ANNUAL ADDRESS. 



By Norman Selfe, m. inst. c.e., m. i. Mech. e. 



[Delivered to the Engineering Section of the Royal Society of N. S. Wales, 

 June 20th, 1900.'] 



In opening the present session of the Engineering Section of the 

 Royal Society of New South Wales, I have first to thank the 

 members for the honour they have done me in my election to this 

 chair. I now propose, as this is the last year of the nineteenth 

 century, that instead of attempting to catalogue the great 

 engineering events of the past twelve months, you allow me to 

 make my remarks more discursive. I have looked up some early 

 accounts of engineering in Australia, and I trust it will interest 

 members if my references to present day engineering are prefaced 

 by some historical memoirs. Before going back to the year 1788 

 I would ask you to remember, that if the session of 1900 is to be 

 successful, the members as a whole must exert themselves towards 

 securing that success, by bringing forward papers and generally 

 aiding the Committee in its work, so that there may be something 

 of special interest at all the future meetings. Each of us has some 

 engineering knowledge or experience not possessed by our fellows, 

 and there are now so many branches in which we are desirous of 

 being taught, that there will be no lack of listeners when a popular 

 subject is discussed. As the greater number of our members are 

 associated with the work of the civil engineer, the mathematician, 

 and the surveyor, it will be appropriate if I commence my refer- 

 ences to the early history of engineering in Australia by bringing 

 before you the name of a pioneer whose memory seems to have 

 been much neglected. 



Australia 's first engineer and surveyor. — The first engineer and 

 surveyor of Australia was Augustus Theodore Henry Alt, whose 

 services do not appear to have had much recognition at the hands 



1- June 20, 1900. 



