6 Transactions. —AMiscellaneous. 
The first magnetical observation on our shore of which I can find any 
record was taken by Captain Cook, at Dusky Bay, in May, 1773—one hundred 
years ago. The declination he found, by the mean of three different needles, 
to be 13° 49’ East, and the dip, or inclination, 70? 5^ 45". The next observation 
in the same place was taken by Captain Stokes, in 1851; the declination was 
then found to be 15° 34’ E., and the dip, or inclination, 69° 47'. These 
observations show the secular variation to have progressed at an average 
annual rate of 1:34 minutes, amounting in the elapsed interval of seventy years 
to 1° 45’. 
I have not alluded to the dip, or inclination, of the magnetic needle, nor 
did I intend to have done so, but I think it worthy of notice here that the 
secular variation in the angle of inclination, though of small extent, is in the 
same direction as at London and Paris, where the dip during the last 150 years 
has been decreasing at the rate of about 2:6 minutes per annum, and continued 
to do so during the decrease, as well as during the increase, of the secular 
variation of the westerly declination. 
Proceeding northward to Bluff Harbour, I find, in the “New Zealand 
Pilot,” that the declination there in 1849 was 16° 16’ E. Observations taken 
in 1866, by Mr. McKerrow, show it to have been at that date 14° 40’ 40” E, 
giving a decrease of 1° 35/ 20”. At this place, then, it appears that the secular 
variation is proceeding in an opposite direction to that indicated on the 
Admiralty charts, unless we suppose the last observation to have been made at 
a time of peculiar magnetic disturbance, of which this locality and the 
neighbouring district between the Bluff and New River are likely to be very 
susceptible. This may be inferred from the following extracts, the first of 
which is from the journal of Mr. C. H. Kettle, first Chief Surveyor of this 
Province, a gentleman whose professional acquirements were of the highest 
order, whose urbanity and amiability commanded the esteem of all who knew 
him, and rendered his untimely removal by death a matter of the deepest 
regret to all who possessed the honour of his friendship or the pleasure of his 
acquaintance, 
Mr. Kettle, who was engaged in laying off the native reserve at the eastern 
head of the New River estuary, has this entry in his journal :—* Saturday, 
10th April, 1852.— Prince and myself went forward to explore until we came 
in sight of Barracouta Point, from the top of the hills, when we returned to 
the others, and continued the cutting of the line, Weather cleared up in the 
afternoon, when we completed the line to the top of the hill. Immense masses 
of ironstone rock amongst manuka scrub on the descent towards Barracouta 
Point, which affected the compass so as to turn the north point westward, 
making the south point dip extremely.” 
The other extract I shall give is from a report, presented in the early part 
