Star-spangled legacy of the teenager who ran away to sea

OPINION: Inspired by Captain Cook's voyages, 14-year-old English boy Charles Carter ran away to sea in the 1820s. The police arrested him and his father had to rescue him from jail.

The young Carter became a building apprentice and embarked on a prolonged programme of self-education. He became interested in politics and urged workers, hoping to improve their lot, to migrate to New Zealand. Taking his own advice, he set sail in 1850. Arriving in Wellington, he almost immediately set about building the Wellington Provincial Government offices, the House of Assembly and set up the first building society in New Zealand.

From his farm in Wairarapa, he was elected chairman of a farming association, then represented the district in both the Wellington Provincial Council and in Parliament until 1865.

In the late 1860s, he holidayed overseas, spending over three years in Europe. His curiosity led him to a museum in Italy dedicated to the life of Galileo. "It is small but magnificent," he wrote "and was recently erected at a cost of £36,000. In it are paintings representing the important events in Galileo's life, his telescope, the principal instruments with which he made his discoveries, and a part of one of his fingers in a glass bottle."

Returning to New Zealand, Carter resumed his local business and political interests but became deeply concerned about the scarcity of scientists here.

On his death in 1896, he willed £2500 for the Carter Home for aged poor men and £2240 for the building of an astronomical observatory in Wellington for public and private use.

The money was not enough to build an observatory but it was invested in a trust which, with the Government and Wellington City Council contributions to mark the centennial celebrations, finally bore fruit in 1941 with the opening of the Carter Observatory, just two minutes' walk from the top of the cable car.

Over the years, the observatory's astronomers contributed vital scientific data to national and international studies on sun spots, double stars, stellar spectra, comets, nebulae, supernovae, Pluto's atmosphere and other projects.

The building was closed in 2007 for a complete renovation and refit and is being readied for reopening next Saturday. Entry is free on that day.

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The observatory has two big telescopes and three portable telescopes that can be set up outside the building. It has a large new planetarium and big digital displays. Saturday's visitors will be ushered in through a black hole to see displays of comets and the solar system.

The refurbished observatory introduces us to aspects of scientific and Maori astronomy and celebrates the role of world-leading Kiwi astronomers such as Sir William Pickering and Beatrice Tinsley.

An education team also introduces school children into the mysteries of astronomical observation. Academic astronomers will link with the Carter Observatory in their search for new stellar planets.

Old Charles Carter would be amazed to see the fruits of his £2240 bequest and, oh yes, his name is perpetuated in the town of Carterton.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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