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A surprising amount of interest in the chemistry of minerals, and in the methods of testing metallic ores (especially for gold), was shown by the miners and others both at Lawrence and Naseby; and a great deal of useful work was done in these subjects, with the result that not only is there diffused widely an intelligent knowledge of the composition of minerals, and an eager desire to learn more on the subject, but there is also a keen appreciation of the value of technical and scientific knowledge of such matters springing up among those most interested. There is also at both places a number of men competent to determine accurately the proportion of gold in a sample of quartz, or mundic, or other gold-bearing material. And this itself is a great advantage most thoroughly appreciated by the miners. The identification and testing of copper, tin, antimony, iron, and other ores are also important adjuncts to the miner's qualifications for his work. Altogether the interest created in these matters, and the success with which the students grappled with the processes, as well as their general intelligence and active habits, surprised me, and impressed me with the incalculable advantage that would accrue to the goldfields of the colony by the organization of an extended and liberal course of technical instruction in mineralogy, the blowpipe, and the chemistry and metallurgy and assaying of metallic ores in the Various mining centres. I believe the services of two qualified instructors would pretty well provide for the goldfields of Otago and the West Coast —one for mineralogy, geology, mining, and the blowpipe; the other for the chemistry, metallurgy, and assaying of ores. From the results got by my nine days' lecturing and teaching at Naseby, I am of opinion that even one month of each lecturer would do a great deal of good in one place. And, as one lecturer or instructor would probably find "enough work for the students during his stay, there would be two months' continuous study provided for in each centre. Six weeks' or two months' stay in each centre for each lecturer would be far preferable if it could be provided for; but this would of course entail more lecturers or fewer centres ; and I think it is very desirable to include as many centres as possible, from the inability of miners to travel long distances and to absent themselves for long periods from their work. Such a system, if liberally devised and energetically carried out, I am persuaded would do incalculably more good to the mining community and the mining industry than any central school of mines in Dunedin or any other of the cities. Indeed, I do not believe a flourishing school of mines can be established until an intelligent interest is created among the mining community by such a peripatetic course of technical instruction as I have suggested. The Otago goldfields could, I think, be worked from four centres — Lawrence, Naseby, Cromwell, and Arrow—giving six weeks' course of instruction in each place, the two lecturers following each other, thus giving three months' continuous instruction in each centre ; the whole course occupying six months. Or, if the West Coast were to be worked with Otago, then make six centres —Lawrence, Naseby, Cromwell, Boss (or Hokitika), Kumara, and Eeefton—giving each centre one month of each lecturer; thus affording in the six months two months' continuous technical instruction in each of these six mining centres. The course just suggested occupies only six months of the year, leaving the other six months available for the lecturers as a holiday, during which time they could visit California, Victoria, or other goldfields. It also fits into the holidays for the professors in our University and school of mines here, and in a modified degree into the vacation of the Canterbury and Auckland Colleges, thus making it possible for an arrangement to be made by which the services of some of the professors of these institutions might be made available for the peripatetic school suggested. Ido not think the winter months are suitable for such classes on the goldfields, owing to the dark nights and bad state of the roads, over which many miners would have to travel considerable distances. It would also, I think, be very desirable to procure for each important mining centre a named collection of, say, two hundred characteristic metallic ores, costing, in London, about £10 for each collection; the collection to be under the keepership of some responsible local officer, such as the Town Clerk or County Clerk, or County Engineer, or librarian of local athenaeum or public library. Such collection of ores would be very valuable for comparing with other local unknown minerals, often disregarded by miners not recognizing their value. The collections could then be easily augmented by contributions from the Colonial Museum and Geological Survey and peripatetic school, &c. Should such a scheme of technical instruction on the goldfields as I have suggested be favourably considered by the Government, I shall be glad, under suitable arrangements, to take any part in carrying it out as may be assigned to me ; and my services will be at the disposal of the Government for this purpose for six months in the year—namely, from the Ist November to the 30th April. And with one efficient coadjutor, such as Professor Ulrich, or, failing him, Mr. Alexander Montgomery (M.A., with first-class honours), who is by far the most efficient student of the Dunedin School of Mines, and who has taken the certificate of " metallurgical chemist and assayor," as well as certificates in all of Professor Ulrich's subjects, I would have no misgivings in working the Otago goldfields, or these with the West Coast on some such scheme as the one suggested above. Lecturing alone, I feel I am doing only half the work, and have, in numerous instances, to inform my students that I cannot give the desired information on many questions that arise in connection with quartz-reefs, the principles of mining, mineralogy, and other mining subjects. Accompanied, or followed, or preceded by Professor Ulrich or Mr. Montgomery, this difficulty would be fairly met. Prom Mr. Montgomery's great abilities and acquirements and active habits, and with the facilities which he might have in studying the Californian goldfields in the holidays, he would verysoon become a most accomplished instructor in these subjects. I have taken the liberty of naming Mr. Montgomery only in view of Professor Ulrieh's repeated assurances that nothing will induce him to engage in any such peripatetic course of lecturing on the goldfields, and to point out that the scheme need not fall to the ground on that account.