prepared by him in connection with these surveys were published from time to time in the parliamentary and colonial blue-books. Palmer also had a share in superintending the construction of roads, bridges, and other public works in the colony, among them the wagon road through the formidable cañon of the Fraser river, between Lytton and Yale.
Palmer returned to England at the end of December 1863, and joined the ordnance survey. He went first to Southampton and then to Tunbridge, Kent, from which place, as headquarters, he conducted the survey of the greater part of Kent and East Sussex, and parts of Berkshire and Buckinghamshire. He was promoted second captain on 4 March 1866.
In the autumn of 1867 he was appointed one of the assistant commissioners in the parliamentary boundaries commission, under Mr. Disraeli's reform act, having for his legal colleague Joseph Kay [q. v.] Their district embraced the parliamentary boroughs in Kent and East Sussex, and the subdivision of West Kent and East Surrey for county representation. At this time he was engaged with his friend, Pierce Butler, of Ulcombe Rectory, Kent, in setting on foot a project of a survey of the Sinaitic Peninsula, which was ultimately brought to a successful issue. He went to Sinai in October 1868, and returned to England in May 1869, when he resumed his survey work at Tunbridge. Palmer contributed to the handsome volumes (published by the authority of the treasury) which were the fruits of the expedition, some two-fifths of the descriptive matter, together with the computation of the astronomical and other work of the survey; the drawing of several of the maps and plans and the part editing of the whole work also fell to his share. After his return home he often lectured on the subject. Palmer was promoted major on 11 Dec. 1873. In this year he was recommended to the astronomer-royal by Admiral G. H. Richards, then hydrographer to the admiralty, for a chief astronomership in one of the expeditions to observe the transit of Venus. He was nominated chief of the New Zealand party, and went through a course of practical preparation at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, during which he gained the full confidence of Sir George Airy. He left England in June 1874, accompanied by Lieutenant (now major) L. Darwin, R.E., and Lieutenant Crawford, R.N., as his assistants. For his exertions and achievement in the work of observation of the transit he was highly praised by the astronomer-royal in his ‘Report to the Board of Visitors,’ 1875.
Before leaving New Zealand, Palmer, at the request of the governor, the Marquis of Normanby, undertook an investigation of the provincial surveys throughout the colony, with the view of advising as to the best means of placing the whole system on an intelligent and scientific basis. He spent three or four months on this work, and embodied his recommendations in a blue-book report. He received the thanks of the government, and his report was adopted as a guide for future reforms. He rendered assistance to the French in determining the longitude of Campbell Island, for which he received the medal of the Institute of France. Palmer returned to England in June 1875.
Resuming military duty, he went to Barbados in November 1875. He was appointed aide-de-camp to the governor, Sir John Pope-Hennessy [q. v.] and remained in this post through the riots of 1876, and until the governor's departure from the colony. In January 1878 he went to Hongkong, where, in addition to his ordinary duties, he was appointed engineer of the admiralty works, and was again given the post of aide-de-camp to the governor. On 1 July 1881 he was promoted brevet lieutenant-colonel. In this year he designed a physical observatory for Hongkong, to comprehend astronomical, magnetical, meteorological, and tidal observations. The design and report were approved by the Kew committee of the Royal Society. Though the scheme was somewhat reduced for economical reasons, the observatory was built in conformity with the design, and competent authorities regard it as a standard guide for observatories of that class. Palmer declined in 1882 to take charge of another expedition to observe the transit of Venus, but he made in that year an exact determination of the Hongkong observatory station at Mount Elgin, Kowloon, with instruments lent to him from the United States surveying ship Palos.
On 1 Oct. 1882 Palmer was promoted regimental lieutenant-colonel, and was ordered home. On his way he stayed at the British Legation in Tokio, Japan, and was requested, at the instance of Sir Harry Parkes [q. v.] by the Japanese government to prepare a project for waterworks for Yokohama. He completed two alternative schemes of water-supply, one from Tamagawa, and the other from Sagamigawa.
On Palmer's arrival in England in July 1883, he was appointed commanding royal engineer of the Manchester district. In the autumn of 1884 the Japanese government applied to the British government for Palmer's
