NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: Murray Buckman
Date: 2024 Jan 31, 17:21 -0800
As an aside, I see that Te Papa (the New Zealand national museum) has some documents by and relating to Arthur Stock. Not all are online, but this one (link below), a letter from Sir James Hector (another figure in the history of New Zealand astronomy), talks about Arthur Stock's allowance as Observer.
The Reverand Arthur Stock was an educated gentleman: London born and Cambridge educated. A quick look at PapersPast (New Zealand's online newspaper resource) shows a great many entries similar to the one David shared, including several which mention problems preventing dropping of the ball. Also of interest may be that the other time balls in New Zealnd ports took their time from Wellington (and Arthur Stock) by telegraph.
https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/object/1152913
Murray.
