16 
President’s Address. 
the sole condition that it is considered suitable for the 
purpose. 
The success of Mr. Lassell’s observations leaves no room 
for doubt as to the excellence of the optical part of the 
telescope ; it will, however, require very considerable altera- 
tions in the mounting to suit it to the latitude of Melbourne, 
and the greater increased range of zenith distance which 
will be requisite, in order that it should take in some of the 
most important of the southern nebuhe ; and the Legislature 
of Victoria has just voted £3,000 that the colony may avail 
itself of Mr. Lassell’s most munificent offer without delay. 
In the past year, the Observatory has been removed from 
Williamstown, where it had gradually grown since its first 
establishment in 1853, to the new Observatory erected in 
the Government Domain near the Botanical Gardens. This 
was accomplished in June last, and soon afterwards the 
Magnetical and Meteorological Observatory, which had been 
for several years so ably directed by Professor Neumayer, 
was combined with the Astronomical Observatory into one 
department under the direction of Mr. Ellery, our Honorary 
Secretary. Professor Neumayer, having completed the 
Magnetic Survey, returning to Europe. 
While taking credit for the part which the Royal Society 
had in urging forward the formation of an Observatory, we 
must not omit to give honour where also it is justly due, 
and it is with great pleasure that I am able to state that 
the rapid advance which the Observatory has made is 
mainly due to the first Honorary Secretary of the Board of 
Visitors, the Hon. George Frederick Verdon, M.P., who, as 
an independent member of the Legislature, and subsequently 
as Minister of Finance, exerted his influence in so powerful 
and beneficial a manner that to his advocacy we owe, not 
only the worthy condition of efficiency in which the Obser- 
vatory has been placed, but also much of the progress of the 
other scientific, literary, and aesthetic establishments in the 
country, maintained or established at the public expense. 
The new Observatory is a substantial building, erected 
with special regard to the modern requirements of astronomy, 
magnetism, and meterology. The principal instruments are 
a four feet transit circle by Throughton and Simms, a 
chronographic apparatus by Siemens and Halske of Berlin, 
two sidereal clocks by Frodsham of London, besides other 
clocks, barometers, and other meteorological instruments, 
