ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 51 



I should like all who have sons or relations aspiring to be civil 

 engineers to bear this in mind, and let it not be forgotten that 

 the term " Civil Engineer " as denned by the Institution of Civil 

 Engineers, applies also to the mechanical, electrical and mining 

 engineer. There should be no back door entrance to the profession, 

 and the man who attempts that method should have to content 

 himself with the lower grades. 



It is an advantage to our Public Service that the qualifications 

 of all applicants are carefully scrutinised before employment. Even 

 for junior clerkships the Public Service Board very properly 

 arrange for examination before entrance. How much more 

 necessary then for the professional candidate ! With regard to 

 the latter I hope the Board will see their way to give due recog- 

 nition to University degrees, to forego the further unnecessary 

 examination in the subjects in which the candidate has already 

 qualified, and make their choice dependent on his general fitness 

 and experience on actual work, while at the same time if the 

 Public Service Act requires it, a thesis could be asked for on 

 some set subject by way of examination. 



I have urged the importance to the engineer of proper and 

 sound training, but my remarks are in the main applicable to 

 other callings, — certainly to the allied profession of architecture 

 as well as more or less to all the manufacturing arts. 



I should like to see the work already begun by that most useful 

 institution, the Technical College, extended and enlarged. I 

 believe that just as the University is fitted to deal with higher 

 education in general and with the education of professional men, 

 so the Technical College is the best body to teach in a practical 

 manner the various branches of arts and manufacturing, while at 

 the same time it includes sufficient theoretical teaching to enable 

 the student to understand the groundwork of his subject. I am 

 sure all will agree that the encouragement of this institution will 

 prove one of the best investments the State has ever made. It 

 does not matter what classes of the community are benefited, 

 increase of knowledge in the individual, if widely extended, must 



