ERECTION OF OBSERVATORY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22024, 5 August 1933, Page 4

ERECTION OF OBSERVATORY

THE CARTER BEQUEST ARGUMENTS FOR FINALITY A few months ago it looked as if finality had been reached in respect to the Carter bequest, an endowment bequeathed into the control of the New Zealand Institute for the purpose of providing an up-to-date observatory and staff. Negotiations between the Wellington City Council and the New Zealand institute, extending over a long period, had apparently resulted in an agreement satisfactory to all parties concerned, and all that was necessary seemed to be an empowering Act to be passed by Parliament at its next session. But once again it was exemplified (says the Evening Post) that it does not do to count chickens before they are hatched. The Board of Governors of the New Zealand Institute met, received the report of the committee which had brought negotiations with the City Council to a conclusion, and then quietly shelved the matter, refusing to adopt the committee’s recommendations. But more recent developments indicate that certain interested ■ parties, more especially the astronomical section of the Wellington Philosophical Society, have not relinquished the fight to achieve finality, and arguments in favour of action are to be placed before the Board of Governors.

The fund of the Carter bequest now stands at about £9OOO, and is growing at the rate of £4OO a year. As it would be another 20 years before the testator's wishes could be fully realised, it was suggested that part of the scheme should be gone ahead with, and the committee's recommendations, agreed to by the City Council, were as follows:—(.1) That the New Zealand Institute as trustees of the Carter bequest be granted a lease in perpetuity at a rental of Is per annum (if demanded) of a One-quarter acre section in the Botanical Gardens, Kelburn, for the purpose of erecting there an observatory at a cost of approximately £3000; (2) that the New Zealand Institute shall, when it has secured the necessary sanction by Act of Parliament, proceed with the building, and shall purchase from the City Council its telescope at a price not exceeding £500; (3) that the governing body be the Carter Observatory Committee, which shall consist of. five members, three being representatives of the New Zealand Institute as Carter trustees, one being a representative of the Wellington City Council as providing the site, and one being a representative of , the New Zealand Astronomical Society as providing the staff and upkeep; (4) that the telescope be available for the use of the public for at least one night a week at a small charge to be fixed by the Carter Observatory Committee from time to time. ' ' URGED TO ACT NOW. The Government Astronomer, Dr C. E. Adams, and the New Zealand Astronomical Society have all along been in favour of the scheme advocated by the committee. And now the astronomical section of the Wellington Philosophical Society, of which Professor D. M. Y. Sommerville is chairman, has entered the lists. This body is suggesting to the Board of Governors of the'New Zealand Institute that the argument that the fund should be conserved and allowed to accumulate until it is capable of providing a large observatory with full equipment and a permanent staff will hot hold water, as the Board of Governors at the annual meeting in. 1927 agreed to the proposal, subject to legal opinion, that part of the Carter Fund .should be made use of in erecting an observatory : at a cost not exceeding £3OOO and in purchasing the city telescope at a price_ not exceeding £SOO. This resolution, it is pointed out, has never been rescinded. The sum at present available, it is suggested, is adequate to provide a fitting memorial to Carter and a very useful observatory, there being, no need for a much larger , one than that contemplated. The alternative, to allow the amount to accumulate until it is possible to endow- a permanent staff, would entail a long delay. An annual income of not less than £ISOO would be required, . representing- a capital fund of, say. £30,000. Allowing £SOOO for the -building and an equal amount for the telescope and other equipment (since the city telescope could not be counted on then), a total of £40,000 would be required. If the fund continued to grow at the same average rate as during the last 37 years it would require just another 37 years to reach this amount. There has been already a much greater delay than could have been contemplated by Carter, who imagined that his fund would be increased: by other gifts or bequests and by Government subsidy. No additions other than by compound interest have been made to the fund, and they are not likely to be until an observatory is; built. DELAYS ARE DANGEROUS. , . It is also suggested that it is dangerous to assume that the present rate of the growth of the fund will .contimie so Tong, or. indeed that the fund will remain intact by that time. The present time is an opportune one for building and should be taken advantage of, since the site is provided and the Wellington City Council’s offer may not be open at a subsequent date. The site, it is admitted. may not be the best possible in New Zealand for a large observatory, but it is the best in Wellington where, by the conditions of the bequest, the observatory must be built. For this reason it would be better to build an observatory of only moderate dimensions. The work at present being done with the city council telescope is of considerable value in spite of the present inadequate building. Better, work could be done with a better building. A GOOD BARGAIN, The telescope, the astronomical section of the Wellington Philosophical Society maintains, is offered for a very reasonable sum. “Public attention,” it remarks, “has been drawn to the advertisement by an English dealer of an . eightinch Cooke equatorial with equipment for £4OO. Considering the rate at which prices advance with aperture, the,corresponding price for a similar nine-inch would be about £550. But the additional value of the photo-visual objective with which the nine-inch is supplied would be £1000; and there is much other equipment. To this would have to be added at present 25 per cent, for exchange, and probably at least £SO for freight, bringing up the value to over £BSO. The city council telescope can be acquired for £500.”