Annual Report of the Council. 219 



James Cockle's death was cabled out to the colony a few 

 weeks ago, the journalists there lost no time in expressing 

 the public sense of loss. The occasion served to revive old 

 memories : — the Judge, his dignified and courteous bearing, 

 his unwearied labours, the fidelity with which he dispensed 

 justice according to law, his varied services to Queensland, 

 the profundity of his learning and his mathematical dis- 

 tinctions. Only one who had an intimate knowledge of 

 the late Judge and his work could have penned the follow- 

 ing lines : — 



" In his judicial duties Sir James Cockle was patient and 

 painstaking, courteous to the Bar, and cautious and accurate 

 in his judgments. In the preparation of Acts and rules, 

 regulating the practice of the Courts, his collaboration was 

 much valued by his brother judges. His work in the con- 

 solidation and simplification of the Statutes dealing with 

 the duties of Justices rendered the work of drafting our 

 effective Justices Act of 1886 much lighter." "No 

 community could desire to build up their series of Chief 

 Justices upon a more upright and steadier foundation stone 

 than the late Sir James Cockle." {Brisbane Telegraph, 

 Jan. 30th, 1895). 



But it was as a mathematician that Sir James Cockle 

 was best known to us. All his papers in the Memoirs and 

 Proceedings of this Society, and most of his writings in 

 scientific journals and the transactions of other societies, 

 relate to questions in pure mathematics. Here and there 

 we find an exception. He wrote in one journal two learned 

 essays, entitled respectively, " On the Indian Astronomical 

 Literature," and " On the Indian Cycles and Lunar Calen- 

 dar ; on the date of the Vedas and Jyotish Sastra ; and on 

 the Ages of Garga and Parasara ; " in another, some notes 

 " On Light under the action of Magnetism ; " and in a 

 third, four elaborate memoirs " On the Motion of Fluids ; " 

 but in general he confined himself to problems in pure 



