December 8, 19 lo] 



NATURE 



185 



THE NEW ZEALAND SURVEY. 



I 



N a report which has recently been published, the 

 Surveyor-General of New Zealand describes the work 

 of his department during the year 1909-10. A large area 

 of country has been surveyed, but the urgency for push- 

 ing forward the topographical and settlement surveys, and 

 the survey of native lands, leaves little opportunity for 

 dealing with the major triangulation of the country. It 

 is satisfactory, however, to see that besides some 320 

 square miles of minor triangulation, a commencement of 

 a secondary triangulation has been made, and a base-line 

 some eight miles in length has been measured. There 

 is said to be a pressing need for this form of control, 

 hich may " bring into harmony different groups of prac- 

 ally uncontrolled minor work with their different 

 indards of length, &c. " The experience of many other 

 ^ions goes to show that not only is such control in- 

 -pensable. but adequate expenditure on it is the best 

 onomy, and ver\- soon repays itself. 



As the report is arranged by districts, it is difficult to 



appreciate fully the character of work done ; but the 



demand for land surveys on large scales is very large, 



d the want of ample and accurate triangulation of 



ond- as well as the present third-order series is no 



-uubt a real one. 



The measurement of a base of the secondary triangu- 

 'ation at Wairarapa was carried out with two five-chain 

 var tapes; a third of greater width, a quarter of an 

 ch instead of an eighth, was also used for the first 

 two sections only. The tension was determined by a 

 Salter spring balance, and not by weights, as is now the 

 mofe usual method. The tapes were supported at intervals 

 of fifty linksjby special stands. Four measurements were 

 made of all sections, two with each tajje, and of the first 

 four two additional measurements were made : the prob- 

 able error of the final value adopted for the base is 

 -■ven as i part in 2,962,000. The standard of length for 



NO. 2145, VOL. 85] 



conduit a ce r^sultat. II va paraitre un extrait de mes 

 recherches dans les .45/. Nach. J 'aurais done pu. Mon- 

 sieur, me dispenser de Vous en ^crire, si je n'avais eu a 

 remplir le devoir de \'ous remercier pour I'int^ressant 

 ouvrage que \'ous m'avez adress^. 



" Vous verrez, Monsieur, que je d^montre qu'on ne 

 peut satisfaire aux observations d'Uranus qu'en introdui- 

 >ant Taction d'une nouvelle Plan^te, jusqu'ici inconnue : 

 : ce qui est remarquable, il n'y a dans I'ecliptique qu'une 

 ule position qui puisse etre attribute a cette Planfete 

 perturbatrice. Voici les Elements de lorbite que j'assigne 

 a cet astre : 



Demi-grand axe de I'orbite ... ... ... ... 36,154 



Duree de la revolution siderale ... ... ... 217305,387 



Excentricite 0.10761 



Longitude du perihelia ... ... ... 284^ 45' 



Longitude moyenne : 1*='" Janvier 1847 ... ... 318" 47' 



Masse ... .. ... .. ... ... 



9joo 



Longitude heliocentrique vraie au i^r jmvier 1847 326° 32' 



Distance au Soleil ... ... ... ... ... 33. 06 



" La position actuelle de cet astre montre que nous 

 sommes actuellement, et que nous serons encore, pen- . 

 dant plusieurs mois, dans des conditions favorables pour | 

 le d^ouvrir. 



" D'ailleurs, la grandeur de sa masse permet de con- 

 clure que la grandeur de son diametre apparent est de 

 plus de 3" sexag^simales. Ce diametre est tout-i-fait de ! 

 nature a etre distingue, dans les bonnes lunettes, du dia- ; 

 metre fictif que diverses aberrations donnent aux ^toiles. 



" Recevez, Monsieur, 1 'assurance de la haute conside- ; 

 ration de Votre d^vou^ serviteur 



" U.-J. Le Verrier. 



" Veuillez faire agr^er a Mr. Encke, bien que je n'aye [ 



pas I'honneur d'etre connu de lui, I'hommage de mon ! 



profond respect. ' 



" A Monsieur J. G.alle, '■. 



" Astronome a I'Observatoire Royal de ' 



" Berlin, k Berlin." ! 



controlling the invar tapes was a steel loo-link tape, of 

 which the true length was known at 62° F. and under 

 a tension of 15 lb., but not its coefficient of expansion and 

 modulus of elasticity. .A second base is now in hand, and 

 with the increase of this important high-grade work 

 greater facilities for comparison and verification of base 

 apparatus will doubtless be introduced. The work of the 

 department also includes the harmonic analysis of the tidaL 

 observations of the Dominion for the New Zealand 

 Nautical Almanac, and arrangements have been made tcv 

 furnish advance proofs to the Admiralty. 



The work of the magnetic observator>- has provided an 

 unbroken series of magnetograms from the Adie instru- 

 ments, and also a large number of seismograms from the 

 Milne seismographs. . 



THE JAPAN MAGAZINE."^ 

 T^HE great development of Western education in Japan 

 has naturally led to the extensive publication of 

 newspapers and magazines of a verj- varied kind, and 

 many of them are of a high literary, scientific, or philo- 

 sophical quality. The Japan Magazine is one of the most 

 recent additions, and although its editor seems to be a 

 European, almost all the writers are Japanese. The issue 

 for October, which has just come to hand, is a very good 

 combination of readable matter, which at the same time 

 is of great interest to all who know Japan. 



The first article is on " Torii," the characteristic and 

 picturesque gateways to be found at the entrance to every 

 Shinto shrine. It is one of the best which we have 

 seen, and is illustrated by some of the most striking; 

 examples in the country. Mr. Seiichi Tejima, the director 

 of the Higher Technological School in Tokyo, gives an 

 interesting description of the organisation and work of his- 

 school which will be read with advantage by those 

 engaged in similar work in this country. In addition to 

 the technical part of the curriculum, the importance which- 

 is given to the training of character should be specially 

 noted. Mr. Tejima points out that a person engaged in 

 any occupation may be tempted to bargain his honour for 

 venal purposes if the basis of his morals is not sound, and 

 thereby lose the credit of an expert, and it is therefore 

 the school's principal line of policy in education to give 

 moral training on one hand and engineering practice on 

 the other. Mr. Tejima was recently in London in con- 

 nection with the Japan-British Exhibition, and no doubt 

 some of our readers made his acquaintance and admired 

 the exhibit shown by his school and other educational 

 institutions in Japan. Viscount Taneko, the well-known 

 statesman and writer, gives some readable reminiscences 

 of American statesmen which throw interesting sidelights 

 on some of the problems arising between America and the 

 Far East. 



The chief city engineer of Tokyo, Mr. Benjiro Kusa- 

 kabe. has a descriptive article on " The New Tokyo, '^ 

 which gives a good idea of the transformation which has 

 taken place and almost made the city unrecognisable by 

 those who knew it in former times. Of course this magic 

 transformation is, after all, not so marvellous as it appears, 

 for the reconstruction of a city of wood cannot be re- 

 garded as so colossal a task as would be the rebuilding of 

 a stone city like London or Berlin. But the ston.- of the 

 modernisation of Tokyo is none the less interesting as an 

 indication of the tact, skill, and expedition with which 

 the Japanese attempt and achieve great things, and Mr. 

 Kusakabe thinks that when all the new buildings now 

 either in course of construction or contemplated in the 

 near future are completed, and the city's plan of public 

 improvements carried out, Tokyo will be, both in appear- 

 ance and reality-, one of the finest capitals in the world. 



Mr. Yaichi Haga tells " How Western Civilisation 

 rame to Japan," and Mr. Yoso Kubo, of the Investigation 

 Bureau, has an important article on " The Remaking of 

 Manchuria," which explains Japanese policy and methods 

 in that part of the world. There are very good articles 

 on " The Art of Judo." or of physical training, with 

 special relation to its ethical aspects, on the " Silk Indus- 



t Published by the Japan ^fasazine Co., Tokyo. Subscription, in 

 Japanese Empire, per year in advance, 4.50 yen, in foreign countries 6.100 

 yen. 



