a—2c

1885. NEW ZEALAND.

LECTURES ON THE GOLDFIELDS THROUGHOUT THE COLONY (PROGRESS REPORT ON, BY PROFESSOR J. G. BLACK). [In continuation of C.-2B.]

Presented to both Houses of the General Assembly by Command of His Excellency.

Professor J. G. Black to the Hon. the Minister of Lands. Sic, — University of Otago, Dunedin, 20th December, 1884. I have the honour to make a progress report of my lecturing tour on the goldfields. I commenced on the 4th November at Lawrence, where I delivered fourteen lectures on the chemistry of quartz, quartz-reefs and their contents, the ores of gold, copper, silver, iron, mercury, lead, tin, antimony, and zinc; the tests for these metals and the methods of assaying their ores ; also on oxygen, carbon, phosphorus, chlorine, and sulphur. The lectures were attended by, on the average, about one hundred students, many of whom were mine managers, and miners and their sons, as well as others interested in mines. I also opened laboratory classes, which were attended by forty-one students, most of whom were mine managers and miners. In the laboratory classes the students themselves did the work under my supervision. This included the assaying and analysis of quartz and mundic for gold, the extraction of gold from old copper plates, the testing and assaying of the ores of copper, iron, silver, mercury, lead, tin, antimony, and zinc, and the analysis of coal and water. The laboratory was open for these purposes from four o'clock to eight o'clock p.m. five days a week. The lectures were delivered from eight o'clock to ten o'clock p.m., also five days a week. Free tickets were presented to ministers of religion, medical men, and the teachers and pupilteachers ; and three gentlemen had the discretionary power of passing free such miners as desired to attend the lectures and who were not well able to afford the fee. In this way about forty admissions to each lecture were free, besides a considerable number of miners passed in as explained. The price of the tickets for the course of lectures was 10s. 6d., but this admitted all the members of one family. The family-ticket for both courses (lectures and assaying) was fixed at £1 Is. The Eev. Mr. Jenner and I also delivered a double free lecture at Waitahuna on the chemistry of agriculture and mining—Mr. Jenner taking the first part. This double lecture was attended by about two hundred people, and was, like all the others, very well received. The number of students enrolled for the practical classes in the laboratory was so great (forty-one) that, single-handed, I would not be able to manage them. Fortunately, however, the Eev. Mr. Jenner, and Messrs. Selby and Joseph—two of my own old students—all residing at Lawrence, offered their assistance, and carried me over the difficulty. At Naseby I delivered a course of nine lectures on the same subjects as at Lawrence, and conducted laboratory classes in the same way. The lectures were attended by about sixty people, and the practical classes by about twenty-four, among -whom were many of the miners of the district. One student, Mr. Cogan, came from Serpentine, a distance of nearly fifty miles, as soon as he heard of the lectures, and stayed till the end. Another miner brought his two sons twenty miles from the country to reside in Naseby during the course, and we had, besides, three or four miners riding from eleven to fifteen miles to attend. The work of the assaying classes here was similar to that at Lawrence, great attention being paid to the best methods of testing quartz and iron pyrites for gold, also to the modes of testing the ores of copper, tin, antimony, lead, silver, and mercury. At Naseby the laboratory was open from ten o'clock a.m. to six o'clock p.m. for these purposes, and the lecture was delivered daily at eight o'clock p.m. to ten o'clock p.m. Several important visits were paid to various claims at Kyeburn, Eough Eidge, St. Bathans, Vinegar Hill, Mount Burster, &c, in which I was accompanied by from six to ten gentlemen interested in the mines. And the kindness and attention I received at the hands of the miners and residents both at Lawrence and Naseby could not be exceeded. The fee for the lectures course at Naseby was 75., and for the double course (lectures and laboratory) 12s. 6d.; many, as at Lawrence, being admitted free. I—C. 2c.