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November 27th.—Small fragments of colourless transparent mineral from Orepuki, proved to be rock-crystal (quartz); forwarded by editor of Witness. November 28th.—Specimens of rock from Eoxburgh (forwarded by editor of Witness), proved to be highly-ferruginous indurated arenaceous clay. " November 29th.—A white rock from the Eock and Pillar Eange (sent by Mrs. Hocken), proved to be soft good limestone. December 24th.—Dark-brown to black crystals from Winton (forwarded by editor of Witness), proved to be pseudomorphs of brown iron-ore after pyrite. January 3rd, 1895.—Sample of rock from the Mackenzie Country (forwarded by editor of Witness), proved to be indurated clay, mixed with comminuted slaty matter. January sth.—Two samples forwarded by editor of Witness : No. 1 proved to be crushed arsenical pyrites, mixed with some iron-pyrites; No. 2, brown iron-ore in pseudomorphous crystals after pyrite. February 14th.—Answer to inquiry by Mr. Day, Balclutha, regarding best mode of prospecting Cuttle Cove quartz-reefs, West Coast. February 15th.—Answers to inquiries by Mr. Ch. A. White about nature of Moeraki boulders, and by Mr. J. A. Millar (Arrow) about auriferous mica-schist. February 21st.--A specimen of an intrusive rock found in Leith Valley (forwarded by Mr. N. Booth), proved to be a very coarse-grained variety of hornblende andesite, with large crystals of hornblende and magnetite. March 20th.—Samples of ore from Lower Hawea country (forwarded by editor of Witness), proved to be galena. March 27th.—Two samples forwarded by editor of Witness : One, from Sunnyside, supposed to be tin-ore, turned out to be hornblende-schist; the other, from Thornbury, regarded as silver-ore, proved to be secondary iron-pyrites. April 29th.—Specimen of rock (sent by editor of Witness), proved to be elvanite—a mixture of felspar and quartz ; in parts finely impregnated with iron-pyrites. May 31st. —Two samples forwarded by editor of Witness : No. 1, from Port Molyneux, proved to be an easily-fusible felstone or eurite, not of any value for pottery-work—contrary to expectation; No. 2, from Waipahi, proved to be well-crystallized marcasite. July 17th.—Sample of brown, gossan-like stuff from Bracken's Gully, Arrow (forwarded by Mr. J. A. Miller). This was supposed to contain gold and silver, but proved on assay to contain neither of these metals. July 20th.—Determination of the nature of the rock forming a large dyke in the Tyrconnel Mine, near Westport (sent by Mr. N. D. Cochrane, Inspector of Mines). This required the preparation of two thin sections, and the examination of these under the mircoscope proved the rock to be a rather decomposed diabase. August 7th. —Two samples from Gore (forwarded by editor of Witness) : No. 1 turned out to be a soft, sandy rock, so densely filled with comminuted shells that it could be called an arenaceous limestone; No. 2 was a very unctuous clay, and proved to contain an abundance of carbonaceous particles and a very small trace of oily matter. During September, I furnished the editor of Witness with a description of the nature and mode of working of the so-called berdan mill. In conclusion, I have to mention that Mr. J. E. Don, the lecturer in geology, has rendered an important service to the class in petrography by having the machine for grinding thin rock sections provided with apparatus permitting the slicing of rock-specimens with the use of emery, the grinding down of the thin slices produced being far more expeditious and in other respects more satisfactory than the method before available of knocking off chips from the specimens and rendering these thin enough by grinding. NELSON SCHOOL OF MINES. This is a school where the pupils are taught mineralogy, assaying, and elementary chemistry. The following is Mr. W. F. Worley's report on the progress made during the past year :— I have the honour to report as follows upon work done in connection with the Nelson School of Mines from 31st March, 1895, to 31st March, 1896 :— The boys' class for the study of mineralogy and blowpipe analysis has been carried on as usual. There were fourteen boys in the class, and the average attendance was nine. The class met forty times during the year. The ores of iron, lead, and copper were studied in the early part of the year, the rest of the time being given to blowpipe work. The boys were shown how to test for iron, nickel, cobalt, lead, bismuth, tin, silver, zinc, chrome, manganese, antimony, and arsenic. Most of the boys in the class are now able to identify any of these metals by means of the blowpipe. An assay class was started, but only one person joined. He, however, proved to be a very earnest, painstaking student, and is now engaged at one of the goldfields near Johannesburg. The instruction given embraced the following subjects : Testing for gold by fine grinding and panning; pan-amalgamation assay (and in this connection the battery process for gold-recovery was explained, including practice in the amalgamating of copper plates and the retorting of bullion); the fire-assay for gold and silver in all its detail; the assay and valuation of bullion; and the cyanide process for gold-extraction. A Saturday afternoon class for the study of elementary chemistry was held during the winter, and continued in session till near Christmas. There were in this class eleven members, all of whom were teachers in the Government schools. Instruction was given in the production and properties of oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, chlorine, iodine, bromine, sulphur, and phosphorus. The manufacture and uses of sulphuric, nitric, and hydrochloric acids was explained by means of experiments. Most of the members used the class as an aid to passing the science section of their examination for teachers' certificates ; but several of them repeated before their scholars the experiments shown in the class. All the teachers who attended the chemistry class passed the science section of their examination —one with special mention. 3—C. 3.