PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 7 



astronomer; he was a native of the soil and entirely self 

 taught. Outside his own personal researches and studies, 

 the only experience he ever gained in any other observa- 

 tory than his own, was during three days he once spent in 

 the Sydney Observatory. Commencing as a mechanic, he 

 evidenced genius as a lad in the making of models. His 

 first taste for astronomy he used to say was acquired from 

 reading an article in the Illustrated London News. Hence- 

 forth he lived in an atmosphere of moving planets. The 

 science of astronomy became his ruling passion; all elseta 

 him went by the board, and he had perpetually in his mind, 

 while pursuing his study of the starry heavens, a working- 

 model of the universe, whose mysteries it was the purpose 

 of his life to unfathom. Towards the close of 1863 he 

 managed to erect on his father's property a small obser- 

 vatory built of wood, which was entirely the work of his 

 own hands. His first installation was a small transit 

 instrument and a 3J inch refractor, which he mounted 

 himself as an equatorial. From these small beginnings 

 Mr. Tebbutt's zeal led him on until he possessed two sub- 

 stantial brick observatories, which accommodated one of 

 Cook and Sons' 3 inch transit instruments, a 4J inch equa- 

 torial by the same makers, and an 8 inch equatorial refractor 

 by Grubb. In 1862 Mr. Tebbutt was elected a member 

 of our Society. He was one of the few surviving 

 members of the Society then known as the Philosophical 

 Society of New South Wales. The first Government 

 Astronomer for New South Wales (Rev. W. Scott) so far 

 recognised Mr. Tebbutt's abilities in 1863 as to recommend 

 him as his successor, but he declined the office. Six year& 

 later his work was considered of such importance that his 

 private observatory was placed in the list of principal 

 observatories in the British Nautical Almanac. It was 

 subsequently recognised in a similar way in the national 

 ephemerides of the United States, France, Germany, Brazil, 



