For Famous Light
p. 113 · Read in the full issue
Centenary Brush Up
Celebrations in Tahiti in June to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the discovery of the island by Captain Samuel Wallis of the Dolphin ( PIM, June, p. 85) prompted the French authorities to order a coat of paint recently for the well-known lighthouse at Point Venus, near where the Dolphin anchored in Matavai Bay.
The lighthouse deserved a coat of paint, anyway, in that this year is also the 100th anniversary of its construction.
The date, 1867, is on the lintel of the doorway.
The position of the light is exactly 149 deg. 29 min. west of Greenwich and 17 deg. 29 min. south latitude, which makes it a convenient marker for correcting chronometers.
The lighthouse stands within a stone’s throw of a memorial to Captain Cook, who came to Tahiti in 1769 to observe the transit of the planet Venus, and who had his observatory in that vicinity. Also nearby is a monu ment to Tahiti’s first Protestant missionaries, who reached the island in 1797.
A third monument, a plaque commemorating Captain Wallis’ visit in 1767, was unveiled at Point Venus by the British Consul in the Pacific, Mr. A.
C. Reid, on June 18.