90 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION A. 



I referred that Despatch for the consideration of the Lords Commissioners 

 of the Treasury, and I transmit for your information a copy of a letter in 

 reply from the Secretary to that Board, with its enclosures. 



You will perceive that the Lords Commissioners agree to the transfer of 

 those instruments to the Colony, and I trust that there will be no diflticulty 

 in acting on the suggestions of the Astronomer Royal, and the Hydro- 

 grapher to the Admiralty, for the establishment by the Colonial Government 

 and the maintenance of a Time Observatory near Sydney for the purpose 

 of giving time to ships frequenting that port. 



I have, etc., 



(Signed) GREY. 

 Governor Sir Charles A. Fitzroy, etc., etc. 



The Hydrographer said I am of opinion that it would be a 

 great boon to vessels if the transit instrument were to be 

 employed at Sydney in regulating their chronometers, and in 

 dropping a daily time ball ; and the Astronomer Royal (9th 

 November, 1852), said it appears to me that it would be perfectly 

 proper to retain the principal instruments in Sydney for the 

 pui"pose of giving time to ships, and although some of the instru- 

 ments at Parramatta would not be strictly required for an 

 observatory for time signals, yet I would attach the whole of 

 them to it. 



[APPENDIX P.] 

 No. 21. 

 [Copy of a Letter from the Colonial Secretary to the Commanding Royal 



Engineer. '\ 

 Colonial Secretary's Office, 



Sydney, 19th October. 1850. 



Sir, — Referring to my letter of the 21st December, 1849, relative to the 

 Astronomical instruments belonging to the late Observatory at Parramatta, 

 now in the Ordnance Stores, I am directed by His Excellency the Governor 

 to inform you that the reply of the Home Government having been 

 received with respect to the disposal of the instruments, they will be taken 

 over by the Colony, with a view to the establishment of a time ball. 



I have been in correspondence on this subject with Captain P. P. 

 King, R. N., to whose care the instruments named in the annexed list 

 are to be committed, and I have accoi'dingly referred that gentleman to you 

 in order that they may be handed over to him. Captain King proposes, 

 whilst selecting those instruments, to examine and report on the state of 

 the other instruments, as packed, which are to remain in the Ox'dnance 

 Stores at present. I have, &c., 



(Signed) E. DEAS THOMSON. 

 The Commanding Royal Engineer. 



A long correspondence (see Votes and Proceedings, N.S. Wales, 

 1855) then followed as to the position of the Observatory, extending 

 over the yeai's 1851, 1852, 185-3 and 1854. 



Upon the arrival of Sir William Denison as Governor, in 1853, 

 lie immediately took steps to get the Observatory established, and 

 the following papers show that he did so to some purpose. 



[APPENDIX Q.] 



31st March, 1853. 

 I heard with some regret a few years since that the Observatory at 

 Parramatta had been broken up. I am aware that this was in great 



