8 THE VARSITY ENGINEER. June, 191x.
Mr. George Higgins, M.C.E.
Mr. George Higgins, whose portrait forms the subject of our illustration for this issue, needs no introduction to us all. How- ever, those of us who have been privileged to hear his lectures have often wondered how and where the experience reflected in them was gained, and we think this is the first attempt that has been made to bring before students the reason for the esteem in which our old friend Mr. Higgins is held through- out the engineering world. Furthermore, the account of his career may be of use as a model to men who, like ourselves, are just launching out on the sea of life.
Mr. Higgins was born in Ireland, and was the son of the late Rev. John Higgins, of Co. Mayo. After leaving his Irish school, he had three years' business and shipping experi- ence before entering this University, where he took, as was possible in those days, both civil and mining courses, and gained the Argus Scholarship. He entered the Victorian Rail- ways Dept. as a student, and while there prepared competitive designs for the Swan-st., Victoria-st., and Princes Bridges, and the Drainage and Sewerage of Melbourne, and was employed on Railway Surveys and Construction. He was next employed as Engineer for the contractors for three large railway lines in New South Wales, requiring tunnels, big banks, cuttings, iron, stone and timber bridges, and after that as Engineer and General Manager for the construction of the present Princes Bridge, and as Consulting Engineer for the Falls Railway Bridge.
The next subject to engage Mr. Higgins' attention was the one with which his name is most usually associated, namely, suction dredges. He visited California and arranged for the construction in Melbourne of the first successful suction dredge used in Australasia, that employed in reclaiming the Elwood Swamp and excavating the Canal and Railway Coaling Dock at West Melbourne. Asa result of this, he was called in to design suction dredging machinery for all parts of the world, for places as far apart as Rangoon and Durban.
An extensive tour, embracing the principal harbours in the Old World was a prelude to his appointment as Consulting Engineer for the great Outer Harbour recently completed in South Australia. His private practice covered a wide field, in- cluding such subjects as water
supply,
quarries, refuse de- structors, coal tests, harbour works, mining machinery, drain- age, sewerage, etc. He is an M.C.E. of the Melbourne Uni- versity, a Licensed Surveyor of Victoria, and a Member of the Institute of Surveyors, an M.Inst.C.E., a Member of the Am- erican Society of Civil Engineers, the German Engineers' So- ciety, and the International Association for Testing Materials,June, igri. THE VARSITY ENGINEER. 9 a Past President of the Victorian Institute of Engineers, and represented the Victorian Government on the Richmond Acci- dent Board of Inquiry. He was also elected Dean of the Faculty of Engineering in 1909, and during the same year was Acting Professor of Engineering. He is known in Engineering litera- ture by his papers on various subjects, such as suction dredges, centrifugal pumps, trussed beams, and many others. He has taken part in the discussions of the International Engineering Congress at Glasgow in 1901, and St. Louis in 1904.
At the St. Petersburg Congress of Engineers of Ways and Communication, he delivered an address on suction dredges.
The Victorian Institute records contain his Presidential ad- dress of 1894. In our own Society he has delivered several ad- dresses, and we hope to hear more in the future; he is also our President for the second time.
The thing above all else that strikes one in the foregoing is the wide field over which Mr. Higgins' work has extended, and the success which has attended his engagement in each department of it. The term Civil Engineer can be truly ap- plied to a man who, like Mr. Higgins, has had actual experi- ence in the work of so many branches of this study, who has mastered each one as it came and been a recognised authority on certain of them all over the world. We feel sure that it is the earnest wish of every man in this school to see Mr. Higgins. the first occupant of the Chair of Civil Engineering, which we hope to see established as the school keeps on expanding, and to that end he may be sure that he carries the best wishes of the Society at his back.
Mr. Higgins is known to us all by his clear and able lectures on Civil Engineering, and Hydraulics, and while Lecturer in Surveying, was in command of our Survey Camps, where his tact and knowledge of his subject were much apreciated. It may not be generally known that the Women's Tennis Court was the gift of Mr. Higgins, bestowed - upon them with the object of counteracting the unhealthy tendency to too close ap- plication which is always to be dreaded in the absence of facil- ities for exercise. We count it a privilege to have worked under such a man, to have been able to study the sound, meth- odical lines on which all engineering work should proceed, and hope that he may long be spared to see his own excellent methods used in the development of this great country by the men that he himself has trained.
