PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION H. 561 



confidently and untrammelled by Government control, put their 

 rf)illions into any railway, dock, harbor, water supply scheme, or 

 other enterprise, where a good return can be expected. We miss 

 the Yankee multi-millionaire who gives carte blanche to his archi- 

 tect, and instructs him to go one better than his neighbour and 

 rival ; we miss here the owners of the palatial country homes of 

 England, where the architectural work must be of the best and 

 in the most perfect taste, and only designed by a master of style; 

 and we miss the opportunities for erecting great ecclesiastical 

 projects, although, to a most praiseworthy extent, Australian 

 ei'terprise and devotion in this respect are not lacking. 



Yet with these drawbacks, so far as the architect is concerned, 

 the natural resources of Australasia are so rich that the mining 

 engineer has his opportunities, and has accomplished the great 

 works of Mt. Morgan, Newcastle, Lithgow, Broken Hill, Bendigo, 

 Wallaroo, Kalgoorlie, Mt. Lyell, and Waihi, and many others, 

 and which in their successful design and working are adding so 

 much to the wealth of the people. 



Then, again, the increasing needs of a well-to-do and enterpris- 

 ing community are giving increasing opportunities to the engineer 

 in railway development, traction and driving plants, and the ap- 

 plication of electric energy in the enormously widening fields open- 

 ing up for their application in a thousand directions. 



Our professions have joint interests in another direction. Engi- 

 neers, civil, mechanical, and electrical, have all their local insti- 

 tutes. The architects have theirs, all closely associated with the 

 parent one in Great Britain — the parent to lead in the higher 

 development of engineering and architectural design, the local 

 ones to assimilate practice throughout the States, and to carry 

 on, as the smaller opportunities present themselves, the ideals 

 and teachings of the parent institutes. 



We must not fail to recognise that Australia is as yet a young 

 country. We have not yet evolved a national type of architecture ; 

 we have no racial distinction ; nor have our national habits been 

 formed. As yet we are but ascending the scale to maturity, and 

 with greater development and increased population will no doubt 

 cjme the inspiration for greater projects. In the general sense, 

 the political control of Australia is by no means an open encourage- 

 ment to private enterprise, and, therefore, to private practice, 

 even if it is not a direct discouragement. The practice of the 

 various Governments in monopolizing great works that are handled 

 by private means in other countries restricts to an appreciable 

 extent the field of architectural and engineering possibilities. - 



