"THE HEAVENS ARE TELLING"

Taranaki Daily News, 4 October 1919, Page 91

"THE HEAVENS ARE TELLING"

1 (By the Honorary Secretary of the Hew Plymouth Astronomical Society). In this commercial age, when too often ' the sole consideration, before any new undertaking is entered upon, is whether or not it will pay, it is refreshing to find that here and there men and women are still pursuing knowledge for its own alike, and not for what gecuniiuy advan- j

j lage can be secured by its nquisition. j The claims of scientific research still make their appeal to such people, and without tlie slightest mercenary intent they earnestly seek to discover the secret things of nature, which invite solution on every hand. The crass commercialism, which weighs down the winded steed of the human spirit in these days-, is apt to demand that, even in our educational institutions'the young people must, above all other things, be fitted to compete successfully in the rush for wealth, which, to a very large extent, our modern life has become. 'The "inevitable result of this is that the taste for natural subjects lies mainly undeveloped, and whole communities may be found, containing scarcely a single individual possessing any working knowledge of the wonderful universe, with its many inspiring and uplifting departments which are inviting research. In New Plymouth,, however, we are fortunate in having quite a nun.ber of citizens who have so far eseapil ur.er absorbtion in matters commercial, that they at least take a lively interest in some branch or other of science, and among them are several persons of quite considerable distinction in the scientific world. A recent visit to Auckland disclosed the fact in the great northern centre it is difficult to discover more than a very few people who takn any interest in the sublime'science of astronomy; but this is happily not the case in New Plymouth, for here we have a budding and healthy Astronomical Society with a roll of some (iO or mo-e members, who have come together for '• the purpose of promoting celestial | knowledge and of equipping onr town j with a thoroughly up-to-date obscrj vatory. i It ought to be possible to make New . Plymouth quite noted for its observatory, and that visitors to the town should be able to carry away with them recollections not only of the entrancing beauty of our gardens, parks and . beaches, but of the even more imprcsj sive sights witnessed by them at the telescope by night on Marsland Hill. The local Society has set before itself iv ; rather modest aim perhaps in seeking no larger sum for immediate requirements than £OOO, but the Executive Council feels that it will be best, in the first instance, to establish an instrument such as will give sufficient satisfaction, and at the same time whet the popular desire for something still more imposing and illuminating in the future. The sum of £OOO will provide the town with ; a properly housed telescope of very conj siderable power, such as on favorable occasions will reveal the amazing complexity of the vast star clusters, tho surface markings of Mars, the strange features of Jupiter, Saturn and thoir attendant sattelites, and will display an ' astonishing amount of detail on the sun and among the mountains of the moon. It is proposed, when funds are available at a later stage, to add to the obserratory a large reflecting telescope housed ] in an annex, by means of which still j closer scrutiny of the heavenly Wltf

will be possible.. In a few days a deputation from 8 Society's executive will wait upon i public-spirited people in the town with / view to obtaining such monetary aasitW ance as will enable the Society to CTfct an observatory worthy of its sublime object and of the place and people. Interested persons should remember that a leading object off the Society is to grant facilities for tlte scholars of our primary and secondary schools to obtain a first-hand acquaintance with the glories of the universe and thus stimulate in the minds of the youn-'.' a thirst for still more knowledge of the inspiring things of nature.