AUCKLAND UNIVERSITY COUNCIL.

Otago Witness, Issue 2810, 22 January 1908, Page 31

AUCKLAND UNIVERSITY COUNCIL.

MINE MANAGERS' -CERTIFICATES. AUCKLAND, January 16.

_A-t hh.& meeting- -o£ -tlae _Ajue2claji<3-. XJniver sity College Council this afternoon a lettei was read from Professor Jarman, of tht School of Mines, drawing attpntion -to tha regulations for • the New Zealand mm« managers' certificates, under which graduates and associates of the University School of Mines were unduly" handicapped in that no allowance was made for the time already spent in obtaining a high technical training. This training, the professor wrote, wa6 of such a nature as to require the whole time' and energy of the student. It was not sufficient for him to do underground work in the' day time anct spend remnants of his energy in studies in the evening, as at the Goldfields Schools of Mines, but, having spent four years ■ over this technical training, the . graduate was still required to put in the. full five yeaia of practical work to qualify for a mine* manager's certificate, whicb -was equivalent to saying he was c unable to learn the practical side of his profession any more rapidly than a man with no such training, who had never been in a mine in his life. He contended that -a graduate or associate by reason of his _ high technical training 1 (four years in one case and three in tha other) could learn as much, -if not more^ of the practical Bide of mining in three years than an -ordinary person could in tha five years -^required by the act. It was of considerable importance that ' local' graduates should take their part in the -underground development Of New Zealand mines, but fhe effect of the sent regulations -,was to cause many highly-trained technical men to migrate to Australia and other places 'where conditions were less ' onerous. There was, concluded Jarman, considerable opposition at the Thames and elsewhere against such "a Teform, -and he therefore respectfully suggested that p. letter urging the council's view of the matter be sent to the Minister. On the motion of Mr Baume, M.P., it was decided to -accede to the request of Professor Jarman and send a copy, of hi* letter to the Minister, requesting thai effect be given to it.