4 INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 
read an admirable paper “On the Astronomical and Meteoro- 
logical Observers of New South Wales from 1788 to 1860,” from 
which I have obtained much information as regards early astro- 
nomical history of that colony. Mr. Russell says he could find 
no record of Dawes’ work except his determination of the 
latitude and longitude of the observatory, but nothing about 
Halley’s comet, which we can now scarcely wonder at, because it 
Jid not return till 1835 ; its previous apparition was in 1759,and 
Halley himself had determined its period to be seventy-five 
years ; one cannot see, therefore, on what grounds an apparition 
in 1788 could be looked for ; the correctness of Halley’s period 
was confirmed by its appearance again in 1835. Dawes appears 
to have made but a short stay in Sydney, for Mr. Russell tells 
us that “in 1791 a corporal’s guard was mounted daily in the 
building which had been used as an observatory by Lieut. 
Dawes.” 
In 1802 Flinders arrived in the “ Investigator,” and com- 
menced his great geographical work, the survey of the southern 
coasts of Australia, and made his first entry into Port Phillin 
Bay on 26th April of that year, just sixty-nine days after its first 
discovery by Lieut. Murray in the “ Lady Nelson.” The exten- 
sive géographical work done by Flinders was remarkable for its 
accuracy, and, considering the astronomical and nautical instru- 
ments in use at that time, stamps him as a splendid astronomical 
observer. As an instance of his accuracy, it is pointed out by 
Mr. Russell, in his paper already referred to, that Flinders’ 
longitude of Dawes’ Point, Sydney, the result of the lunar dis- 
tances obtained with his sextant, only differed from that given by 
the telegraphic determination of 1883 by 2.2 sec. 
Captain, afterwards Admiral King, was appointed in 1817 by 
the home Government to extend Flinders’ hydrographic work in 
Australia, and in him Australia secured another accomplished 
astronomer, who, when he retired from active naval service in 
i830, settled at Port Stephens in New South Wales, and devoted 
himself to scientific work, including practical astronomy. He 
built a small private observatory, in which he mounted his 
transit and other instruments he had used during his hydro- 
graphic voyages, and carried on astronomical work from 1832 to 
18428, the most important results of which were published in the 
monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society of the time. 
By the appointment of Sir Thomas MacDougal Brisbane, as 
Governor of New South Wales in 1821, Australia acquired a 
very accomplished astronomer, who contributed most substan- 
tially to the growth and progress of the science. Although he 
was a soldier by profession, and had seen much service, to quote 
Mr. Russell’s paper, “he had fought in fourteen general actions, 
twenty-eight great affairs, and assisted at eight sieges,” he was 
through all an enthusiastic astronomer, and on one occasion, 
