C.—3

12

" 7. No communication between candidates is to be allowed in the examination-room. " 8. The supervisor is not to answer any inquiry having reference to any question in any examination-paper. " 9. When the time allowed for any paper shall have expired, the supervisor is to notify the same to the candidates present, and they are immediately to number and give up their papers. " 10. Each paper of questions has to be given out at the specified time, and no packet of examination-papers is on any account to be opened before the hour appointed, when the seal is to be broken. "11. No certificate shall be issued to any student for passing a written examination in practical assaying and practical chemistry unless he shall have performed in the laboratory in a satisfactory, reliable, and workmanlike manner, and to the satisfaction of the Director, all the assays, analyses, and practical operations involved in working through the syllabus of instruction in these subjects. "12. No certificate shall be issued to any student for passing a written examination in the metallurgy of gold and silver unless he shall produce satisfactory evidence of his having been actually engaged in a battery, mill, -or reduction-works for the extraction of gold and silver for a period of not less than two years. He must also be a reliable assayer of all ores of gold, silver, and lead. "13. No certificate shall be issued to any student for passing a written examination in surveying until he shall produce a plan of a mining-lease or area, not less than twenty acres in extent, showing the underground workings and their relation to the surface boundaries. The original fieldbook, and all calculations of co-ordinates and areas, must also be produced. " As in former years, only a small number of the students, and those too mostly the more juvenile portion of them, presented themselves for examination. Out of 103 individual students only twenty-one came up to be examined. " Many of the older and more advanced students persistently refuse to come up, the reason they give being to the effect that they attend the school for practical instruction and not for examinations. It has long been recognised in Great Britain that set examinations tend to cramp the scope of the instruction, more particularly in technical schools. Eules 11, 12, and 13 have been specially framed to meet this objection, as it is absolutely necessary that a certificated student from the school shall not only be able to pass a written examination, which he might be able to do from reading, but shall also be able to perform all the practical operations of the subject of examination in a thoroughly reliable manner before he leaves the school. This course has been strictly enforced throughout, and it is to this that I ascribe the great success which has attended our students wherever they have obtained employment. The following statement shows the result of the examinations: —

" The President's medal for theoretical chemistry, and the School of Mines medal for best average in all subjects, fall to James M. McLaren, who secured no less than seven first-class, two second-class, and four third-class certificates. " The paper set for the junior class in theoretical chemistry was more difficult than the papers in chemistry set for the Senior Service or matriculation Examinations, and may be compared with the first year's university course for the Bachelor of Science degree. The senior chemistry paper was equal to that of the second year. " The practical assaying and practical chemistry papers were equal to the second and third year's university course. The assaying paper was devoted principally to wet work, and caused some disappointment to several of our students who had qualified themselves for dry assaying only. In the syllabus of instruction posted in the school, assaying was divided into dry work and wet work

Subjects on which Examination Papers were Set. CO fl CD JL rp fH fl fl ° .2 CQ ■*? Is ti r-\ 00 s a rO~ X a h a CO "rH !H rrj .-, flpH co ° CO a i.2 oo Pl a-a a * CO ■ al rS O 2 o a 00 „co 2 O OO rS rH » ° CO CS rQ Ph a O Sr3 r?H C* CO . 22 rrH j-j COrO CO o co *s rl C3 W 00 Ph to -+H a oo -3 rQ a -a 00 -ca OO CO co a: <s •n ,C3 o. O *TH W n g 00 S -g rO rQ ¥ a -2 a r5 Name of Examiners. Theoretical Chemistry (Senior) » „ (Junior) Practical Chemistry ... Practical Assaying Laboratory Practice (Chemistry) „ „ (Assaying) 9 5 8 8 8 8 4 2 3 3 1 1 3 2 3 3 4 6 1 2 2 3 1 2 William Skey, Colonial Analyst. Geology 6 1 3 2 Alexander MKay, F.G.S., Assistant-Geologist. Mining Pumping and Winding Explosions and Ventilation Surveying Mineralogy ... Metallurgy of Silver and Gold ... Battery Practice 3 3 3 3 6 9 9 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 i Henry A. Gordon, F.G.S., - A.M.I.C.E., Inspecting Engineer. i 3 3 5 4 2 2 1 "5 C. H. Pierard and George Wilson. Mechanical Drawing ... 5 1 2 1 1