XXIV 



President's Address 



€an without them, and by means of better engines, more 

 accurate governors, efficient dynamos, and other improve- 

 ments; coupled with increasing experience on the part of 

 those who manage the system, breakdowns can be rendered 

 very infrequent, even if they cannot be wholly abolished. 



The transmission of power by means of electricity does 

 not progress much, though an interesting example has 

 recently come into existence in New Zealand, and a few 

 electric tramways are running in Europe. There is not 

 much difficulty in effecting the result, the operation being by 

 no means so delicate as the production of electric light, but 

 other and rougher means suffice to attain the same object. 

 We are about to have tramcars propelled through our city 

 by means of underground cables of enormous length. 

 Suppose, instead of these cables, we placed metallic con- 

 ductors in the tunnels that run along our streets, and thus 

 conveyed the power from dynamos at the engine-house to 

 electro-motors upon the cars, we could unquestionably carry 

 on the traffic ; but whether the cost of coal for the 

 engines, the cost of maintaining the apparatus, and the risk 

 of derangement, would be as small under the electrical as 

 under the mechanical system can only be ascertained by 

 experiment. As a mode of transmitting power, electricity 

 has several formidable competitors. As an illuminant it 

 really should have none, for it is the only illuminant that is 

 unobjectionable from a sanitary point of view. 



The most notable advance in telegraphic matters in our 

 own corner of the world is the duplication of the Tasmanian 

 line. The cable steamer " Sherard Osborn" charged with 

 this work is at present in our waters, and will shortly lay a 

 second wire across the straits. This will ensure constant 

 communication, in spite of occasional temporary interrup- 

 tions of either line. 



The much -desired abolition of overhead telegraph and 

 telephone wires in our cities is not yet un fait accompli. 

 Every year the poles grow larger, and the web of wires 

 thicker, till they threaten like the Parthian arrows to darken 



