PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS IN SECTION Je 
ENGINEERING AND ARCHITECTURE. 
By W. H. WARREN, Wa.Scu., M. Inst. C.E., Lonpon, M. Soc. C.E., 
AMERICA, 
Challis Professor of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, 
University of Sydney. 
In the first place, I have to offer you my sincere thanks for the 
honour you have done me in electing me as your President ; and, 
in accordance with a custom long established, it becomes my duty 
and my privilege to address you on one of the many subjects 
included in this important section. The material welfare and 
progress of the civilised world depends largely on the labours of 
engineers. 
If we consider the work which has been accomplished during 
the last 50 years in connection with the arts and manufactures, 
in the construction, equipment, and safe navigation of ocean 
steamers, both for the navy and mercantile marine, the various 
works and appliances for defensive and offensive operations, the 
construction of docks and harbours, and the improvement of 
tidal rivers, railways, water supply and sewerage of cities and 
towns, electricity, mining—in fact, in all those cases,in which 
the great sources of power in nature have been directed and 
controlled for the wants and conveniences of mankind, it must be 
admitted that engineering holds its own in the beneficent 
influence it exerts on the well-being of humanity. 
Now, since the progress and development of engineering in the 
future will depend upon the character, knowledge, and ability of 
those men whose privilege it will be to carry on the work which 
has already become such an important factor in the history of the 
19th century, it is clear that the education of our future engineers 
is a matter of momentous interest to the whole civilised world, and 
I have therefore chosen this theme as the subject of my address. 
If we consider the various operations in the process of con- 
struction of large engineering works, and endeavour to ascertain 
what kinds of knowledge are necessary for the engineer to 
possess, whose special duty it is to design and carry out such 
work, we shall then be in a position to decide in what manner the 
particular knowledge referred to can be best obtained. Take, 
for example, the construction and working of railways. The 
railway civil engineer should understand the various conditions 
and circumstances in connection with the location of the railway, 
