ANNUAL ADDRESS. 

 By T. H. Houghton, m. inst.c.E., m.i.m.e. 



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

 Wales, May 18th, 1898.] 



I have to thank you for the honour you have done me by 

 electing me Chairman for this session. My predecessors in the 

 chair have done much to raise the importance of the Engineering 

 Sectioa of the Royal Society, and I feel sure that I shall have 

 your cordial co-operation in my endeavours to maintain its 

 present position. I cannot hope to increase its importance by 

 anything I can do myself, but it lies with members to do that by 

 attending the meetings, reading papers, and joining in the 

 discussions. The prominent position held by papers on 

 engineering subjects in the "Volume of Transactions for 1897," 

 there being fully one- third of the book taken up by them, is 

 greatly to the credit of this section. 



It is not necessary that papers should be lengthy ; short ones 

 describing some particular feature of important works often 

 contain a large amount of information. Few of us care to admit 

 having made failures, but undoubtedly they do occur, and 

 descriptions of them, together with their probable cause, would 

 do much to spread information, and I think that the kindly 

 criticism evoked would often be of assistance to the author. 



During the past year nine Engineers have joined, or been pro- 

 posed, as members of the Royal Society, instigated chiefly, no doubt, 

 by the advantage of attending the meetings of this section, and 

 the Council, recognising the great importance of Engineering, 

 have, for the past two years, printed the papers read before this 

 Section as a part of their annual volume ; in fact, at all times 

 they have shewn their readiness to help us as a body, whether 

 members of the Royal Society or not, for they have always 

 allowed the free use of this hall for meetings of the members of 



