PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. 5 



to our signal honour that we can claim i)riority in many a forward 



movement in this science. 



It was at the Cape that a sounding line was first thrown 



across the stellar spaces. It was at the Cape that the idea of 



stellar photography was horn, grew up, and reached maturity. 



It was at the Cape, or perhaps by the results obtained at the Cape, 



that the first vision was got of those wonderful streams of stars 



that sweep majestically through our universe. 



It was at the Cape that the classical distance of the sun was 



reached. It was at the Cape that the first accurate parallax of 



the moon, and, later on, its weight, was determined. It was at 



the Cape that the most refined measures of stellar distance have 



been secured. 



And to-day, South Africa practically carries the whole of 

 Southern astronomy on its shoulders. There is more being done 



in southern double-star work by one man, than by all the other 



observers in this field put together. 



The long lists of discoveries made by our distinguished \^ice- 

 President, his patient toil in accumulating valuable observations 

 of the position and movements of binary systems merit our 

 warmest appreciation. It is now thirteen years ago since his 

 well-known catalogue saw the light, and since then he has en- 

 riched astronomy by his work on variable stars, on the Jovian 

 system, on sidereal cartography. The Union Observatory has, 

 indeed, a fine future before it, a future full of promise and of 

 possibilities, and that mainly because it is presided over by one 

 who is wholly and truly an ideal astronomer. 



\Mien the genius of Kapteyn made manifest the certainty of 

 star streaming, the attention of astronomers was forthwith 

 directed to the then unaccountable phenomenon. Kapteyn's re- 

 searches date from 1904; but prior to this — years prior — Gill had 

 set his face against the conception of the uniform distribution of 

 the stars through space. I remember, as if it were yesterday, 

 how, in his old roomy study at the Royal Observatory, he fore- 

 shadowed in prophetic spirit the very direction that investigation 

 and discovery is now taking. I had then in purpose — I speak of 

 a day twenty years ago — determining the position of the Solar 

 apex from the proper motions in Stone's catalogue. I went over 

 my " postulates " with Gill, and was vehemently assured I was 

 basing my equations on wrong premises. " How do you know 

 that the stars move hap-hazard?" he demanded. I did not 

 know ! " They may be moving in streams : the whole universe 

 may be a big whirlpool." 



And for a space, not to be measured by time-beats, this 

 prince among astronomers allowed his imagination, his inspired 

 imagination, to wander hither and thither among the great ques- 

 tions that thronged in on his soul. But Gill was only one of 



