REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON OBSERVATORIES 121 



portance in relation to the views I have expressed in the foregoing, 

 I would arrange them thus : 



1. Point (2) of the Statement (parallaxes). 



2. Point (3) of the Statement (radial motions). 



3. Point (i) of the Statement (meridian observations), 



4. Point (4) of the Statement (zone observations). 

 Your further arrangement corresponds perfectly to my views. 



At all events, a great and inestimable gain for astronomy would 

 be realized if j^our views in reference to a new Southern Observatory 

 should come to fulfillment, and it appears to me that in that event 

 it is not so much a question what important works shall be assigned 

 to the new observatory, but rather that there are in general impor- 

 tant works which it has to accomplish, and that all in the Statement 

 are such I am fully convinced. 



\From Sir David Gill, Astronomer Royal at the Cape of Good Hopc.'\ 



Cape of Good Hope, 12th Augjist, igoj. 



You ask on behalf of your Committee my views on the subject of 

 the most urgent needs of astronomy. 



There cannot be the slightest doubt that from the highest stand- 

 point what is most urgently required is an increase in the astronom- 

 ical equipment of the southern as compared with the northern hem- 

 isphere, and this is equally true in the departments both of the older 

 astronomy (astrometry) and astrophysics. 



There are urgent needs in both of these departments. The rela- 

 tive urgency will vary, in the opinion of many, according as the 

 individual's knowledge or sympathy lies with one department or 

 the other. 



Astrometry. 



A, 1. In connection with the older astronomy, I entirely concur 

 that the establishment of an additional meridian circle of the very 

 first class in the southern hemisphere in an ideal observatory for 

 fundamental observations is a first essential. Practically the Cape 

 is the only observatory^ where really fundamental work is being 

 undertaken, and some independent check or comparison is necessary 

 if only to give assurance of the accuracy of results arrived at. 



It may be remarked that most of the observatories of the northern 

 hemisphere are defective in the form of covering or observatory for 

 their transit circles and in the means of equalizing the internal with 



