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16. When the principal Act was passed, and again with the passing of the 1944 Amendment Act, statutory provision was made for the registration of some engineers who, at the time of the passing of the Act or the amendment, were already engaged in the profession even though they did not possess any approved examination qualifications. The number so registered is relatively small and is continually decreasing. The Board has stated in its evidence that engineers in future will need to have approved examination qualifications, in addition to responsible experience, before being eligible for registration. 17. The Board normally grants recognition in one or other of the three main branches of engineering—that is, civil, mechanical, or electrical. Applicants who have the necessary qualifications in two or three of the main branches are recognized accordingly. Subsidiary branches, however, are recognized, if at all, only where the applicant cannot qualify in the main branch. Such recognition has been applied most frequently in the case of those people who lack the usual examination qualifications. (3) THE BOARD'S EXAMINATION REQUIREMENTS 18. The minimum standards of approved examination qualification required by the Board are those of Sections A and B of the major British Engineering Institutions of Civil, Mechanical, and Electrical Engineers. Any other examination of equal or higher standard is accepted, including in this class the degree of B.E. of the University of New Zealand and the corresponding degrees of most of the other Universities of high standing. Other examinations may be accepted on a subject-for-subject basis if of equivalent standard. 19. In addition to the examination qualification, an applicant for registration is required to satisfy the Board that he has had adequate training and sufficient responsible experience ; and to do this he is required to submit a report on his work, together with samples, and to undergo an oral and written examination on his submissions. This is known as Section C, and only candidates with at least, say, four years' training and three years' responsible experience are permitted to take it. Bachelors of Engineering seeking registration must satisfy the requirements of Section C unless they hold a certificate from one of the recognized professional institutions. (4) LIAISON WITH THE BRITISH INSTITUTIONS OF ENGINEERS 20. Applicants who have not the necessary examination qualifications for registration may take the Board's examinations which have been set continually since 1925. Until 1940 the Board prepared its own question papers with a syllabus similar to that of the major British Engineering Institutions. During the war, however, it was arranged with each of the British Institutions for the Board to use its question papers. This practice has been continued since the war. A further advance is that the British Institutions of Civil and Mechanical Engineers now recognize passes in the examinations marked by the Board. This means that a candidate who passes the Board's examinations will be exempt from the examinations of the British Institution of Civil or of Mechanical Engineers if he applies for corporate membership of one of those Institutions at a later date. 21. It will be noted that the British Institution of Electrical Engineers has not adopted the same course. The Board, in presenting its evidence, submitted the following quotation from a letter of the Institution of Electrical Engineers : —- It is the firm educational policy of this Institution that, as soon as it is practicable, all entrants to the profession should obtain all their higher education by means of recognized courses only and not by being coached for external examinations. It is probable that when this result is achieved our own examinations will still continue to be set in order to maintain a yardstick, but it will definitely be the hope that only in exceptional cases would the examination be actually written by candidates. In conformity with this policy, it is now the practice of the Council in according recognition to academic qualifications, whether they be obtained at a University or a technical college, to pay more attention to the conduct of the course itself than to the content of the examination, though naturally this, and the method of its conduct, are carefully scrutinized.

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