1921 ,] 
Astronomical Notes. 
93 
were established on a good footing in the early days of the colonies to which 
they belong, and that they have on important occasions been able to do 
work which could not have been foregone without very serious loss.” 
The position as then described has not altered much, although eight 
years ago it seemed that a marked improvement was then to be made. 
In 1913 Miss Mary Proctor, Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, 
London, visited New Zealand with the object of raising funds for a solar 
observatory. Her interesting lectures are still remembered, and a small 
fund is held in Wellington made up from the proceeds of the lectures and 
other donations. This fund is to be devoted to a Proctor Library, which 
should ultimately find a home in the National Observatory. 
While in Nelson Miss Mary Proctor met the late Thomas Cawthron, 
and he was so interested in her mission that he wrote to her offering to 
build and endow a solar observatory at Nelson, and to provide £12,000 
for this purpose. To satisfy himself that Nelson was a suitable place for 
a solar observatory Mr. Cawthron obtained the services of Mr. John 
Evershed, F.R.S., the celebrated solar physicist. Mr. Evershed spent 
a month or so testing different sites near and in the city of Nelson, 
and reported favourably on a site on the Port Hills. Mr. Cawthron there¬ 
upon had a deed engrossed in which he agreed to provide the sum of 
£30,000 for a solar observatory. This deed was ready for signature before 
war broke out. Mr. Cawthron purchased a site on the Port Hills for the 
solar observatory, and accepted the gift of an adjoining property for the 
same purpose. But although all this was done, he died in 1915 without 
signing the trust deed. The bulk of his estate, some £250,000, was left 
to found the Cawthron Institute at Nelson, and it is confidently expected 
that some of these funds will be devoted to the science of astronomy, in 
which Mr. Cawthron showed such a definite interest. 
•j : , ' [30 • ‘ 
There are a number of private observatories in New Zealand that are 
doing excellent work. The largest telescope is at Wanganui, and belongs 
to the Astronomical Society there. It is a 9| in. Cooke refracting equatorial 
telescope, and in the capable hands of Mr. J. T. Ward and Mr. Thomas 
Allison has done much valuable work. 
The late C. R. Carter left funds for the establishment in or near 
Wellington of an astronomical observatory. The fund is in the hands of 
the New Zealand Institute, and now exceeds £4,000. Mr. C. P. Powles* 
and Mr. E. Parry have both urged the utilization of the fund, and 
the Astronomical Section of the Wellington Philosophical . Society has 
recommended a scheme for utilizing the fund to the best advantage. 
The discovery by New-Zealanders of the new star in Aquila — the 
brightest nova since 1604—once more emphasized the lack of astronomical 
equipment in New Zealand. 
Now it seems that New Zealand is again to have an opportunity of 
undertaking astronomical research, and the recent offer by the Yale 
University Observatory, New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.A., of valuable 
astronomical equipment to New Zealand makes a brief history of the 
circumstances leading up to the offer desirable. In 1914 Dr. W. W. 
Campbell, Director of the Lick Observatory, of the University of California, 
offered the Martin Kellogg Fellowship in Astronomy to a New-Zealander. 
Arrangements were made by the New Zealand Government which made 
*This Journal, vol. 1, July, 1918, p. 254. 
