GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION.-No. 380.
The following Report from the Government Astronomer, together with Instructions for making Meteorological Observations, are published for general information.
By Command,
Colonial Secretary's Office, Hongkong, 17th November, 1883.
J. H. STEWART-LOCKHART,
for the Colonial Secretary.
H.K.O.
No. 174.
HONGKONG OBSERVATORY, 8th November, 1883.
SIR, I have the honour to acquaint you, for the information of His Excellency the Governor, that, as directed by His Excellency in your letter of the 30th July ultimo, I have visited several of the Treaty Ports, and acted on the instructions laid down in your letter of the 23rd August ultimo,
2. I have during September and October ultimo visited Swatow, Amoy, Shanghai, Chinkiang, Kiukiang, Hankow and Takow, and called on the Consular and Customs authorities stationed there. I also accepted the invitation of the Commissioner of Customs, Amoy, to visit, as an official passenger in the Imperial Maritime Customs Revenue Cruiser, Leng-Fêng, several Lighthouses along the Coast viz.: Middle Dog, Turnabout, Ockseu, Fisher Island (Pescadores) and South Cape (Formosa). I spent six days at the latter place, it being a most important position.
3. I availed myself of this opportunity to study the geography of the Coast, etc., in its meteorological aspects, to inspect and occasionally verify meteorological instruments, to select the best places for future stations, to instruct eventual meteorological observers, and to occasionally make meteorological observations on board, or magnetic observations on shore with instruments that I took with me.
4. I have the honour to report that at present no meteorological service appears to exist in China. Some instruments are read in the Treaty Ports and Lighthouses, but no particular system is followed. The instruments are generally useless. They are not of approved construction or properly placed, and corrections are not determined and applied, nor are the observers properly instructed.
5. Sir ROBERT HART, Inspector General of the Imperial Maritime Customs of China, took steps, over ten years ago to start a meteorological service for China, and it was his intention to co-operate with other governments, and to exchange meteorological information. He purchased in London meteorological instruments of the construction approved in England, which are sufficient to equip the necessary number of stations, and it is intended that all superfluous meteorological registers should be suppressed.
6. These instruments remain stored in the Custom houses at Shanghai and Amoy. I inspected those in Shanghai, and at the request of the Commissioner of Customs, Amoy, I unpacked, adjusted and verified sixteen complete sets of instruments of good construction and in good preservation, and these instruments are now fit to be distributed among the stations.
7. While staying in Amoy, I had the honour to inform the Commissioner of Customs that thermometer screens and stands for radiation thermometers were required. At his request several such screens and stands were constructed there under my supervision. These are now submitted to Sir ROBERT HART, and, if approved by him, similar ones will no doubt be made and sent to all the future stations.
8. It is the intention of Sir ROBERT HART, that the meteorological registers in China shall be kept according to a uniform system, uniformity being an essential condition for the success of so extensive a meteorological service.