CARTER BEQUEST

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 59, 7 September 1938, Page 10

CARTER BEQUEST

NEW OBSERVATORY

EMPOWERING BILL

The establishment oi an astronomical observatory, to be known as the Carter Observatory, in the city of Wellington, is authorised by the Carter Observatory Bill, which was introduced in the House of Representatives yesterday afternoon and read a first time. In explaining the measure, the. Minister of Industrial and Scientific Research (the Hon. D. G. Sullivan) said that a bequest pf £2240 had been made to the Wellington City Council. by Charles Rooking Carter, who died in 11896, for the establishment \of an observatory. This had now accumulated to £13,000. The Wellington City Council would provide the site for the building to be erected out of the bequest, and the ,balance of the money would be invested. >. ' The Bill provides for the setting up : of a board, two members to be nominated by the Minister, two by the Council of the Royal Society of New Zealand, and two by the Wellington City Council,' and the term «of appointment is for five years. The; functions of the board will be to maintain and control the Carter Observatory. The Wellington City Council is authorised to transfer to the board an area of land in the Botanical Gardens at Kelburn, and to transfer also the, nine-inch telescope and other apparatus belonging to the City of Wellington. The Minister of Finance is empowered to grant each year the sum of £750, or any such sum as may be regarded as necessary, for the purpose of providing funds for the exercise of the board's functions." ' The board is authorised to charge admission to the observatory; and it is required each year to furnish the Minister with, a report, of its proceedings and operations.