The Australasian Association. 27o 



discovery of this interesting bird was not made till forty 

 years after Cook's visit. As a scientific geographer Cap- 

 tain Cook stands unrivalled, considering the appliances at 

 his disposal. His longitudes of New Zealand are wonder- 

 fully accurate, especially those computed from what he 

 called his " rated watches," the first type of the modern 

 marine chronometer, which he was almost the first navi- 

 gator to use. The result of a recent measurement of the 

 meridian difference from Greenwich by magnetic signals is 

 only two geographical miles east of Captain Cook's longi- 

 tude. He also observed the variation and dip of the mag- 

 netic needle, and from his record it would appear that dur- 

 ing the hundred years which elapsed up to the time of the 

 Challenger's visit, the south-seeking end of the needle has 

 changed its position 2| deg. westward, and inclines lij deg. 

 more towards the south magnetic pole. Captain Cook also 

 recorded an interesting fact, which, so far as I am aware, 

 has not been since repeated or verified in New Zealand. 

 He found that the pendulum of his astronomical clock, the 

 length of which had been adjusted to swing true seconds at 

 Greenwich, lost at the rate of 40 sec. daily at Ship Cove in 

 Queen Charlotte Sound. This is, I believe, an indication of 

 a greater loss of the attraction of gravity than would occur 

 in a corresponding North latitude. 



The additions to our scientific knowledge of New Zealand, 

 acquired through the visits of the other exploring ships of 

 early navigators, the settlement of sealers and whalers on the 

 coast, and of pakeha Maoris in the interior were all useful, but 

 of too slight a character to require special mention. The great- 

 est additions to science were made by the missionaries, who in 

 the work of spreading Christianity among the natives, had 

 the services of able and zealous men, who mastered the 

 native dialects, reduced them to written language, collected 

 and placed on record the traditional knowledge of the in 

 teresting Maori, and had among their numbers some in 

 dustrious naturalists who never lost an opportunity of col- 

 lecting natural objects. The history of how the country, 

 under the mixed influence for good and for evil which pie- 



