194 president's address — section J. 



and villages, land terraced for cultivation, and old water-races, 

 are so numerous that a traveller told me he could scarcely 

 believe the evidence of his eyes, and it seemed as if he were 

 in a dream. 



For a long time to come agriculture and mining must be 

 the staple industries of these Colonies. New countries, with 

 their natural resources untouched, require that all available 

 industry should be devoted to extracting these resources and 

 exchanging them freely for the manufactures of more densely 

 crowded communities. In mineral wealth these Colonies are 

 richly endowed by nature, and the aid of engineering will be 

 called upon to enable this w^ealth to he developed. Civil, 

 mechanical, and mining engineers Avill here find a wide field 

 for their respective careers, and when the feverish and 

 spasmodic gold digging has subsided we may look for a 

 settled industry which will maintain a large mining com- 

 munity in a happy and prosperous condition. 



The mining industry requires for its assistance a great 

 variety of engineering work, such as roads, waterworks, and 

 machinery, and the gweat distances inland where minerals are 

 frequently found will require extensive works to bring the 

 products to the towns and coasts. Thus we may look to 

 mining for a continual extension of the engineering " sphere 

 of influence." 



The mining engineer, as commonly known in these 

 Colonies, has not yet taken the prominent position which he 

 ought to occupy, both for the good of the public and the 

 profession. A well-trained mining engineer, as understood 

 in England, but especially in Germany, lias to acquire an 

 amount of special, practical, and theoretical knowledge 

 \yhich, applied to the working of mining property, amply 

 repays the increased cost of his well-trained services, and may 

 often be the means of turning a ruinous investment into a 

 highly profitable one. This class of thoroughly efficient 

 mining managers and engineers is of especial importance in 

 these Colonies, where, from the high rate of wages, the 

 margin of profit is apt to be very narrow. 



In the Charter of the Institution of Civil Engineers, one 

 of the definitions given as constituting the profession is stated 

 to be " The art of directing the great sources of power in 

 nature for the use and convenience of man " ; it is essential, 

 therefore, that engineers thoroughly appreciate the value and 

 nature of these sources of power. Electricity has recently 

 taken tlie world by surprise in the many wonders it has 



