PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 



By H. D. Walsh, b.a.i., t.c. Dub., m. in*, c.e. 



[Delivered to the Royal Society of N. S. Wales, May 4, 1910.] 



It lias been the common practice on these occasions for 

 the President to take as his subject the particular branch 

 of Science in which he is actively engaged in the prosecu- 

 tion of his professional duties, and, following on these lines, 

 I propose this evening to say a few words in connection 

 with the very important subject of transport. Mr. Thomas 

 Telford, the first President of the Institution of Civil 

 Engineers, when applying for a Charter in 1828, defined 

 an engineer as one "who directs the great sources of 

 power in nature for the use and convenience of man," and 

 certainly in no way has the engineer justified that definition 

 of his calling more fully than in the skill and energy shown 

 in providing for the transport of passengers and merchan- 

 dise to almost every known place on the earth's surface. 

 Transport iiiolinlos many branches of engineering, harbours, 

 breakwaters and docks for the protection and accommoda- 

 tion of vessels engaged in transport hy sea ; railways, with 

 their tunnels, viaducts and other important and costly 

 works, for rapid conveyance by land ; and lastly, but by no 

 means of less importance, roads which provide means of 

 communication for the conveyance of goods and passengers 

 to even the most remote parts of the country. Then we 

 have other great groups of engineers in the shipbuilders ; 

 the locomotive constructors ; the electrical engineers; the 

 motor car builders ; and may I add the designers and con- 

 structors of aeroplanes and other flying machines, all 

 working with the one object of providing efficient means 

 of transport by water, land and air. Few people, I think. 



