1898-99. | THE EARLY DAYS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. II 
Amongst others promised and in preparation, are : 
A paper upon concrete, as applied in foundations under water, by Mr. 
Cumberland. 
On the economical application of native materials of construction, by 
Mr. Thomas. 
On the varieties of native timber with specimens, by Mr. J. S. Dennis. 
On the application of screw piles and moorings, by Mr. Brunel. 
Your Committee recommend that so soon as the present session shall 
have terminated, active measures be taken to determine a programme of 
the papers to be read before the Institute, and of its general proceedings 
during the session of 1852 and 1853.” 
The Chairman then said :—“ Had the philosopher who first uttered 
the aphorism about big books applied his remark to long speeches, I 
fancy a still more universal assent of mankind would have immortalized 
his wisdom. I donot rise now to inflict that ‘gveat evel’ upon you ; but 
as occupying, unworthily, this evening, in the absence of our President, 
the Chair, which I earnestly desire to see hereafter filled by some 
gentleman of far superior claims; it seems impossible to allow the 
Annual Meeting of this Institute, especially when it is the first Annual 
Meeting held under our recently-acquired charter, to pass, without offer- 
ing some remarks in relation to the report which has just been read, and 
to the present and future prospects of the Institute. Indeed, if the 
custom of those societies in whose steps we hope to follow, had not 
prescribed this course, the presence of the many visitors we have the 
pleasure of seeing here to-night, would have made the temptation 
irresistible to take this opportunity of making better known what this 
Society is and what it aspires to become. Here I cannot do better than 
quote the exact words of the Act of Incorporation: ‘A Society for the 
encouragement and general advancement of the Physical Sciences, the 
Arts and the Manufactures in this part of our dominions, and more 
particularly for promoting the acquisition of those branches of know- 
ledge which are connected with the professions of surveying, engineering, 
and architecture, being the arts of opening up the wilderness and 
preparing the country for the pursuits of the agricuJturist, of adjusting 
with accuracy the boundaries of properties, of improving and adorning 
our cities and the habitations of our fellow subjects, and otherwise 
smoothing the path of civilization, and also being the arts of directing 
the great resources of power in nature for the use and convenience of 
man as the means of production and of traffic both for external and 
