Webb. — On Astronomy and Celestial Physics. li 



the instruments which would be sent thither for the observation of the transit 

 and so to form the beginnings of an observatory, Now, quite independent of 

 all selfish feelings, I think we shall have cause for regret — a regret which will 

 be shared with us by a great many persons in all parts of the world — if the 

 future observatory of New Zealand is fixed at Auckland rather than in the 

 South Island. In latitudes similar to that of Auckland the world is now 

 girt with a chain of observatories. There used to be in former days an 

 observatory — of what pretensions I do not know — at Hobart Town, but it 

 has, I believe, been dismantled for some years. It is to be desired, therefore, 

 that our New Zealand Observatory should be placed in as high a latitude 

 as possible, and the more so now that the work of an observatory includes 

 so much more than the watching of stars and planets. Only here and in 

 South America can any observatory be planted nearer by any considerable 

 approximation to the South Pole of the earth than that chain of southern 

 observatories to which I have just alluded — a chain which may be considered 

 to be now fairly complete, including as it does those of Paramatta, Melbourne, 

 the Cape of Good Hope, Cordoba, and Santiago. The Christchurch Society 

 has not been wholly discouraged by the unfavourable advices lately received. 

 The nature of these has not, so far as I am aware, been made public, but 

 whatever the objections I trust they will be eventually overcome. 



The allusion just made to the chain of observatories which encircles the 

 globe in a line nowhere far distant from the thirty-fifth parallel of southern 

 latitude, reminds me that the establishment of one of these forms part of the 

 work of the past year. It was in October, 1871, that the Argentine Observa- 

 tory at Cordoba was inaugurated. The staff of observers had been on the spot 

 for some time beforehand, but there had been considerable delay in bringing 

 the instruments into position and working order. In the meantime Professor 

 Gould, the director of the observatory, and his assistants, did not forget that 

 there were astronomers before instruments of modern type were thought of. 

 What they continued to do whilst waiting for their instruments offers an 

 example to all lovers of the science to which they have devoted their lives. 

 After computing the tables necessary for their future work, they set them- 

 selves to form a catalogue of all the stars of the southern heavens which are 

 visible to the naked eye. Probably when they began this work they were 

 only endeavouring to familiarize themselves with the field of their future 

 researches, but the patient toil has been rewarded by many interesting dis- 

 coveries. The variability of a great number of our southern stars has been 

 determined by a comparison of these new observations with those of previous 

 observers. Two of the stars, whose variable character has been established bv 

 these patient workers, are remarkable for the short periods during which they 

 pass from maximum to minimum of brightness. One of these stars is in the 



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