BOARD APPOINTED

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 99, 20 January 1939, Page 8

BOARD APPOINTED

National Astronomical

Observatory

THE CARTER BEQUEST

Representatives Of State, Royal Society And City

The personnel of the Carter Observatory Board, appointed under the Carter Observatory Act, 1938, which provides for the establishment of a national astronomical observatory for New Zealand at Wellington, was announced by the Minister of Scientific and Industrial Research, Mr. Sullivan, last night. It will be: —

Representing the Royal Society of N.Z.

DR. E. KIDSON, 0.8. E., M.A., D.Sc., Director of the Meteorological Office. MR. C. G. G. BERRY, a member of the Astronomical Section of the Wellington Philosophical Society and the New Zealand Astronomical Society.

Representing the Wellington City Council.

MR. E. P. NORMAN, 8.E., B.Sc., A.M.InstC.E., Town Clerk. MR. M. M. F. LUCKIE, solicitor.

Representing the Government.

PROFESSOR D. C. H. FLORANCE, M.A., M.Sc., Professor of Physics, Victoria University College. MR. M. GEDDES, M.A., Director of the Auroral and Zodiacal Light Section of the New Zealand Astronomical Society. DR. C. E. ADAMS, D.Sc., F.R.A.S., A.I.A. (Lond.), late Government Astronomer and president of the New Zealand Astronomical Society.

DR. E. MARSDEN, C.8.E., D.Sc., F.R.S.N.Z., M.C., Secretary, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research.

“Charles Rooking Carter, who died on July 22, 1896, envisaged the establishment of a national astronomical observatory for New Zealand and left to the council of the New Zealand Institute, now the Royal Society of New Zealand, as trustees of his residuary estate certain < moneys to form the nucleus of a fund for the establishment in Wellington of such an observatory/’ Mr. Sullivan said.

“The council of the society, realizing that the amount involved was not adequate for the desired purpose, invested the moneys and allowed them to accumulate till a sufficient sum was available for the object in view.

“Last year a conference was held of the interested bodies—the Royal Society of New Zealand, the Wellington City Council and the Government —with the result that the Government was approached with a request that enabling legislation be placed oii the Statute Book. The Carter Observatory Act was passed by Parliament in September, 1938.” 1 The Minister said that the initial meeting of the board would be held soon.