145
No. 18.
HONGKONG.
APPLICATION FOR AN ADDITIONAL CHINESE CLERK FOR THE OBSERVATORY,
Presented to the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Officer Administering
the Government, on the 24th March, 1886.
H. K. O. (Urgent.)
No. 25.
SIR,
OBSERVATORY DEPARTMENT, 9th March, 1886.
Having been requested by you to explain, for the information of the Officer Administering the Government, why a second Chinese Clerk should be necessary in order to carry on this year the saine amount of work, which you supposed had been done last year with the present staff, I have the honour to inform you that arrears of work have accumulated for want of such an official.
2. The Annual Weather Report, Five-Day Means and Time Service Reports for 1885, are not nearly completed. The tabulation of the meteorological observa- tions made since the 1st January is in arrear. The investigation of the Typhoons in 1885 has not yet been commenced, and the investigation of those in 1884 has not been finished. Nothing or next to nothing has been done towards a discussion of the meteorological observations, which were started at the suggestion of the Colonial Government by the Imperial Maritime Customs at the expense of the Chinese Government and forwarded to this Observatory. No tidal observations are made, and magnetic observations are made only once a month.
3. The Typhoons of 1885 were few in number and exceptionally unim- portant. Otherwise the meteorological service here would very likely have broken down in the midst of the Typhoon season. A portion of the work was stopped in September, when our healths failed owing partly to overwork.
4. If ordered by His Excellency to continue after the 1st April, the daily issue of the China Coast Meteorological Register, of storm-warnings and of inform- ation of value to the enormous shipping frequenting the Eastern Seas, the arrears of work will necessary accumulate at an ever increasing rate.
5. The Colonial Government is responsible, that the Annual Weather Reports, Five-Day Means and Monthly Reports of the Hongkong Observatory, Investi- gations of Typhoons and other information that can be extracted from the obser- vations collected here are at my disposal before issuing storm-warnings and meteorological intelligence, which should be based on the entire and properly arranged collection of observations and researches up to or as nearly as possible up to date, and no branch of the British Government would issue such information officially except on the latest and best data available.
6. For these reasons I submit, that if His Excellency is not inclined to approve of any extension of the staff, the extension of the work ordered in 1883, the China Coast Register, Meteorological Signals, &c. should cease from the end of the present month.
7. If a second Chinese Clerk is immediately appointed, it will be possible to continue the issue of this information, and if messengers are appointed it will be possible to distribute the registers. No messengers have hitherto been permanently appointed.
8. In the event of the continuation of the daily weather reports, signals, &c. in question and the appointment of the Clerk having His Excellency's approval, I would venture to suggest, that with the view of preventing any discontinuation or break down of any portion of the work, the Clerk should be appointed provisionally *from the 1st April, and that the approval of the Secretary of State should be obtained subsequently.
I have, &c.,
The Honourable THE ACTING COLONIAL SECRETÁRY,
yo.,
St.,
&c.
W. DOBERCK, Government Astronomer,
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