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ventilation, graphical statics, and lithology. During the vacation at the end of the third year the students have to visit mines and make a study of them ; and during the fourth year they all write a memoir giving a detailed description of the mines visited, illustrated, with drawings made carefully to scale. At Columbia College, New York, the course of instruction is somewhat similar to that at Montana, but it is necessary for the students to work in the mines at the close of the third year's vacation. At the Michigan Mining School only mining is taught, and the tuition goes on for the most of the year. Hitherto the course of study has only occupied three years, but it is now proposed to extend the course to four years for a mining engineer. The subjects taught are somewhat similar to those previously mentioned. At the Colorado State School of Mines the course of instruction for the first two years is the same for either a civil engineer, metallurgical engineer, mining engineer, or electrical engineer. The special courses for mining engineers in the third and fourth years are as follow: Third year—■ Analytical geometry, differential and integral calculus, civil engineering, primary and secondary batteries, mining, quantitative analysis, mechanical drawing, metallurgy, mechanics, theory of strains, mining engineering, ore-dressing, electrical units, and vacation memoir. Fourth year—lntegral calculus, kinematics, mechanical drawing, mechanics, dynamics, theory of strains, economic geology, metallurgy, dynamo-electric machinery, distribution of electricity for lighting, thermodynamics, plans, constructions and estimates, mechanical engineering, electricity in mining, thesis work (including plans, estimates, and drawings), and long-distance transmission of power. At the Eoyal Saxon Academy of Mining, Freiberg, the work of the practical course has to be taken as follows : (1) Surface work for eight or nine weeks in ore-dressing and -concentration; (2) the time remaining to be spent in work underground, and also in visiting, under the direction of the professor of mining engineering, other mines in the district. The full course of instruction extends over a period of four years: First year—Mathematics, descriptive geometry, spherical trigonometry, physics, inorganic chemistry, mineralogy, crystallography, drawing and planning. Second year—The higher parts of the above subjects, mechanics, mining geology, palaeontology, economic geology, blowpipe analysis, and mechanical drawing. Third year —Surveying, mining engineering, metallurgy, building construction, and machine-drawing. Fourth year—Surveying, general and mining law, mining and metallurgical buildings, calculations, and statistics, political economy, sanitation, and technical electricity. At the close of the course the student sits for a final examination, and, in the event of passing, obtains a diploma. Enough has been said to show that in other countries a mining engineer has to have a careful training, and if the Committee have decided to grant diplomas to mining engineers, a similar course of instruction should be given as at other places, and in addition to the subjects already mentioned there should be dredging as applied to mining, and hydraulic elevating. One year's course of study is not sufficient for a mining engineer to acquire a knowledge on all subjects relating to his profession after he has passed an examination for mine-manager, for, after all, this examination requires only an elementary education, and no diploma should be issued that is not of equal value to those granted in other countries. A gentleman with the diploma of a mining engineer should be a man in whom investors in mines can place full reliance in his knowledge, judgment, and accuracy of his estimates of all works in connection with mining, and it is to be feared that the course of training proposed by the Committee of the Thames School will not meet the requirements sought to be attained. The following is the report of James Park, F.G.S., Director and Instructor of the Thames School, on the progress made for the year ending the 31st March, 1894 : — I have the honour to report that the instruction and teaching at the School of Mines during the past year have met with the marked success of former years. The ready employment which our students obtain, and the numerous inquiries for their services from all parts of New Zealand, are a sufficient guarantee that the instruction is not only theoretical, but also of a sound practical character. The subjects of instruction may be divided into three distinct departments—namely, those of metallurgy, mining, and surveying. In these I endeavour to make the practical work of the advanced students of a technological and professional rather than a class-room character. This procedure has many distinct advantages. In the first place, the students are encouraged to battle with and master abstruse theoretical details when they can see the practical application lying behind them ; and, in the second place, they always find it a distinct advantage to be able to take their place in the laboratory and melting-room of the bank, the reduction-mill, quartz-mine, or go into the field as a mining or engineering surveyor, and perform their work in a professional and workmanlike manner. During the past four years twenty-three of our students have obtained employment in various capacities connected with mining, ten as mine-managers at salaries ranging from £200 to £350 a year, six as metallurgists in reduction-works where the Cassel cyanide process is in use, from £125 to £200, and seven as metallurgical assayers from £120 to £150. It gives much pleasure to state they have always given their employers much satisfaction. On a recent date, Mr. Alfred James, the general manager of the Cassel Company for New Zealand, in a letter inquiring for two students to take charge of the new cyanide plants being erected at Waitekauri, referred in very complimentary terms to the work of our students in the cyanide plants at Waihi and Waitekauri. He stated that he had advised the head office of his company in Glasgow that it was unnecessary and inexpedient to send metallurgists from Britain when such capable men were being turned out at the Thames School of Mines. Since the beginning of 1890 twenty-four students have been prepared for the (Government examination for mine-managers. Of these twenty-one have secured first-class certificates, and when the results of the last examination are known it will be found that the remaining three have