430 Transactions. — Chemistry and Physics. 



For the clear understanding of what follows, a reference 

 to the map of New Zealand is desirable. It will be seen 

 that the colony covers a breadth of about 12° of longitude — 

 from about 178° 36' east at the East Cape to about 166° 26' 

 east at the West Cape in the Sounds district, Fiord County. 

 Converting these longitudes from arc into time, we get local 

 times of about 11 h. 54 m. fast on Greenwich at the East Cape 

 and about 11 h. 6 m. fast on Greenwich at the West Cape, a 

 range of a little over three-quarters of an hour. The average 

 meridian is therefore 172° 31', or nearly 11 h. 30m. in time. 



Again, the meridian which has an equal area of land on 

 either side of it is 172° 49', the time-equivalent of which is 

 11 h. 31 m. 



Finally, the average meridian of the principal ports is 

 173° 14', or in time 11 h. 33 m. 



If, then (it was pointed out by Dr. Hector), the mean solar 

 time of the meridian 172° 30' east, equivalent to 11 h. 30 m. 

 fast on Greenwich, were selected, it would appear to afford 

 the best standard for the colony. This time would be slow on 

 the local mean solar time of Napier only some 17-§- m., and fast 

 on the local mean solar time of the Bluff only about 16i-m. ; 

 while in the cases of the other ports it would be even nearer 

 to the respective local times. To obtain the local times of 

 the several ports we should have to add or subtract from the 

 time of the suggested meridian the following differences (I 

 give the corrections roughly to the nearest half -minute of 

 time) : — 



For Auckland ... Add 9 minutes. 



„ Napier ... ... „ 17-| 



„ New Plymouth ... „ 6 „ 



„ Wellington ... „ 9 „ 



„ Nelson ... ... „ 3 „ 



„ Picton ... ... 7 



„ Lyttelton ... „ 1 „ 



„ Westport ... Subtract 3 minutes. 



„ Port Chalmers ... „ 7^ „ 



„ Bluff „ 16J- „ 



" The object being to establish for the whole colony one time 

 the adoption of which would cause the least inconvenience," 

 Dr. Hector recommended to the Government that the llijh. 

 meridian should be adopted. In his paper above mentioned he 

 claimed for this plan, inter alia, the following advantages : — 



First, it is a close approximation to the average longitude 

 for the colony. 



Second, longitude 17° 30' east is 11 h. 30 m. fast on Green- 

 wich ; and, being an even number, will be most suitable for 

 the purpose of enabling mariners to compare their chronometer- 

 times with true Greenwich mean time. 



