INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 17 
Oddie also obtained an 8-in. equatorial from Sir Howard Grubb. 
This observatory is affiliated with the Ballarat School of Mines, 
but has so far been chiefly devoted to visitors wishing to see the 
heavenly bodies through a good telescope, and but little actual 
astronomical work has been done. Several good reflecting tele- 
scopes have been made at the workshops attached to the observa- 
tory, and liberally presented to public institutions or observers 
of reputation, two at least being now in Tasmania, one having 
been presented to Horton College, and another to the Municipal 
Museum, Launceston. 
The late Dr. Bone, of Castlemaine, built a very complete 
observatory on his private grounds in 1873, and obtained an 
8-in. equatorial from Sir H. Grubb in time to successfully observe 
the first transit of Venus in 1874; unfortunately, he did not sur- 
vive to carry out the astronomical work he had laid out for 
himself, and died in 1875. The telescope was, however, destined 
to do good work, for a little later on it was purchased by Mr. 
John Tebbutt, and erected in his observatory at Windsor, New 
South Wales. 
Among the amateurs at this time who took to observing as a 
recreation was Mr. David Ross, of Brighton, Victoria. He used 
a small refractory telescope, which he had mounted equatorially, 
and while searching for Pon’s comet in 1884, discovered a new 
one, which has since borne his name. 
Some years ago a society named the British Astronomical 
Association was formed in London to gather together the 
numerous people interested in astronomy and astronomical work, 
chiefly amateurs and those who took up astronomy as a recrea- 
tion ; the association also included amongst its members most 
of the professional astronomers in Great Britain and its colonies. 
Recently branches of this association have been formed in some 
of these colonies, and the first branch established in Australasia 
was that of New South Wales in 1896, which is now a very 
active and flourishing society, many of its members doing excel- 
lent observational work in the various sections into which the 
association is divided. A similar branch was formed in Mel- 
bourne in 1897, and made a promising beginning, but has not 
attained to the practical activity exhibited “by its sister society 
in Sydney. 
Having traced the advancement of astronomy in Australasia 
from what I assume to be the beginning, before the earliest 
settlements, to the end of the 19th century, covering about 130 
years, my task is done. In concluding, permit me to hope 
that during the new century this association will be enabled to 
give a brilliant record of the advancement of the science, and of 
what Australasia contributes to it, in the coming decades. 
