ii.—i

26

The rudiments of a law school exist in each of the southern colleges; but the present circumstances of the colony do not seem to admit of the establishment of a complete law school at any one centre of population. The law school in connection with the University of Melbourne has one professor and four lecturers. It will probably be many years before such a school will be set up in New Zealand; but we are of opinion that any University college hereafter to be founded in accordance with the recommendation made in our interim report should have at least one law lecturer on its staff. We have ascertained approximately the number of clerks now articled to solicitors. The numbers, as given by the Registrars of the Supreme Court in the several districts, are as follows: Auckland, 18; New Plymouth, 2; Napier, 8; Wellington, 15 ; Nelson, 7; ilokitika, 4; Christchurch, 26; Dunedin, 27; Invercargill, 6: total, 113. We are of opinion that, as a test of general knowledge, articled clerks should, before admission as solicitors, be required to pass the matriculation examination of the University, and that the passing of the B.A. examination should be a necessary qualification for admission as a barrister, except in the case of duly-qualified barristers from Home or from other places. We think too that the examination for the degree of LL.B. in the University might with advantage be so modified as to answer most of the purposes of the examination in law at present required of candidates for admission as barristers and solicitors. If these suggestions be adopted one result will probably be such a demand for instruction in law as will lead to a fuller development of this branch of the work of the colleges. There is only one school of mines in operation, and this is in connection with, the University of Otago. In 1877 the Colonial Government, acting upon a resolution passed by the House of Representatives in favour of the establishment of a school of mines in the colony, opened correspondence with the governing bodies of the University of Otago and the Canterbury College, in order to ascertain whether these institutions were prepared to establish schools "where instruction in a popular form might be given in the various branches of science relating to mining, and where persons desirous of having specimens of ore or minerals tested might be enabled to do so on reasonable terms." The Council of the University of Otago replied that it had been the intention of the Provincial Government to grant a subsidy of £500 per annum towards the payment of the salaries of a professor of geology and mining, and a lecturer on surveying; and that a director of mines, with, the status and salary of a professor of the University, as well as the lecturers necessary for the completion of a mining school, would be appointed if the Government would grant such an annual subsidy as had been offered by the provincial authorities, and a further sum of £500 towards the purchase of models, specimens, &c. To this the Government agreed, on condition that the services of the professor should be available during a portion of the vacation for the inspection of mines and for giving advice to persons engaged in mining pursuits. In due course a Professor of Mining and Mineralogy was appointed, who was also to act as Director of the School of Mines. On his arrival a scheme of work for the school was drawn up, and it was represented to the Government that a further grant of £450 per annum, would be necessary, to provide a salary of £250 for an assistant mathematical lecturer, and salaries of £100 each for a lecturer in mining surveying and a lecturer in applied mechanics. This additional subsidy not having been granted, these lectureships have rot yet been instituted. The arts course provides for instruction in the following subjects: Pure mathematics and theoretical mechanics, chemistry, natural history, and geology. The Professors of Chemistry and Natural Science also give special lectures to students of the mining school in metallurgy and assaying, and in palaeontology. The director of the school takes mining geology, mining, mineralogy, petrography, and the use of the blowpipe in determinative mineralogy and assaying. Suitable instruction in drawing is afforded by the ordinary classes of the School of Arts at Dunedin. The aims of the mining school, as also its regulations and curriculum, which are planned on the model of European, institutions of the same kind, notably on that of the School of Mines, London, appear to us to be satisfactory. In order to complete the staff of the school, it will still be necessary to appoint lecturers in physics, mining surveying, and applied mechanics. It may be pointed out, how-

Law schools.

School of mineg.

Appx. to Journals H. of R. 1878, H.-18.