SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 
example as paints and varnishes, scientific research work will be 
necessary before standards can be laid down suited to Australian 
climatic and other conditions and to Australian raw materials. 
In considering the question of organization, it is important, in the 
first place, to bear in mind that standardisation cannot be attained 
by one section of the community endeavouring to impose its opinions 
on other sections, but only by co-operative action on the part of all 
concerned. Effective agreement as to standard specifications can only 
be arrived at by common consent of all the parties interested, who 
take full part in the discussions and in the initiating and working out 
of the actual details of the specifications. 
The Institute of Science and Industry has already, at the request 
of certain authorities and persons interested, arranged for representative 
conferences to be held with a view to arriving at an agreement in regard 
to standard specifications for structural steel sections, railway rails, 
and fish-plates, and tramway rails, respectively. These conferences 
have: already been held with entirely successful results. The action 
taken by the Institute in respect to these matters does not in any way 
affect the proposal to establish a Commonwealth Engineering Standards 
Association to take up the whole work, but it was considered undesirable 
to postpone action in regard to the three matters mentioned until the 
Association is established. The results already achieved by the three con- 
ferences afford a valuable illustration of the importance and possibilities 
of the movement. 
Towards the end of 1918 the Institute arranged, through its State 
Committees, for representative conferences of engineers to be held in 
the capital town of each State, with a view to focusing attention on 
the subject of engineering standardisation, and to enlisting the sympathy 
and support of persons interested. At each of these conferences resolu- 
tions were unanimously passed strongly supporting the movement, 
which has thus already been approved, not only by individual leading 
engineers throughout the Commonwealth, but also by practically all the 
Engineering Societies and the Commonwealth and State Governments 
Departments concerned.* 
The Institute now intends to send a representative to visit each 
State with a view to establishing in the Commonwealth an organization 
somewhat on the lines of the British Engineering Standards Associa- 
tion.+ It is proposed that the Commonwealth Government, through the 
Institute of Science and Industry, should assist in establishing and 
carrying on the work of the Association, and should formally appoint 
_ the members of the Main Committee. It is thought that this arrange- 
ment is desirable for several reasons. In the first place, it appears 
probable that by far the greater part of the necessary funds will have 
to be provided by the Commonwealth Government. Secondly, the 
Engineering Associations and Societies in Australia are not generally 
organized on a Federal basis, and the individual associations and 
* A summarized account of the proceedings at these conferences was given in Science and Industry, 
No.1, page 50. 
+ A pamphlet on Engineering Standardisation, which includes an outline of the organization pro- 
posed, has recently been published by the Institute. 
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