•62 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION A, 



Difference between Parramatta and 

 Sydney, by chronometers, Capt. 

 P.P.King Oh. Om. 51.93s. 



Mean of several observed differences ; 50.88 



this added to Parramatta longi- 

 tude makes longitude, Sydney... 10 4 57.13 

 fGovernment House, Sydney, by Admiral 



Bligh 10 5 10.5 



Government House, Sydney, by Capt. 



King 10 5 8.2 



Rumker, (Royal Astronomical Society Proceedings, Vol VI., 

 p. 213), gives a final correction for the longitude of Parramatta 

 as the result of a second calculation from his moon observations 

 there, and makes it lOh. 4m. 7s. 2 17. Date, April, 1845. 



Some unimportant letters were sent by him from Parramatta and 

 published in Baron de Zach's Correspondence, and he read one 

 paper before the Philosophical Society of Australia on March 13, 

 1822, on " The Astronomy of the Southern Hemisphere," which 

 is published in Baron Field's "Geographical Memoirs of New South 

 Wales," but it is of no value to science, as it simply points out 

 the advantage of the geographical position of Parramatta for 

 observations, a fact which did not need a paper before the Society 

 to xnake it obvious. 



In searching for other information in the Survey Office Mr. W. 

 D. Campbell, C.E., found under date May 1828 correspondence 

 between the Surveyor-General and the Colonial Secretary in 

 reference to an additional grant of land given by Sir Thomas 

 Brisbane to Mr. C. Rumker. 



Rumker left the colony in the end of 1828 or beginning of 

 1829, and became Superintendent of the Nautical School of 

 Hamburgh and Director of the Hamburgh Observatory, and on 

 the 10th February, 1854, the Royal Astronomical Society 

 conferred on him their Gold Medal for his extensive observations 

 chiefly of comets, and a catalogue of twelve thousand stars. 

 Royal Astronomical Society'sNotices, Vol. XIV., p. 43.) He 

 died February, 1863. (Royal Astronomical Society's Notices, 

 Vol. XXIIL, p. 127.) 



There is one point in connection with Rumker, at Parramatta, 

 of which it is difficult now to give the true version, and it cannot 

 well, be passed over, seeing that it changed the whole course of 

 Astronomy in this colony. I allude to the sudden termination of 

 his connection with the Pari'amatta Observatory. Report here 



fBy the Map of Sydney made in 1822 which is now in the Parliamentary Library it 

 appears that old Government House stood on the north t-ide of Bridge street and west 

 side of Phillip street, but it faced north-west, and one corner came nearly across what is 

 now Bridge street. The two old pine trees that stood in the street until about 18S0 then 

 stood over Government House gate. On that Map, No. 70, is the Governor's Observatory, 

 and it stood as nearly as possible at the point which is now, 1888, the north-west corner 

 of the intersection of Bridge and Phillip streets. 



