ASTRONOMICAL AND METEOROLOGICAL WORKERS. 59 



Resolved nnanimoudy —That this Council are decidedly of opinion that 

 the continuation of the Observatory at Parramatta as a national institution, 

 in addition to that already existing at the Cape of Good Hope, would be of 

 the highest importance to astronomy, and they ground this opinion on tiie 

 following reasons, in which it will be observed that they do not contemplate 

 a removal of the Cape Observatory, as precluded by its very advantageous 

 situation on the same meridian with the principal Observatories of Europe, 

 and from the great expense already incurred and powerful instruments 

 erected in that establishment. 



First— The great difference of geographical situation, in longitude and of 

 climate, of the Cape and Parramatta, which renders it practicable to obtain 

 numerous observations at each not susceptible of being made at the other, 

 either from cloudy weather or from the circumstances that the phenomena 

 take place below the horizon of either Observatory, or may actually happen 

 at the one and not at the other. 



Secondly — The effective verifying check and corroboration, and the great 

 increase of diligence and accuracy to be expected from the emulation of 

 rival observers. 



Thirdly — The remarkable and also highly advantageous geographical 

 situation of Parramatta, it being almost exactly at the antipodes of 

 Greenwich, and the peculiar excellence of its climate. 



Fourthly — The very imperfect state of Southern Astronomy, and 

 the wide field of research which has been laid open by the observation of 

 new stars and nebulie already made, whicli the Council consider as affording 

 ample employment for two of Ihe most active observatories without 

 interfering with each other. 



Lastly — The indispensable importance of a long-continued and exact 

 series of observations at a fixed station on some part of the immense 

 Australian continent, for the purposes of a geographical and hydrographical 

 survey of its interior and of its coasts, when the circumstances and extent 

 of the Colony shall render such operations necessary, and which ought to 

 be commenced as early as possible in order to give time. 



And the Council cannot but regard their opinion of the future importance 

 of an Observatory at Parramatta as strongly sustained, whether by the 

 re-discovery of Enche's Comet when not visible in Europe, or by the 

 important mass of observations already forwarded from it to this country 

 by Sir Thomas Brisbane. 



Dr. Charles Stargard Rumker. 



RuMKER, whom Sir Thomas Brisbane selected as first assistant, 

 was at that time a man of acknowledged ability as an Astronomer, 

 and Mathemetician, but I find no record of his previous history, 

 excepting some Astronomical papers in Baron de Zach's corres- 

 pondence. He accepted the position in Sir Thomas's private 

 Observatory, and it is evident that he was well received and 

 taken into a confidential position at once. 



It is, perhaps, worth mentioning that in all the papers he com- 

 municated to the Royal A.stronomical Society, in his long life, 

 and they numbered eighty-eight, he is called Mr. Charles Rumker, 

 and in his work in the Philosophical Transactions, 1829, he calls 

 himself Charles Rumker. But he read one paper before the 

 Philosophical Society of Australia, in 1822, and he is then 

 (Judge Field's Memoirs) called Dr. Charles Stargard Rumker. 



