The permanent and successful establishment of Local 

 Government will mean the evolution and development of 

 municipal engineering, creating a demand for the services 

 of trained civil engineers. It is therefore clearly the duty 

 of the profession to see that only fully competent men are 

 admitted to its ranks, and at the same time to take such 

 steps as may be necessary for defining from time to time 

 the qualifications necessary for admittance. Unfortunately 

 the civil engineers of this State are like sheep without a 

 shepherd, in that they have no institution to govern, direct 

 and represent them. It is true that the great parent 

 institution of civil engineers is represented here by a local 

 board, but that board only looks after the local interests 

 of the institution in Great Britain ; it is not representative 

 of Australian engineers, and is absolutely of no use to 

 them. This Section, of which we are proud to be members, 

 is only of service to engineers on scientific grounds, but 

 otherwise of little value as a representative institution. 



It is high time we had a purely Australian institution, 

 affiliated, if you like, with the parent institution, but one 

 the governing body of which should be elected by, and 

 responsible to, Australian engineers. 



Engineering and Municipal Services.— The range of 

 municipal activity is extremely circumscribed in New 

 South Wales, and there are many services at present 

 divorced from municipal control, which should be included 

 in order that citizens may obtain the full benefit of muni- 

 cipal institutions. The transfer of these services which 

 are essentially municipal to the control of the municipality, 

 is one of the problems of public life confronting us to-day 

 in this State which demands consideration and solution. 

 Amongst the services I refer to may be mentioned water 

 and sewerage, tramway and fire-services, all of which, 

 both for construction and maintenance, should be in the 



