436 Transactions. — Chemistry and Physics. 



we are not called upon to abandon this standard unless it 

 can be unmistakably demonstrated to us that our refusal to 

 change will appreciably affect the prospects of the time- 

 reform movement. No attempt to show this has, so far as 

 I am aware, been made, and reformers generally seem to 

 acquiesce in the compromise which we, in common with the 

 three South African colonies referred to, have been led by 

 circumstances to make. 



(B.) The Longitude of the Colonial Observatory, 



Wellington. 



The subject of New Zealand standard time naturally leads 

 to the cognate subject of the longitude of the standard 

 meridian of the time-service, or, in other words, of the 

 longitude of the Wellington Observatory. This already 

 has a voluminous literature of its own ; but the details are 

 scattered over so many parliamentary reports and past 

 volumes of the " Transactions of the New Zealand Insti- 

 tute" that it will be useful for purposes of future reference 

 if the essential facts are brought together in one paper. 



Before dealing with the question of the longitude, perhaps 

 I may be allowed to give a few particulars about the Observa- 

 tory and its origin. The present Wellington Observatory was 

 established in 1869 as a result of the decision of Parliament 

 to institute one uniform time for the colony. It is a time- 

 service observatory pure and simple, and therefore struc- 

 turally it is of but modest proportions, consisting merely of a 

 transit-i'oom and a clock-room. Its equipment, however, is 

 of the best, and entirely sufficient for the purpose. The 

 transit instrument, of 2f in. aperture and 32 in. focal length, 

 is an excellent one by Troughton and Simms. It is sub- 

 stantially mounted in the usual way on a pyramidal brick 

 pier resting on a solid foundation of rock, and is duly iso- 

 lated from contact with the building and carefully protected 

 from surface tremor. The meridian - mark is a 3 in. iron 

 pillar, deeply set in concrete, standing about 6 ft. high on 

 the sky-line of the Tinakori Bange, a sufficient distance to 

 the northward, near Wadestown. There are four fine clocks 

 — one of them a sidereal clock, and the other three mean 

 solar time clocks. They are mounted on brick and cement 

 bases, and are fastened to substantial timber frames stayed 

 by steel rods to prevent disturbance of the adjustments. 

 They are good time-keepers ; and, as there are three mean 

 time clocks, by a combination of the rates practically true 

 time can always be given, even when bad weather stands 

 in the way of observations. The sidereal clock, by Dent, 

 is provided with a magnetic chronograph by the same 



