ASTRONOMICAL AND METEOROLOGICAL WORKERS. 91 



measure due to the misconduct of the person then acting as Astronomer, in 

 consequence of which some doubt was thrown upon the correctness of his 

 observations, and consecjuently on tiie vahie of the results deduced from 

 them. This was perhaps a sufficient reason for the withdrawal by the 

 Home Government of the allowance granted to an observer in these 

 latitiides. But there are many circumstances which would, in my opinion, 

 make it very advisable to re-establish the Observatory, not on the old site, 

 but upon one in the immediate vicinity of Sydney, In the first place, 

 provision lias already been made for the erection of a building to contain 

 the machinery of a time ball and for the purchase of the machinery, but 

 the time ball will, in point of fact, be worse than useless unless there are 

 means for determining the time correctly — that is, unless there are proper 

 clocks and proper instruments for determining the time ; and these 

 instruments are in the hands of an observer responsible to the Government 

 for their proper application. I say that a time ball would be worse than 

 useless without these ; for as the time ball is established for the purpose of 

 enabling captains of vessels to rate their chronometers properly, any error 

 in the time given by the ball has the effect of deceiving the captain as to 

 the quality of his chronometer, and as to the daily rate at which it either 

 loses or gains ; and a very trifling error in the rate, accumulating daily, 

 will in the course of a month amount to a serious error in time, and a still 

 more serious one in longitude. 



In the second place, I am anxious for the establishment of an observatory 

 in the immediate vicinity of .Sydney, as affording to all persons, and 

 especially to those educated at the Universitj% a practical example of the 

 application of science to the determination of matters altogether beyond 

 the scope of our ordinary or uneducated reason. The student sees in the 

 results deduced from the observation the application of those truths or 

 principles which have been put before him at school in an abstract form 

 and he begins to comprehend that what he has hitherto been engaged in is 

 to be looked upon in the light of an apprenticeship, during which he has 

 learned to handle the tools which he will from henceforward have to apply 

 to the purposes of life. 



In the third place, I am desirous to establish an observatory for the 

 purpose of connecting it with the trigonometrical survey of the country, 

 and thus, by means of the perfect and absolute determination of the 

 position on the earth's surface of one point, to be enabled to lay down with 

 perfect accuracy the whole of the remainder of the country, not merely with 

 relation to that spot, but with relation to the remainder of the earth's surface. 



In the fourth place, I am anxious for the establishment of an observatory 

 as a means of connecting this Colony with the Scientific Societies of Europe 

 and America. I have no doubt but that from my acquaintance with the 

 Astronomer Koyal I shall be able to obtain from him a recommendation of 

 a person thoroughly qualified to take charge of the Observatory, and we 

 can then procure assistants from the youth of the Colony, some of whom 

 will be trained up to take the place hereafter of the Astronomer at first 

 supplied from England. The instruments in our possession already are of 

 great value, and I believe only require to be properly adjusted to allow of 

 their employment at once. Provision should be made for a building to 

 contain them, for such repairs as may be found necessary to the instruments 

 themselves, for a house for the Astronomer in the immediate vicinity of the 

 Observatory, and such additional accommodation for computers, &c., as 

 may probably be required. 



It would also be desirable to provide for the purchase of a dozen sets of 

 meteorological instruments, for the purpose of establishing at different 

 points throughout the extensive area of the Colony such observations as to 

 temperature, moisture, direction of wind, and generally of such atmospheric 

 phenomena as may afford data from which we may be enabled at some 

 futnre period to deduce the laws upon which these phenomena depend or 

 by which they are regulated. 



31st March, 1855. W. DENISON. 



