744 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION J. 
required of them. The work displayed the fervency of the 
workers—the fervency was the work of education. While the old 
world surpassed us in the beauty and magnificence of its temples 
and public buildings, its inhabitants knew nothing of the pleasures 
and comforts of homes such as we enjoy. Athens, with its 
Parthenon and its temples, had no house for prince or merchant 
which could compare in comfort and convenience with the cottage 
of the artisan, which lets to-day in and around this city for 10s. 
to 15s. per week. This is called the iron age, because we have 
adapted iron and steel to all forms of building construction in 
place of the more massive and enduring works of stone of the 
ages in which the very roofs were built of stone. Venice, with 
its splendid public and private buildings, speaks to us of the 
wealth of its inhabitants, and the foundations rising out of the 
water itself are a marvel of the skill of builders whose stone 
temples, resting upon them, are to-day almost untouched by time. 
We have scarcely anything that is new. We find records of a 
patent fire-proof wire lathing, dated 1797, and the page of history 
has yet to be written which shall tell of the absolutely successful 
application of fire-proof building materials. The worthy president 
of this section, in a recent speech in Sydney, referred to the 
registration of architects and engineers as a desirable thing, and 
I make that remark the basis of an application of some thoughts 
which this paper suggests. We require to make the knowledge 
of these sciences of architecture and engineering a greater power 
in our land. Can we do that by registration? I doubt it. Enact- 
ments which constrain men in their occupations, or which make 
it more difficult for them to develop such talents as they feel 
themselves to possess in practising any avocation, are so un-English 
that the public, whose will makes these enactments, are slow to 
consent to them, or, in consenting to them, run to another 
extreme, and create a greater evil. Registration may come by- 
and-bye, and I hope it will; but the true basis of such a develop- 
ment must be the education of the masses, the thorough training 
of the artisans, and the introduction of building acts which will 
compel the use, in the interests of health and happiness, of these 
discoveries which science has handed down to us, or is still 
opening to us day by day. Let it be made impossible for any 
man to construct a building, however insignificant or wherever 
situated, which shall be deficient in ample provision for lighting, 
drainage, heating, and ventilation, or which is constructively 
deficient in strength or in provisions in case of fire, and the 
owners who need the services of architects will speedily discover 
that their best interests lie in the employment of the highest skill 
which is available. The processes which will lead to amendment 
will be slow of achievement ; our people must be educated. A 
great work was inaugurated in this city by the late Francis 
Ormond, but the proper education of the artisan is of itself 
