544 New Zealand Institute. 
ORSERVATORY. 
The time-ball is still dismounted, but hourly signals are given by galva- 
nometer to the Telegraph Department and at the Museum. No change 
has been made in the Observatory during the year, except that Mr. T. King 
kindly undertook the meridian observations at a time when both Arch- 
deacon Stock and myself were absent from Wellington. The principal 
work of the year was the observation of the transit of Venus on the 7th 
December, 1882, for which purpose I established a temporary observatory 
at Clyde, in Otago, at the request of Colonel Tupman, R.E., the officer in 
charge of the British Expedition. The account of my observations has been 
already published (“ Eighteenth Museum and Laboratory Report, 1883,” 
Appendix L, p. 18). 
LABORATORY. 
The total number of analyses made in the Colonial Laboratory during 
the past year for general purposes is 298. Besides this, a number of 
analyses have been made under the Adulteration Act of 1880, and a few in 
aid of criminal procedures. The Laboratory number now arrived at is 
8,511. The ordinary analyses are divisible as follows: Coals, 26; rock 
and minerals, 64; metals and ores, 52; examinations for gold or silver, 
50; water, 87; and miscellaneous, 64: making up a total of 293. 
The heaviest labour of the year has been expended upon analyzing the 
‘Taupo mineral waters—a work which has long been urgently required. 
Twenty-two of these, representing the principal mineral waters of this 
district, and well certified as to locality, etc., have been fully analyzed. 
Those results which have a general interest are given in full in the 
annual Laboratory report. 
James Hector, 
Director. 
20th July, 1888. 
