6 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



• The first magnetical observation on our shore of which I can find any 

 recoi'd was taken by Captain Cook, at Dusky Bay, in May, 1773 — one hundred 

 years ago. The declination he found, by the mean of three diffei-ent needles, 

 to be 13° 49' East, and the dip, or inclination, 70° 5' 45". The next observation 

 in the same place was taken by Captain Stokes, in 1851 ; the declination was 

 then found to be 15° 34' B., and the dip, or incliuation, 69° 47'. These 

 observations show the secular variation to have progressed at an average 

 annual rate of 1'34 minutes, amounting in the elapsed interval of seventy years 

 to 1° 45'. 



I have not alluded to the dip, or inclination, of the magnetic needle, nor 

 did I intend to have done so, but I think it worthy of notice here that the 

 secular variation in the angle of inclination, though of small extent, is in the 

 same direction as at London and Paris, where the dip during the last 150 years 

 has been decreasing at the rate of about 2-6 minutes per annum, and continued 

 to do so during the decrease, as well as during the increase, of the secular 

 variation of the westerly declination. 



Proceeding northward to Blufi" Harbour, I find, in the " New Zealand 

 Pilot," that the declination there in 1849 was 16° 16' E. Observations taken 

 in 1866, by Mr. McKerrow, show it to have been at that date 14° 40' 40" E., 

 giving a decrease of 1° 35' 20". At this place, then, it appears that the secular 

 variation is proceeding in an opposite dii-ection to that indicated on the 

 Admiralty charts, unless we suppose the last observation to have been made at 

 a time of peculiar magnetic disturbance, of which this locality and the 

 neighbouring district between the Blufi" and New River are likely to be very 

 susceptible. This may be inferred from the following extracts, the first of 

 which is from the journal of Mr. C. H. Kettle, first Chief Surveyor of this 

 Province, a gentleman whose professional acquirements were of the highest 

 order, whose urbanity and amiability commanded the esteem of all who knew 

 him, and rendered his untimely removal by death a matter of the deepest 

 regret to all who possessed the honour of his friendship or the pleasure of his 

 acquaintance. 



Mr. Kettle, who was engaged in laying ofi" the native reserve at the eastern 

 head of the New River estuary, has this entry in his journal : — " Saturday, 

 10th April, 1852. — Prince and myself went forward to explore until we came 

 in sight of Barracouta Point, from the top of the hills, when we returned to 

 the others, and continued the cutting of the line. "Weather cleared up in the 

 afternoon, when we completed the line to the top of the hill. Immense masses 

 of ironstone rock amongst manuka scrub on the descent towards Barracouta 

 Point, which aifected the compass so as to turn the north point westward, 

 making the south point dip extremely." 



The other extract I shall give is from a report, presented in the early part 



