The Thames Star. Resurrexi. SATURDAY, MARCH 6, 1897. ELECTRICITY AS A POPULAR SCIENCE.

Thames Star, Volume XXIX, Issue 8603, 6 March 1897, Page 2

The Thames Star. Resurrexi. SATURDAY, MARCH 6, 1897. ELECTRICITY AS A POPULAR SCIENCE.

The ever-increasing prominence -winch is being given to electricity, both as applied to the mining industry and as a general economic factor, raises the interesting question: When will this branch of practical science find its proper place in the curriculum of the School of .Mines ? During past years this pertinent query must frequently have occurred to the casual observer, and it is really surprising that the i obvious desire has not found concrete form in an appeal to the Government. It has been the practice on odd occasions for the head of the Mines Department to pay us flying Ministerial visits. At such junctures roads and tracks are discussed, the School of Mines comes up for its usual inspection, and a more or less liberal allocation of money takes place. But we do not remember any mention of the necessity for public instruction in the science of electricity. Taking it merely as a medium of power transmission, the electric current is bound in the near future to play as important a part in mining as the cyanide process, and yet we erect costly appliances for the one and ignore the other. Speaking from a pi*actical standpoint, electricity has as much right to be on the School syllabus as metallurgy, surveying, or any other scientific subject, and we cannot find any reason for our backwardness except, to Bay that the colonial public is more British in its progressive ideas than Americana. We are not fast in following up a theory, but let us hope we are thorough. Of course, it is no use expecting the Government to do everything. Mr Cadman is at this moment meeting the wishes of the Council by negotiating for a new drawing master ; and if we want a lecturer on electiicity, with the necessary laboratory arrangements, we must do something towards paying for them. That the Government would be willing to liberally subsidise local funds there cannot be the slightest doubt. At the present time the difficulty of obtaining instruction in electrical science is so ! great, that private classes, supporting ! themselves »ut of students' fees, are by no means an impossibility.