Wellington Philosophical Society. 507 



otherwise seamen would have to refer their observations to an imaginary 



meridian. 



Mr. George did not see what they could want with observations, as when 



a seaman is in port he must surely know where he is. 



Dr. Hector said the practice at present adopted was the same as round the 



British coast, where the time signals for shipping are given in one uniform 



time, being that of Greenwich, and not in the local time for each place. 



Besides, the inconvenience to the public would be very serious if local time 



were again resorted to. 



best 



object was to give navigators the correct Greenwich time. He did not see for 



what purpose they could require local time, but it could be easily obtained by 

 referring to the longitude of the port they were in, as given on the chart, and 

 calculating its difference from the average longitude of llh. 30m. east, which 

 has been adopted as the mean time for the whole of New Zealand. 



4. " Notes on New Zealand Whales," by James Hector, M.D., F.R.S. 



(Transactions, p. 251.) 



In this communication the author described the skull of a calf of 

 Neobalcena marginata, and some other interesting forms, which he exhibited, 

 and particularly the skull and some other portions of the humpback whale 

 (Megaptera, Gray), which he considered to be the same whale as recently 

 described by Dr. Gray as a Balcenoptera, or finner whale. He also gave an 

 account of a sulphur-bottom whale, seventy feet in length, the skeleton of 

 which he had secured in Port Underwood, and which he considers to be the 

 true Physalus, or finner whale. The present list of whales, he thought, would 

 have to be very much reduced in the number of species, and even genera. 



Seventh Meeting. 21st November, 1874. 



Charles Knight, F.R.C.S., President, in the chair. 



New members. — Kenneth Wilson, B.A., Edward Toomath. 



The President was chosen to vote in the election of the Board of Governors 

 for the ensuing year, in accordance with clause 7 of the New Zealand 

 Institute Act. 



The nomination for the election of Honorary Members of the New Zealand 

 Institute was made, in accordance with Statute IV. 



1. "On Duplex Telegraphy," by Charles Lemon, General Manager, New 

 Zealand Telegraphs; communicated by W. T. L. Travers, F.L.S. (Trans- 

 actions, p. 396.) 



The paper was illustrated by a number of explanatory sections, which 



