School of Engineering, Victoria.

The School of Engineering was opened in 1861. A lecturer on civil engineering was appointed at a salary of £300 per annum and fees. It was not till November, 1882, that a Professorship was created—twenty-one years after the school had been established. The staff now consists of (1) a Professor, who teaches in (a) Advanced Surveying, (b) Applied Mechanics, (c) Civil Engineering; (d) Architecture, and receives a salary of £900 per annum without fees. (2.) A lecturer on surveying, levelling and mensuration, who is paid a salary of £200 a year, and lectures two hours a week during term time, and also takes his students in field work on Saturday afternoons for four hours. This appointment is made from year to year, and the lecturer practises his profession of an engineer. (3) A skilled assistant who receives £150 a year. The lecturer in surveying, &c., was only appointed in 1888, and previous to that date the work he now does was performed by the Professor. The authorities of the University recently waited upon the Government to bring under its notice the necessity for a grant being made by the Government to provide, inter alia, the funds to appoint three additional lecturers in this department—A lecturer in mechanical engineering, £250; a lecturer in architecture, £250; a lecturer in hydraulic engineering, £250. No buildings were specially erected for the School of Engineering. In all about £2000 has been spent in machinery, models, diagrams and surveying instruments. Of this sum the testing machine cost about £750, the surveying instruments £300, and the balance £950 was expended in the purchase of a cement tester, lathes, other machinery, models and diagrams. The plant, as it exists it present, is complete. Up to within the last two years the department had no testing machine with the exception of a small wooden one which cost quite a nominal sum. For years after the School had been opened the plant consisted only of about £100 worth of surveying apparatus, but the physical laboratory was well equipped. After the School had been in existence for, say, ten years, about another £100 was expended in the purchase of wooden sectional models. About three years back a grant of £1600 was made, out of which the testing machine was bought and some German models by Schroder. There are no workshops attached to the school, which is one of purely civil engineering.