40 Report S A. A. Advancement of Science. 



women, and I am pleased to be able to state that the movement has 

 taken root in this Colony as well as the Cape and Transvaal, and 

 that technical schools will shortly be established both in Pieter- 

 maritzburg and in Durban, leading I hope eventually to a University. 



We are passing just now through troublous times, and retrench- 

 ment is in all directions the order of the day, but I hope that 

 Colonists will insist on the various Governments giving the fullest 

 and most generous encouragement to the establishment of technical 

 schools, as one of their first duties to the country and the Empire, 

 and as one which, if efficiently carried out, will do more than any- 

 thing else to promote its ultimate prosperity. 



It is a necessity that all classes out here should see that their 

 sons and daughters, are afforded the opportunity of keeping pace 

 with the intellectual advancement of the age they live in, otherwise 

 they will have to stand down and make place for the better educated 

 young man or woman from the old country. 



After reviewing the progress of Engineering during the last 

 Century, special reference was made to Marine Engineering as 

 follows : — 



The harbours and docks of the United Kingdom loo years ago 

 were comparatively few in number and of limited capacity, while 

 their appliances were of a primitive nature. The enormous increase 

 in the size of steamships has changed all that also, and the invention 

 of high pressure hydraulic machinery and the electric motor has 

 revolutionized appliances for the economical handling of goods. 

 A number of these appliances can now be seen at some of our own 

 harbours in this country, and I think, there is on the whole no better 

 equipped harbour in South Africa than that of Durban, and few 

 more up-to-date in many respects even in the old country, although 

 I am not so sure of this as regards its coaling appliances. As regards 

 its svstem of platform sheds and hydraulic cranes, I came across no 

 more perfect arrangements at any harbour I visited in a somewhat 

 extended and recent tour in England and on the Continent, although 

 when I introduced the system in 1890 I was told by some of our 

 local lights that it would never work. 



There are, perhaps, few appliances in which greater develop- 

 ments have taken place in a short period than the modern sand-pump 

 dredger. I am safe in saying that this invention has rendered 

 possible the opening up of river mouths and the formation of har- 

 bours at sites where not more than 30 years ago this would have been 

 out of the question. 



The address then touched upon the history of this invention and 

 its development up to the powerful machines now in use at Durban 

 Harbour, of which the author was engineer-in-chief. Proceeding he 

 said : — 



I afterwards prepared a specification for the " Octopus," the 

 first of the class in this country. Her hopper capacity was 1,200 

 tons. Experience since then has led to a considerable increase in 

 the hopper capacity of these vessels. 



