for the year 1885. xxi 



avoid seeing are due to the unexampled rapidity with which 

 the institution has grown. Not only is the accommodation 

 insufficient, but the arrangements and organisation, which 

 worked well with a quarter the number of students, and 

 less than half as many courses of lectures, are now over- 

 weighted. The want of accommodation, as far as the 

 Medical School is concerned, has been met by the erection 

 of a handsome stone building, fitted with every modern 

 improvement; but the Arts and Engineering Classes 

 urgently need costly extensions. Larger lecture theatres, 

 modern apparatus, a physical laboratory, a powerful testing- 

 machine for investigations upon the effects of stress on 

 materials, have been asked for, and it is to be hoped will 

 before long be obtained. These, together with additional 

 teaching power, will go far to enable pur University to take 

 a proper stand, and not fear comparison with Universities in 

 older countries. 



ASTRONOMICAL WORK. 



The results of the work done with the great Melbourne 

 telescope are now being published, and comprise descrip- 

 tions and lithographs of the southern nebulee as observed 

 by Mr. Le Sueur, Mr. M'George, the late Mr. Turner, and 

 the present observer, Mr. Baracchi. 



The new transit circle referred to by our late President 

 last year gives every satisfaction after a year's trial, and is 

 without doubt unsurpassed by any similar instrument else- 

 where. 



In September last a total eclipse of the sun took place, 

 visible in New Zealand. It was at first proposed to send a 

 party of observers from Melbourne, but the idea was 

 abandoned in view of the uncertainty of the weather at that 

 time of the year. The eclipse was observed by the local 

 astronomers with but partial success, owing to cloudy 

 weather and snowstorms. In Wellington the best results 

 were obtained, the character and position of the corona being 

 well seen, and some good photographs obtained. 



