REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON OBSERVATORIES 25 



Why cannot the observatories already in the southern hemisphere 

 make all the observations that are needed there ? 



For this duty in the southern hemisphere we have about one 

 tenth of the force which is available in the northern hemisphere for 

 such observations — one tenth of the force to do one quarter or one 

 third of the work. This point might be enlarged upon in detail, but 

 it is so notoriously the fact as to make such illustration superfluous. 

 The unanimous verdict of astonomers on this point may be derived 

 from the correspondence which is transmitted with this report. 



Nor does there appear to be any prospect now or within a reason- 

 able time in the future that any material addition to the astronom- 

 ical forces of the southern hemisphere can be anticipated through 

 existing agencies. This ought not to be a matter of surprise. In 

 addition to the numerous private, institutional, and municipal ob- 

 seivatories in England, several astronomical establishments, includ- 

 ing the celebrated Greenwich Observatory, are supported by the 

 government in the British Islands. Therefore the British Govern- 

 ment, in maintaining an astronomical observatory of high rank at 

 the Cape of Good Hope, can scarcely be criticised for not doing more 

 in that quarter of the world. Great Britain is the only one of the 

 great powers from which support of astronomy in the southern 

 hemisphere can be anticipated. Consider the local resources. We 

 have the English colonies in Australia. Three small observ^atories 

 are maintained there, of which, until recently, two have been almost 

 exclusively concerned with meteorology. For somewhat more than 

 forty years astronomical work has been carried on in the observatory 

 at Melbourne, but the tendency recently has been to curtail this. 

 Furthermore, the three Australian observatories have each recentl}^ 

 undertaken a share in the Astrographic Chart, which is practically 

 certain to absorb their entire energies for many years to come. Nor 

 should the Australian governments be criticised because they main- 

 tain only three observatories on a small scale when we reflect that 

 New South Wales, Victoria, and Western Australia combined have 

 a population smaller than that of Texas. Still less should we antici- 

 pate any important contributions from the comparatively small com- 

 munities in New Zealand, Tasmania, and South Africa. There 

 remain only the governments of South America, and of these only 

 two, Chile and Argentina, are in a geographical situation to become 

 factors in consideration. Each of these countries maintains a national 

 observatory. In the period from 1854 to 1862 the National Observa- 

 tory of Chile, under a German astronomer, was active in a small 

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