THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE. 407

G. F. BOWEN, Governor.

TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME,
GREETING:

WHEREAS by "The Regulation of Elections
Act, 1858," it is enacted that it shall be lawful
for the Governor, by Warrant under his hand, from
time to time to appoint polling places for each
Electoral District, within or without the limits
thereof, and to appoint any one of such places to be
the principal polling place for the district, and all or
any of such polling places at any time to abolish,
and to appoint other polling places in lieu thereof:

Now therefore, the Governor of New Zealand, in
pursuance of the power and authority in him vested
by the said Act, doth hereby appoint the following
place to be an additional polling place for the Elec-
toral District hereinafter specified, for the election of
Members of the House of Representatives, namely,

For the District of Ashley.
Ashley Bank School House.

Given under the hand of His Excellency Sir
George Ferguson Bowen, Knight Grand
Cross of the Most Distinguished Order
of Saint Michael and Saint George,
Governor and Commander-in-Chief in
and over Her Majesty's Colony of New
Zealand and its Dependencies, and Vice-
Admiral of the same, at the Government
House, at Wellington, this twenty-third
day of August, in the year of our Lord
one thousand eight hundred and seventy.
W. GISBORNE.

G. F. BOWEN, Governor.

TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME,
GREETING:

WHEREAS by an Act of the General Assembly,
intituled "The Regulation of Elections Act,
1858," it is enacted that it shall be lawful for the
Governor, by Warrant under his hand, from time to
time to appoint polling places for each Electoral
District, within or without the limits thereof, and to
appoint any one of such places to be the principal
polling place for the district, and all or any of such
polling places at any time to abolish, and to appoint
other polling places in lieu thereof: And whereas
by another Act of the General Assembly, intituled
"The Provincial Elections Act, 1858," it is enacted
that, subject to certain provisions therein contained,
every election of the Superintendent or of a Member
of the Provincial Council of a Province shall be con-
ducted in the manner prescribed by "The Regulation
of Elections Act, 1858," aforesaid, and the provisions
of the said last-mentioned Act shall apply to the
elections of Superintendents and Members of Pro-
vincial Councils:

Now therefore, I, Sir George Ferguson Bowen,
the Governor of the said Colony, in pursuance of the
power and authority in me vested by the said Acts,
do hereby appoint the following place to be an
additional polling place for the District of Sefton,
for the election of Superintendent and Members of
the Provincial Council of the Province of Canter-
bury, namely,-

Ashley Bank School House.

Given under the hand of His Excellency Sir
George Ferguson Bowen, Knight Grand
Cross of the Most Distinguished Order
of Saint Michael and Saint George,
Governor and Commander-in-Chief in
and over Her Majesty's Colony of New
Zealand and its Dependencies, and Vice-
Admiral of the same, at the Government
House, at Wellington, this twenty-third
day of August, in the year of our Lord
one thousand eight hundred and seventy.
W. GISBORNE.

Colonial Secretary's Office,
Wellington, 24th August, 1870.

THE following Report by Board appointed to
report upon the Longitude of Wellington, and
of other parts of the Colony in relation to the
Initial Longitude of Wellington, is published for
general information.

W. GISBORNE.

THE Board appointed "to report upon the Longitude
of Wellington, and of other parts of the Colony in
relation to the Initial Longitude of Wellington,"
have the honor to communicate the result of their
inquiries, for the information of His Excellency the
Governor.

The longitude of Pipitea Point, in the Harbour of
Wellington, was originally fixed at the separate visits
of Her Majesty's survey ships "Pandora" and
"Acheron," in 1852 and 1854 (by the chronometric
measurement of the meridian distance from Sydney),
every precaution being taken to secure a correct initial
meridian as the basis of the elaborate coast survey of
these Islands, which has since been so admirably
executed under the direction of the Admiralty. The
longitude thus determined for Pipitea Point was
11h. 39m. 11.53sec. E.

At an early date after their appointment, the
Board communicated with Mr. Ellery, the Govern-
ment Astronomer in charge of the Melbourne Ob-
servatory, and received from him the valuable memo-
randum appended to this Report. Mr. Ellery recom-
mended that until the Board had command of suffi-
ciently accurate appliances, it would be better to
rely on chronometric measurement of the meridian
distance from the Melbourne Observatory, the longi-
tude of which has been now established, and to con-
fine the astronomical observations to the accurate
determination of local time. The Board, desiring to
act in accordance with this advice, obtained the
assistance of the navigating officers of H.M.S.
"Challenger," who compared, with chronometers on
which they placed full reliance, the Time-ball time of
Sydney with that of Wellington. The results thus
obtained agreed within '27 of a second with those of
H.M.S. "Acheron" and "Pandora."

The Board recommend, therefore, that the official
longitude of the chart shall be, for the present, pre-
sumed to be correct, and adopted as the initial longi-
tude of New Zealand, from which all other longitudes
shall be determined.

By this course all ground for questioning the
longitude will be removed, and the Board feel
assured that the limit of error would be less than a
mariner is capable of determining with the instru-
ments at his command on shipboard..

The Board do not wish to convey the impression
that the official longitude thus created should not be
subject to further verification and amendment, but
they are clearly of opinion that it is not desirable to
keep it an open question for the sake of any small
possible error, nor to delay longer the far more
important work of ascertaining the differences of
longitude between different parts of the coast line of
these Islands.

These differences can be accurately determined by
telegraph, and laid down in their correct relation to
the meridian of Wellington; and if any further
change requires to be made in that longitude, only
the meridian lines on the charts will require
alteration.

The extension of the telegraph to most parts of
the Colony makes the determination of the meridian
difference between its different parts easy of attain-
ment.

The usual course is to observe the local time by
transits at the two stations, and to compare the time