OCTOBER. 



There was a large attendance of Fellows and visitors at the Royal 

 Society meeting held on Tuesday, October 9th, in the Art Gallery, 

 under the presidency of Sir Lambert Dobson. Apologies for absence 

 were read from His Excellency the Governor, Hon. Sir James Wilson 

 Agnew, K.C.M.G., M.D., M.E.C., and Mr. James Barnard. Messrs. 

 B. T. Solly and L. Oockhead were elected Fellows. 



A NEW METHOD OE DROPPING THE TIME BALL. 



Mr. Robert Henry, in reading a paper on " A new method of 

 dropping the time ball," referred briefly to the existing means for 

 letting Hobart know when it is supposed to be 1 o'clock. In his 

 opinion, provided the arrangements were all in good working order, 

 the present method should be effective. But to ensure absolute accuracy 

 it was desirable that the process should be automatic as far as 

 possible, and with this object in view he submitted a scheme for 

 dropping the ball, and also firing the gun electrically. He described 

 the details, and acknowledged indebtedness to Captain Parker, R.N., 

 for the idea as to the manner for releasing the time ball. Various 

 other appliances were in use, but this should commend itself for 

 simplicity and inexpensiveness. The present mode of signalling the 

 time throughout the colony gave all that was desired, and should 

 not be disturbed, but the time ball arrangements should be separate 

 and distinct. It would be more advantageous to use a special clock 

 for the signalling instead of doing it by hand. Mr, Henry concluded 

 his paper by conducting an interesting experiment, which consisted of 

 firing a toy gun and dropping a model time ball by electricity, the 

 Chairman applying the current. 



Mr. Kingsmill (Government Meteorologist) said that something 

 more important than signalling was to first of all get the right 

 time. Supposing the ball to be dropped and the gun fired electrically, 

 if there was an error it would be brought home to him. There could 

 be no third party. But he thought he was at liberty to mention that ere 

 long there would be, through the generosity of a citizen, a better 

 means of obtaining correct time than at present Mr. David Barclay 

 had very kindly placed his clock, known to be the best in the Southern 

 Hemisphere, at disposal to be connected electrically with the Observa- 

 tory. With liberty to read Mr. Barclay's clock alongside the present 

 instrument in cloudy weather, when it was often and for lengthy 

 periods impossible to take observations, a better standard of time 

 might be looked for in the future. When this was done he would 

 not be afraid to see electric signalling established. 



primitive theories of political teaching. 

 p " Dr. W. Jethro-Brown, M.A., LL.D., read a paper on " Primitive 

 Theories of Political Teaching," in which he attempted to answer the 

 questions of what was the earliest theory of political duty, and at 

 what stage in tribal history was the theory evolved ? 



Mr. Mault and Rev. Dr. Scott expressed surprise that in his pape r 

 Dr. Jethro-Brown had not mentioned the patriarchal origin o 

 authority. 



Dr. Jethro-Brown, in reply, said that the point was one that had 

 been very elaborately discussed in a large number of works. At 

 present, so far as investigations went, the patriarchal theory, as far 

 as the Aryan races were concerned, was better than any other 

 advanced. But we must distinguish between theories of the origin of 

 society and theories of the origin of political duty. Until we got 

 beyond the family we could not have the idea of political duty. 



