1921.] 
Astronomical Notes. 
91 
ASTRONOMICAL NOTES. 
0 , . f ■ . > . . . . i .■ • ... - • • - ' J.i. 
A National Observatory for New Zealand.* 
By C. E. Adams. 
New Zealand occupies a unique position in the Southern Hemisphere 
for an observatory, and sites are here obtainable farther south than in any 
other British possession, and with climatic'conditions believed, to be second 
to none in the world. 
British and American astronomical expeditions have visited New Zealand, 
in the past to observe the transits of Venus in 1874 and 1882, when sites 
at Queenstown and Burnham were occupied.f 
In the New Zealand Journal voj Science% Professor Cook drew attention 
in 1882 to the peculiar position that has arisen in New Zealand in 
astronomy, and strongly contrasted the relatively lavish endowment of the 
natural sciences with the almost complete neglect of the astronomical 
sciences. He wrote :— 
But though isolated individuals may do good work in certain direc¬ 
tions, astronomical science will never make much headway in this colony 
until we have in it a properly equipped colonial observatory. At such an 
institution systematic and regular work would be done by trained observers : 
work which would be out of the province of an amateur, and indeed beyond 
his reach. The results of the observations would be published from time 
to time, papers would be read by the observers before the New Zealand 
Institute, and in this way an interest in the subject would be excited 
in the minds of very many. If any of those were tempted to study the 
subject on their own account, and to try to apply their knowledge to the 
making of observations for themselves, it would be to the official staff of 
the observatory that they would maturallv turn for guidance and assistance. 
There is not much reason in the nature of things why this colony should 
not be as distinguished for the pursuit of astronomy as it is for that 
of natural science. But every provision has been made for, and every 
encouragement given to, the study of natural science : there are excellent 
museums at Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin, and at each of these 
places there is a certain scientific staff ; at Auckland, too, there is a museum, 
and there may be such institutions at other places within the colony. All 
of these serve as active centres of intellectual life ; they spread abroad 
a taste for the study of natural science, and they largely furnish the means 
for gratifying and cultivating that taste. Anybody who is acquainted 
* Paper read before the New Zealand Institute Science Congress, 25th-29th 
January, 1921. 
f Transit of Venus, 1874, December 8 : British Observations ; H.M. Stationery Office, 
London, 1881. Observations of the Transit of Venus, 1874, December 8; Washington 
Government Printing Office, 1880. Transit of Venus, 1882, December 6: Report of the 
British Government Committee. 
f Vol. 1, No. 6, November, 1882, p. 247. 
