ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 



By Henry Deane, m.a., m. inst. c.e. 



[Delivered to the Eoyal Society of N. S. Wales, May 4, 1898.'] 



Introduction. — A Presidential Address to a Society like ours 

 falls naturally into three divisions. The first division consists of 

 a report on the Society's affairs and doings during the past twelve 

 months. The second embodies a statement of important matters 

 and work relating to Science done outside the Society and especi- 

 ally in this Colony. After this the President, I find, generally 

 delivers a thesis or review of some matter which is a topic of 

 special interest to himself and the Society, and which circumstances 

 or recent investigations render fitting for inclusion in the address. 



The second division is one which may be indefinitely extended. 

 It is impossible to make it very short, but it may be left out alto- 

 gether. I have endeavoured to adopt a middle course, and 

 excluded as much as possible routine work from my account, and 

 I have selected those matters only which show novelty or which 

 on account of their importance call for special reference. 



With regard to the third division, I was for some time very 

 much in doubt, whether, on the hitherto rare occasion of a Civil 

 Engineer holding this office, it was not incumbent on me to take 

 up some subject pertinent to my profession, but I thought that 

 that duty could be well left to the chairman of the Engineering 

 Section, who might be looked upon as the official representative 

 in this Society of the engineering profession. It seems to me that 

 the occasion of the meeting of the Australasian Association for 

 the Advancement of Science in this city, gives an opportunity for 

 discussing the merits of science and scientific training which 

 ought not to be passed over, and I have therefore, devoted myself 

 to those subjects, but at the same time I must ask the members 

 not to overlook the difficulties under which I labour, and not to 



A— May. 4, 1898. 



