ADDRESS. \^>^A15<C^ 



By Sir David Gill, K.C.B., LL.D., P^R.S., Hon. F.K.S.E..-"""^ 



President. 



It gives me much pleasure, as President, to welcome the large 

 number of Members and Associates of the South African Associa- 

 tion for the Advancement of Science who have assembled here to- 

 night. 



Our history up to the present time is a very brief one. On the 

 2nd of July, 1901, a meeting was held under the presidency of Sir 

 Charles Metcalfe with a view to arrange for an Annual Congress 

 •of Engineers. It was felt that as there are many men throughout 

 South Africa who are engaged in work connected with applied 

 Science, they would do well to arrange an annual opportunity of meet- 

 ing together in order to compare notes and to derive from mutual 

 intercourse that stimulus to thought which can only be acquired 

 by personal intercourse, or, in a more detailed way, by the reading 

 and discussion of technical papers. 



At the meeting in question a preliminary resolution was proposed 

 by Mr. T. Reunert, and finally carried unanimously, viz. : 



" That this meeting approves of the proposal to hold an Annual 

 Engineering Congress in South Africa. 

 In the discussion which followed, questions were raised as to the 

 exact meaning to be attached to the word " Engineering," and it was 

 agreed, for the time being, to accept the definition of the Institute 

 -of Civil Engineers, viz. : " The art of directing the great sources of 

 power in Nature for the use and convenience of Man." At the same 

 time the whole subject both as to the nature and scope of the Con- 

 _gress was left open for further consideration, and a Committee was 

 appointed (with powder to add to their number) for the purpose of 

 framing a Constitution to be submitted to the first Annual Congress. 



Even at this first meeting there was a tendency to define the term 

 ^' Engineer " in a very wide sense, and to embrace within the list 

 of members of the proposed Congress not only those engaged in 

 the utilization of Science, but those also whose lives and interests 

 are occupied in the pursuit of Science for its own sake. 



The first meeting of the Committee was held on Tuesday, the 9th 

 July, 1 901. and its first object was naturally to define more precisely 

 the exact scope, form and objects of the proposed Congress. The 

 opening discussion shewed plainly enough that, in the minds of thos:^ 



