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, E.E., the officer in 

 charge of the British Expedition. The account of my observations has been 

 already published (" Eighteenth Museum and Laboratory Eeport, 1883," 

 Appendix L, p. 13). 



Laboratory. 



The total number of analyses made in the Colonial Laboratory during 

 the past year for general purposes is 293. 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 

 3,511. The ordinary analyses are divisible as follows : Coals, 26 ; rock 

 and minerals, 64 ; metals and ores, 52 ; examinations for gold or silver, 

 50 ; water, 37 ; 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, 1883. 



