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ing the classes in 1900 was 7,647, the number of classes 264, and the amount of fees paid £7,333. The buildings are of great size ; nevertheless they are inadequate for the numbers seeking admission. The students now waiting their turn are said to be numbered by thousands. A large proportion of the students are engaged in the trades of the city, and attend the classes of the college to learn such branches of their trades as in these days of specialisation they cannot learn, or learn only very imperfectly, in the workshops in which they are employed ; but a considerable proportion of them have received a secondary education, and are doing at the college work of university rank. Connected with the college is a fine Technological Museum, which is a bureau of information respecting the raw and manufactured products of New South Wales. It contains over a hundred thousand specimens'of plants, minerals, casts, &c, which are used for the furtherance of technical education in the College, and constitute a fine body of reference types for workers in natural science and technology in every part of the State. The College and the Museum are institutions of which the people of New South Wales may well be proud. Victoria has eighteen technical schools, ten being schools of mines, five schools of art, and three colleges. Of the schools of mines only four can, it is said, be properly called schools of mines ; they are correctly described as State technical schools. Of the schools of mines I visited only one, that at Ballarat, an institution in every way worthy of the beautiful city in which it is placed. Like all such schools in Victoria, it is governed by a council, and supported partly by fees and partly by private subscriptions and Government grants. In its higher classes its teaching is based on secondary education, and is of university rank. Its chief function is to prepare young men for the " associateship," the course for which is a three years' course, and embraces the following subjects : Mining engineering, metallurgy, and geology. In addition to its fine museum of geological specimens, physical, chemical, and electrical laboratories, and balance-rooms, it has a splendid mining plant, consisting of batteries, sampler, Halley's percussion-tables, Wilfley concentrator, Linkenbach table, Chilian mill, Berdan pans, furnace for the roasting of pyrites, and other apparatus necessary for the treatment of refractory ores. I visited two other technical schools during my stay in Victoria—the Gordon College in Geelong, and the Working-men's College in Melbourne. The former does work similar to that done in our own technical school, but its classes are smaller. In the character and range of its work the latter is, I think, not unworthy to rank with the Sydney Technical College; but its buildings, though erected and equipped at a cost of nearly £60,000, are for the most part ill designed for purposes of technical instruction. In 1900 the number of individual students was 3,500, and the amount of fees £5,396. The attendance is now, I was informed, about 5,000, a number for which the buildings do not provide adequate accommodation. Since 1879 Victoria has spent over £300,000 on her technical schools. This amount does not include revenue raised locally through fees and subscriptions. I cannot close this report without expressing my thanks to the Education Department of New South Wales for furnishing me with all the documents I needed for my inquiries, and for permitting me to inspect its schools ; to the Education Departments of Victoria and South Australia for similar favours, and for giving me, in addition, the assistance of an Inspector in all my visits to their schools; and to the Premiers of Victoria and South Australia, the Hon. Mr. Peacock and the Hon. Mr. Jenkins, for the generous provision they made to enable me to achieve the purpose of my visit. To Mr. Tate, the Director of Education in Victoria, I am specially indebted for much valuable help in the work I had undertaken. I have, &c, P. Goyen, The Secretary of the Otago Education Board. Chief Inspector. Approximate Cost of Paper. —Preparation, nil; printing (1,875 copies), £7 48. 6d.

By Authority: John Mackay, Oovernment Printer. Wellington. —1902. Price 6d.]