TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION G.—PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 563 
Section G.—ENGINEERING. 
PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION: 
Sir W. H. Wurtz, K.C.B., Sc.D., LL.D., F.B.S. 
THURSDAY, AUGUST 26. 
The following Paper was read :— 
Hydroplanes or Skimmers. By Sir Joun Tuornycrort, F.B.S. 
The President then delivered the following Address :— 
On the present occasion, when the meetings of the British Association for 
the Advancement of Science are held in the heart of this great Dominion, 
it is natural that the proceedings of Section G (Engineering) should be 
largely concerned with the consideration of great engineering enterprises by 
means of which the resources of Canada have been and are being developed 
and the needs of its rapidly increasing population met. It will not be 
inappropriate, therefore, if the Presidential Address is mainly devoted to 
an illustration of the close connection which exists between the work of civil 
engineers and the foundation as well as the development of British Colonies 
and Dominions beyond the seas. 
British colonies and possessions have started from the sea-front and have 
gradually pushed inland. Apart from maritime enterprise, therefore, and 
the possession of shipping, the British Empire could never have heen 
created. An old English toast, once familiar but which has of late years 
unfortunately fallen into comparative desuetude, wished success to ‘ Ships, 
Colonies, and Commerce.’ A great truth lies behind the phrase: these three 
interests are interdependent, and their prosperity means much for both the 
Mother Country and its offspring. As colonies have been multiplied, their 
resources developed, and their populations increased, over-sea commerce 
between them and the Mother Country has been enlarged; greater demands 
have been made upon shipping for the over-sea transport of passengers, 
produce, and manufactures; there has been a growing necessity for free 
and uninterrupted communication between widely scattered portions of the 
Empire, the maintenance of which has depended primarily and still depends 
on the possession of a supreme war-fleet, under whose protection peaceful 
operations of the mercantile marine can proceed in safety, unchecked by 
foreign interference, but ever ready to meet foreign competition. 
Now that our colonies have become the homes of new nations it is as 
true as ever that the maintenance of British supremacy at sea in both the 
mercantile marine and the war-fleet is essential to the continued existence 
1 Published in Engincering. 
002 
