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Proceedings. 



expense to his Government, had the transit of Venus been covered by clouds ? 

 None. To our local advice, therefore, he was so good as to ascribe his success. 

 True, our assistance, though effectual, was that of humble friends— the 

 assistance (if I may use a simile applicable to New Zealand with its dangerous 

 mountain torrents) of those who not being skilful enough to construct the 

 "mogie" or native raft, have by their local knowledge shown to the wanderer 

 the safe ford which has led to success. The American expedition fixed their 

 site for observation twenty-six miles westerly of the particular locality that 

 we had recommended, from which it is divided by two ranges of mountains 

 5000 feet to 6000 feet in altitude. So, on their success and the complete 

 failure of all other practical and scientific observers in New Zealand by reason 

 of the weather, it became of interest to us to know the state of the atmosphere 

 over the exact locality recommended by your committee, viz., the lower 

 valley of the Manuherikia, and to this end I solicited the assistance of 

 Mr. Lubecki, superintendent of the provincial telegraph lines. The result of 

 the information that he has given me, as obtained from the telegraph offices of 

 Clyde, Alexandra, and Ophir, is to the effect that the weather in their 

 districts was highly favourable — indeed, quite as much so as at Queenstown. 

 Thus, your committee was more than justified in pressing its experience on the 

 English and American astronomers. But, gentlemen, having done this we 

 must not rest contented. Another transit takes place between seven and 

 eight years hence. By that time, what with our High Schools and 

 Universities, I hope, under the auspices of the New Zealand Institute, to 

 which we are affiliated, we may have the talents and acquirements within the 

 colony at large, not only to observe, but to make independent deductions in 

 one of the most subtle problems that engage the attention of astronomers. 

 Further, I may hope that the Government of New Zealand will be strong and 

 wealthy enough by that time to economise, by making use of these talents and 

 acquirements, by fitting out expeditions on its own account. 



On another subject I would desire to shortly detain you. "While meantime 

 enterprise from our shores is now extending itself over the balmy climates of 



* 



Polynesia, drawing from thence wealth and gain ; while, also, our Colonial 

 Government, by the institution of training ships, is nurturing our seafaring 

 interests, we should not neglect the more stormy and forbidding regions to the 

 southward of us, an arena peculiarly belonging to Otago. It is in these 

 regions that we have a nursery for seamanship and hardihood, such as those 

 wherein the bravest and most useful of British sailors were bred. These 

 southern seas are a prototype of the polar seas of the Northern Atlantic, and 

 are within five to ten days' sail of us. 



But our attention as a scientific society is not directed to the wealth in oil 

 and other polar produce, which Sir James Ross assures us mav there be 



