a—a

13

branches: Crushing and concentrating machinery ; amalgamation of gold and silver ores ; use and properties of mercury, with descriptions of machinery and appliances used for amalgamation; chlorination and cyanide processes ; other lixiviation processes ; testing and assaying ores ; chemistry of the various processes. Text-books: Park's "Practical Chemistry and Assaying"; Eose's " Metallurgy of Gold"; Eissler's " Gold " and " Silver " ; Louis's " Gold Milling " ; Park's " Cyanide Process." In connection with the chemistry and assaying classes, the school is urgently in need of a larger stock of materials and apparatus, which, owing to, at present, limited funds, cannot be obtained. Class-fees are : Mining, 7s. 6d.; surveying, 55.; chemistry, assaying, and metallurgy of gold and silver, each 7s. 6d. per quarter. No members' fees are required from students, but any persons other than students can become members on payment of a fee of 10s. The number of assays performed during the year has been forty, berdan tests, fifteen. A number of samples of various minerals have been submitted for analysis, but no results of special interest have been obtained. In conclusion, I may remark that a renewed and lively interest is felt in the district in the school. Most of the present students have attended since I reopened the school in December, 1899, the majority of them coming considerable distances to attend classes, often at great personal inconvenience. The fact of the mines and batteries, in which students are mostly employed, being situate at a distance from the school, is no doubt a drawback to its work. A branch class at the Inkerman mines is at present inaugurated, under control of Mr. B. Sutherland, which I purpose visiting at intervals as circumstances permit. Other classes could be instituted in different localities, under suitable control, if the means at my disposal were adequate. Such classes would certainly augment the students' roll, and, further, assist the school funds in a substantial manner. OTAGO SCHOOL OF MINES. (In connection with the University op Otago, Dunedin.) Mr. D. B. Waters, A.0.5.M., Acting Director, reports:— The total number of students in attendance was fifty-nine, made up as follows : Forty-six were regular students taking full session's work, the other thirteen were only taking special classes, and of these latter seven were attending an evening class in assaying. Out of the forty-six students in full attendance, ten entered the school for the first time, the remainder being students of one, two, or three years' standing. The following table shows the attendance at the various classes, and also the results of the annual examinations.

The attendance at all the classes in the School of Mines building was very satisfactory.

isults of !xaminati< ma. Subjects. Attendance. First Class. Second Class. Third Class. Failures. University classes—Mathematics Theoretical mechanics Theoretical physics Practical physics Theoretical chemistry Practical chemistry School of Mines classes— Mining, first Mining geology General geology Mineralogy Petrography Chemical analysis ... Metallurgy, first Metallurgy, second ... Assaying, first Assaying, second Blowpipe analysis ... Surveying, first Surveying, second ... Applied mechanics ... Palceontology Drawing— Model Plane geometry Solid geometry Machine drawing ... 13 12 13 8 11 18 13 13 9 15 7 7 11 14 2 1 1 4 5 9 3 7 2 7 4 2 5 4 3 2 11 3 2 3 1 2 5 4 3 3 6 3 2 6 8 4 3 1 4 1 5 7 5 3 6 2 1 3 3 5 5 3 5 3 3 7 2 5 i 5 "i 6 5 11 12 9 5 3 5 3 2 6 2 4 1 2 5 2 2