INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 7 
many of the instruments he used for various kinds of astro- 
nomical measurements. He gave most valuable assistance to 
the United States observing party at Campbelltown in the 1874 
transit of Venus, and won the admiration of the astronomers ot 
that party for the practical and ingenious appliances he had 
devised for his astronomical work. I think he and the late Mr. 
Abbott were the only observers in Tasmania who have done 
actual astronomical work since Captain Kay’s time at Sir James 
Ross’ observatory, except the observations made for the pur- 
poses of obtaining local time at the Government Observatory at 
Hobart, which was established in 1882 under the charge of the 
late Commander Shortt, R.N. This observatory, as far as 
astronomical work was concerned, was established on a very 
modest scale, and its operations have been limited to the deter- 
mination of local time for the purpose of dropping a time ball 
erected on the flagstaff at Battery Point. The chief function 
of the observatory has all along been that of the centre of the 
meteorological system of Tasmania. 
Captain Shortt died in 1893, and was succeeded by Mr. Kings- 
vill, who still carries on the necessary observations. 
In 1840 a trigonometrical survey of South Australia was 
undertaken by Col. Frome, R.E., who was then Surveyor- 
General of that colony, and a similar work was commenced in 
Tasmania under the direction of Major Cotton, R.E., in 1849, 
and continued for several years by Mr. Sprent. In both these 
surveys astronomical observations for latitude, longitude, and 
azimuth formed a very considerable and important part of the 
undertaking. 
During the progress of this latter survey Ross’ Astronomical 
Observatory at Hobart, in charge of Lieut. Kay, was still in 
operation, and on several occasions aided in the astronomical 
work connected with the survey. 
In 1852, when the first gold discoveries in Victoria gave rise 
to a great and rapid influx of population, Hobson’s Bay became 
crowded with numerous ships, and the desirability of instituting 
some means by which their captains would be enabled to ascer- 
tain the errors and rates of their chronometers became manifest 
and urgent. The Government, therefore, decided to establish a 
time signal on Gellibrand Point at Williamstown, and a time 
ball was erected there on the signalling flagstaff, which already 
played a very important part for the public benefit, for there 
being no telegraph communication in the colony at that time, 
ships as they approached Hobson’s Bay reported by. flag signals 
their names and other particulars to the flagstaff officer, whose 
duty it was to forward the intelligence to Flagstaff Hill, at Mel- 
bourne, by flag signals, but the distance from Gellibrand’s Point 
to Melbourne being too far for a signal to be seen in dull 
weather, a hulk was moored at the mouth of the river which 
