CIVIL ENGINEERS IN CONFERENCE

Evening Post, Volume XCI, Issue 111, 11 May 1916, Page 5

CIVIL ENGINEERS IN CONFERENCE

AN INJURY TO THE PROFESSION,

(BI IELEQRiPH.—fRESS ASSOCLITION.)

CHRISTCHURCH, lOfch May. The annual Conference of the Society of Civil Engineers was held to-day, about fifty delegates from all parts of the Dominion attending. Officers for the ensuing year were appointed as follow . President, Mr. R. W. Holmes; vice-president, Mr. J. Blair Mason; members of the council, Messrs. Kennedy, Dobson, Bisham, and Williams. It was.decided to draw the attention of the. Government to the practice of the local bodies in asking the Public Works Department's engineers to help in their engineering work in matters of specifications, thus injuring the profession at the expense of the State. . ■

Mr. W. Ferguson, the lion, secretary, read the annual report of the council, which stated that on 31st March there were 130 members, 37 associates, and five students, a total of 172.

The President in his address thanked the members for his re-election. He said the war had had a marked effect on civil engineers. T2io enormous cost of the war had monopolised capital which under other circumstances would have been devoted to public works. Engineers and architects'felt the,effects of the war in a marked degree, chiefly because of tho shortage of capital and material. Engineers in New Zealand responded nobly to the call of Empire, and steps were being taken to prepare a roll of those who had joined the. forces. A special Tunnelling Corps, officered entirely by civil engineers, with the exception of the major in command and a medical officer, had gone to the front. •Ho referred to the engineers who had fallen, and e-xpressed regret that so many fully trained engineers had enlisted as privates instead of being utilised as reinforcements for the engineers. Reference was made to the necessity of legislation for providing that only qualified engineers be employed in connection with works undertaken by public bodies. He outlined a scheme of superannuation for employees.

It was decided to hold the next annual meeting at Wellington.