RETIREMENT OF DR. C. C. FARR

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21716, 25 February 1936, Page 5

RETIREMENT OF DR. C. C. FARR

A DISTINGUISHED PHYSICIST FELLOW OF ROYAL SOCIETY The resignation of Dr. C. Coleridge Farr from the chair of physics at Canterbury University.College, after more than 30 years of association with the college, was received by the College Council at its meeting yesterday. Regret at the resignation of Dr. Farr, which will take effect from December 31. 1936, and appreciation of his services were expressed in the recommendation of the College Committee, wmcn was received by the board, but t chairman, Mr C. T. Aschman. said mat as Dr. Farr would not be, leaving till the end of the year the board shouia merely receive his resignation formally at present and express its appreciation of his work later. , Dr. Farr is a leading figure in the scientific world of New Zealand an Australia, and during the last 30 year has taken an active part m the scientific and educational work of the university of New Zealand. He has written a number of papers on subjects ox scientific interest and is, an active member of the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury. He has done much valuable experimental and researcn work in his subject, and is stili engaged on work of this kind. 'Dr. Farr is 69 years of age, and was born at Adelaide, South Australia. He is the son of the late Archdeacon Farr, headmaster of St. Peter’s Collegiate School. He was educated at his father s school, the University of Adelaide, University College, London, and the University of Sydney. He was Angas exhibitioner in 1888 and Angas engineering scholar in 1889 at the University of Adelaide, where he gained his doctorate of science. Scientific Work He was for some time engaged on railway work in England, and later held the position of lecturer in mathematics and physics at St. Paul’s College, University of Sydney, from 1891 to 1895. In 1896 he was lecturer in electrical engineering at the University of Adelaide, and undertook a magnetic survey of New Zealand in 1898, which he finished in 1904. He established the magnetic observatory in Christchurch for the New Zealand Government, and was for some time director of the observatory. Dr. Farr was first appointed to a position at Canterbury College in 1904, when he became part-time lecturer in physics and surveying at the school of engineering. When, in 1910, a chair of physics was established he was selected for the professorship by the English Committee and has held that position ever since. Among the many positions which Dr. Farr has held have been the presidency of the Philosophical Institute, and he was selected to represent the New Zealand Institute at the Pan-' Pacific Science Congress at Tokyo in 1926. The signal honour of election to a Fellowship of the Royal Society came to him early in 1928, in recognition of his scientific research work. He has contributed papers which have been published by the Royal Society, and many others, including tracts published in the New Zealand Journal of Science and Technology.