalty Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Ill ...

and gentoo) the royal penguin was mainly used. Eventually, oiling plants were established at Lusitania Bay, South East Bay, The Nuggets, Hasselborough Bay and Bauer Bay. Hatch had a legal dispute with his captain, Jacob Eckhoff, over his ship, and there were three shipwrecks around the island (''Gratitude'', 1898; ''Clyde'' and ''Jessie Nichol'' 1910) with 20 deaths. The New Zealand Government was restricting the seal killing season from 1875, although Macquarie Island was unclaimed. By 1919 objections culminated in perhaps the first-ever international campaign to preserve wildlife, with Antarctic explorers like

Douglas Mawson Sir Douglas Mawson (5 May 1882 – 14 October 1958) was a British-born Australian geologist, Antarctic explorer, and academic. Along with Roald Amundsen, Robert Falcon Scott, and Sir Ernest Shackleton, he was a key expedition leader during ...

Frank Hurley James Francis "Frank" Hurley (15 October 1885 – 16 January 1962) was an Australian photographer and adventurer. He participated in a number of expeditions to Antarctica and served as an official photographer with Australian forces durin ...

and

Apsley Cherry-Garrard Apsley George Benet Cherry-Garrard (2 January 1886 – 18 May 1959) was an English explorer of Antarctica. He was a member of the Terra Nova Expedition, ''Terra Nova'' expedition and is acclaimed for his 1922 account of this expedition, ''T ...

, supported by

H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells (21 September 1866 – 13 August 1946) was an English writer, prolific in many genres. He wrote more than fifty novels and dozens of short stories. His non-fiction output included works of social commentary, politics, hist ...

in his story '' The Undying Fire'' and Baron

Walter Rothschild Lionel Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild, Baron de Rothschild, (8 February 1868 – 27 August 1937) was a British banker, politician, zoologist, and soldier, who was a member of the Rothschild family. As a Zionist leader, he was present ...

. Hatch had supporters in New Zealand as well, including his fellow Southland politician Sir

Joseph Ward Sir Joseph George Ward, 1st Baronet, (26 April 1856 – 8 July 1930) was a New Zealand politician who served as the 17th prime minister of New Zealand from 1906 to 1912 and from 1928 to 1930. He was a dominant figure in the New Zealand Liber ...

and the Tasmanian state government in Australia. He got a seven-year oiling lease from the Tasmanian state government in 1905, and in 1912 the headquarters was moved to Hobart, Tasmania. In 1915, a new company, Southern Isles Exploitation Co., was established but by 1919 the Tasmanian government would extend the lease only for a year. In 1922 Hatch was a

Nationalist Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation,Anthony D. Smith, Smith, A ...

candidate for the state seat of Denison, but he was not elected. By 1926, the company had collapsed, and Hatch lost his properties in Invercargill and Hobart.

Family and death

He married Sarah Annie Wilson in Melbourne, Australia, in 1869. They had three daughters and four sons. Hatch died in 1928, aged 91.

References

External links

Dictionary of New Zealand Biography''Harvest of Souls'' from New Zealand GeographicJoseph Hatch and the Oiling Industry (Pdf document)

Labels for Elephant Seal Harness Oil (Pdf document)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hatch, Joseph 1830s births 1928 deaths Macquarie Island Members of the New Zealand House of Representatives New Zealand businesspeople Invercargill City Councillors Mayors of Invercargill Businesspeople from London New Zealand MPs for South Island electorates Unsuccessful candidates in the 1887 New Zealand general election Unsuccessful candidates in the 1893 New Zealand general election 19th-century New Zealand politicians Sealers New Zealand hunters