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spring his report
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Fuck fine 248
THE JAPAN WEEKLY MAIL.
May 1, 1886.
DR. DOBERCK, the Government Astronomer in Hongkong, gives, in the introduction to his Re- port for 1885, some interesting particulars of the progress and
prospects of the work entrusted
to his superintendence. He refers in particular
to the great value of the systematic meteorolo- gical observations with verified instruments which
227
nouncing the approach of a typhoon, was, The gun placed at Tsim-shat-súi for an-
during the year, also fired for announcing the sampans and other small craft sought positions arrival of the mails. On these occasions the of shelter. After the issue of the Post Office Notice I was informed that this arrangement
have lately been set on foot at many of the sta-been left unturfed since they were stripped in tions and lighthouses of the Imperial Maritime 1883, and that no effective measures have been Customs of China, and which will serve as an taken to improve the unhealthiness of the site, importam aid to the investigation of typhoons.which is on the Kaulung peninsula. All of He pays a well-deserved tribute to Japan's "ex-this sounds unsatisfactory. An exquisite finish- tensive meteorological service conducted on ap-ing touch is given to it by the following proved principles," and to the useful weather-paragraph, the italics in which are our own:- maps issued trom the Imperial Observatory in Tokyo," while he deplores the absence of a similar comprehensive service in the Philippines, and the non-publication of such data as are observed there-an omission which greatly heightens the labour of following typhoons in their passage across or near to those islands. The intention of the Freach authorities to establish a meta-might be altered when any serious inconveni- orological observatory in Haiphong seems to have been dropped, at least for a time, since the mit, for His Excellency's consideration, whether ence was felt, and I would now venture to sub- death of the distinguished meteorologist Dr. it is advisable to have the gun fired for both pur- Borins. We are glad to observe that Dr. Do- berck's observatory has been supplied with a
poses, and if not, what signal should cease." gazing-telescopo, as was recommended in the longkong officials must have some humour This is practical joking with a vengeance. The original project, an excellent justrument---the "Lee Equatorial "from the Greenwich Ob-
still left in them, in spite of the terribly depress- servatory having been erected a year ago. Money joking is often mischievous and even cruel. We ing climate in which they live. But practical for scientific purposes is nearly always given grudgingly and sparingly by the mother-country,
can picture the absurd yet sorry spectacle of as was the case in 1882, when, although the local kong hurrying their craft away for shelter, on the countless boatmen and junkmen of Hong- Government of Hongkong were willing enough to pay handsomely for a thoroughly equipped ob-
a false alarm, five or six times a month, during servatory, the most important part of the pro-convenience to themselves and their trade. We! last summer and autumn, at great loss and in- vision for magnetic research was ruthlessly cut can also appreciate that it would be hard to out of the original scheme by the Colonial Office devise a more ingenious plan for delcating the at home. To judge from Dr. Doberck's remarks,beneficial purposes which the observatory is this unfortunate spirit of parsimony in expenditure connected with scientific research seems now
meant to serve, by bringing its operations and to have extended to Hongkong. For we find him
warnings into public contempt. complaining that addition to the work of his observatory is not accompanied by a correspond- ing increase of funds and staff; that his tele- graphic facilities are insufficient to give full effect to the proper purposes of the establish- ment; that the slopes of the observatory hill have
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