King. — On Netv Zealand Mean Time. 445 



was a true prophet when in 1874 he expressed the belief that 

 the "probable true longitude of Wellington Observatory" was 

 11 h. 39 m. 5-89 s. ;;: Of course, it would be rash to say that no 

 future revision may be necessary ; but we seem warranted in 

 thinking that any correction which may be called for will be 

 but trifling. 



But although the longitude was thus corrected so many 

 years ago, the old value of 11 h. 39 ra. 9 s. has up to the 

 present time continued to be used by the Admiralty as the 

 basis of its charts of New Zealaud ; consequently all posi- 

 tions in the colony as shown on these charts (with the 

 exception of one sheet to be presently mentioned) are out in 

 longitude to the extent of between 3^s. and 4 s. of time, or 

 something under a mile. In view of the smallness of this 

 error (which would not be a source of any danger to navi- 

 gators), the Admiralty has no present intention of altering 

 its charts. There are fifteen sectional charts of the coasts 

 of the colony, besides many sheets of individual ports and 

 of special anchorages ; and to amend the longitudes on all of 

 these would entail much expense in erasing lines on the 

 plates and in regraduating the charts. Seeing, then, that 

 this old longitude has been retained on the charts, it has 

 also heretofore been retained as the working longitude of the 

 Observatory in computing time for general and navigation 

 purposes,! as it has been judged highly convenient to have 

 the time-service basis identical with the chart basis so long 

 as there seemed any chance that the amended value of the 

 longitude might be open to further revision. 



A Board of Longitude was appointed by the New Zea- 

 land Government on the 8th July, 1869, to report upon the 

 longitude of Wellington and of other parts of the colony 

 in relation to the initial meridian of Wellington. The Board 

 consisted of Dr. Hector (Chairman), the Bev. A. Stock, 

 Mr. Henry Jackson, Chief Surveyor of the Province of 

 Wellington, and Mr. G. A. Woods, Colonial Marine Sur- 

 veyor. After going into the question thoroughly, and con- 

 ferring with Mr. Ellery, Government Astronomer of Vic- 

 toria, the Board reported \ in favour of adopting provision- 

 ally the chart longitude, instead of keeping the question 

 open longer for the sake of any small error which might 

 ultimately be ascertained. A similar view was expressed by 

 Major Palmer in his 1875 report, and that gentleman sug- 



* Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. vii., p. 504. 



f But of course the amended longitude has been used for scientific 

 purposes which have called for nice accuracy— such as the observations of 

 the transits of Venus in 1874 and 1882. 



J Appendix to Journals of House of Representatives, D.-No. 27, 

 1870. 



