for the year 1864?. lxxvii 



observatories should be able to report officially to the Govern- 

 ment as to the usefulness of the work which was being clone, 

 the manner "in which it was executed, and the adequacy of 

 the means for the purpose. With this object the Board of 

 Visitors to the Observatories, was appointed in 1860, in 

 accordance with a vote of the Legislative Assembly. 



Since that period, the representations of the Government 

 Astronomer, backed by the recommendations of the 

 Board of Visitors, have been promptly attended to, and 

 Melbourne now possesses an Astronomical Observatory 

 which, in situation, in instrumental appliances, and in 

 personal staff, is second only to the great metropolitan 

 observatories of Europe, and in many points may be com- 

 pared favourably with them. With one exception, every 

 recommendation of the Committee of the Philosophical 

 Institute, 1857 (or Koyal Society as it is now called), 

 has been carried out on a larger scale, and in a more com- 

 plete manner, than the Committee then ventured even to 

 hope for. 



The magnetic survey of the Colony is now just completed, 

 and funds have already been transmitted to England for print- 

 ing the results of that survey, and also the five years' series of 

 magnetical and meteorological observations. The Astro- 

 nomical Observatory has already acquired credit for itself in 

 Europe by the valuable series of observations of Mars which 

 it contributed, and which, in conjunction with those at 

 Greenwich, occupy the most prominent place in the deter- 

 mination of the increased value which must be assigned to 

 the solar parallax ; and it is now preparing to take its part, in 

 conjunction with the observatories at Madras and the Cape 

 of Good Hope, in a systematic cataloguing of the southern 

 stars, which is about to be carried on under the auspices of 

 the Koyal Astronomical Society. 



The one exception alluded to, is the recommendation for 



