The Government, however, would not continue to pay observers, as appears by the following letter:—

Copy of Despatch from the right Honorable the Secretary of State to His Excellency Sir C. A. Fitzroy.

No. 162 DOWNING STREET,
3rd June, 1847.

Sir—I have to acknowledge the receipt of your predecessor's Despatch No, 144, of the 7th July, 1846, containing to explanation he had been called upon to give in respect of the expense, and other circumstances relating to the question of the maintenance of the offices of Astronomer at Parramatta, and of the Meteorological Recorders at Port Macquarie, Melbourne, and South Head.

I have also received your Despatch of the 30th October last, No. 45, having exclusive reference to the three last mentioned appointments, and especially as regards the sources from which the charge of the salaries of the Recorders, when the convicts who now perform that duty shall become free.

I referred copies of both these Despatches to the Boards of Treasury and of the Admiralty, and the result of the correspondence which has since taken place on the subject has been to show that the advantages, in a scientific point of view, arising from the Observatory at Parramatta are not such as to justify its being continued at the cost of the British Treasury.

It will therefore be your duty to acquaint Mr. Dunlop that his services, as Superintendent, will not be required after 31st March, 1848, up to which period only provision will be made for his salary in the estimates for expenditure connected with the Convict Establishment in New South Wales.

With respect to the three offices of Meteorological Recorders already noticed, Her Majesty's Government consent to the present rate of allowance (i.e., 1s. 6d. per day) being paid to them only so long as the parties employed in the service are convicts, and who must otherwise be maintained at the expense of the Home Government.

I have, &c.,
(Signed) GREY.

Governor Sir C. A. Fitzroy, &c., &c.
A-55

The observations were accordingly discontinued in Melbourne in 1850, at Port Macquarie in 1850, and in Sydney in 1855. The manuscript returns are in the Sydney Observatory; but part were published in the current numbers of the Government Gazette.

In passing thus briefly over the work done by so many pioneers in Astronomy and Meteorology in this colony, I have endeavoured to shew what has been done and where it is to be found. It will be evident to you there is more to be written yet, but many of the facts have been difficult to get and others have so far eluded my efforts to find them.

It is quite evident that Sir Thomas Brisbane, when he came to the Colony, contemplated the measurement of an arc of the median as part of his scheme, and that he brought with him suitable astronomical instruments and the special apparatus for determining the length of the seconds pendulum and the following letter shows that he was using his influence to induce the Government to undertake the work, or rather, provide the money.

Bureau of Meteorology